Men's club hockey drops first-ever match

By Cecile Nguyen

In front of a crowd of roughly 70 people, the Santa Clara men's club hockey team lost their first game ever, 11-2, this past Saturday.

The Broncos squared off against San Jose State's B-team at the Logitech Ice Center in San Jose, falling short of victory.

"We were competitive," Coach Lou Caputo said. "We played a lot better than the score looked."

The game was physical from the start, with the Spartans drawing first blood with a goal just 51 seconds into the first period.

Santa Clara's sophomore left wing Nick Casini evened the score with 7:12 left to play in the period.

That would be all the Broncos could manage until late in the third period.

The Spartans scored 10 unanswered goals before freshman Charlie Clark scored the second and final goal for the Broncos in the last minute of play.

With only 12 players available, the Broncos had only two lines and had to rotate three defensemen for the entire game.

"Everyone was tired," said Caputo. "We played two lines and they were sprinting the whole time. It would've been a whole different ball game if we had enough people."

Spartan players echoed similar thoughts about the Broncos' effort.

"I thought Santa Clara played well," said Spartans' freshman center Phillip Wong. "They haven't been playing together long, but I'm pretty impressed how well they worked together."

Wong said he thinks the two teams will be rivals in the future, given the physical nature of their first meeting.

The Broncos and Spartans will face off two more times next season as part of the newly formed North division.

Captain Steve Barbieri said the Broncos have a promising year ahead of them, their first as part of the Pacific Collegiate Hockey Association.

Santa Clara will join the Spartan's Division III team and University of Redlands as the newest members of the PCHA.

According to Barbieri, the PCHA is very competitive, as three of the teams qualified for nationals this past season.

"Our hopes are high," Barbieri said. "In our league, anyone has the potential to come out on top of our division. Our goal is to win the division and make the playoffs."

Despite having just 14 men on the roster, the Broncos hope to win the PCHA North Division and increase team membership.

According to junior Justin Perna, more students are beginning to learn about the new club sport.

"People are starting to find out about the team," said Perna. "We had a few people actually choose to come to Santa Clara because they found out that we have a club hockey team."

The club is currently in the process of changing rinks from Ice Center in Cupertino to Logitech Ice, where their home games will be played. The Broncos will compete in their first full season next year and have 18 scheduled games.

Despite a less-than-stellar start, the team is looking forward to next season.

"Our goal is to win," said Barbieri. "We want to contend for the championship."

Contact Cecile Nguyen at cnguyen5@scu.edu.