Eastern defeated the University of Cincinnati Bearcats with a combined 20-4 score this weekend, 10-1 Oct .28 and an Eastern six goal third period on the 29.

Although Cincinnati isn’t even in Eastern’s hockey league at the lower division three level, they put together a fight through much of the second, trailing only 4-3 at one point in the third period in their Sunday game.

But six goals in the third that included Joe Kopka’s first goal of the season off the down low feed from forward Nathan Rasmussen, an acrobatic push to the net with the little extra touch at the end for the 5-3 lead from Derek Hay, and an embarrassing shot off the pads of Cincinnati’s goalie by assistant captain and defenseman Richie Nelson affirmed that EIU is at a different level than UofC.

“It was nice to get, so I’ve really been digging, going hard in the corners. Rasmussen just threw a pass out to me out in front and I just banged it in,” Kopka said.

It appeared that not long after settling down from the last goal Eastern struck through, there was another one behind it.

For the last goal of the second game, forward Kevin Kraus flipped a backhand shot through maybe only 10 seconds following Nelson’s goal.

“Big thing is just follow your rebounds,” Nelson said. “It bounced back out, I put it on my tape and put it back in. The first two periods we started out kind of slow and they just woke us up. It was awesome.”

University of Cincinnati allowed 61 shots on goal to Eastern’s 31, and the Bearcats goaltender was so upset with himself that he directed his angst to the announcer in the booth after a late third period score.

“You played this song already!” he yelled.

Even though what may seem like a blow out, the 20-4 deficit on the weekend had both Head Coach Cameron Estes and the players believe they need to step it up for the gold teams ahead, citing that they should play with the same kind of intensity they had in the third all the time.

“The first two periods weren’t very good at all,” Estes said. “I think it was 4-2 after the second, scored six in the last period. That’s the kind of output we should be putting up. We came a long way tonight. We have two weeks to our next gold games and that will really tell where we’re at.”

Now Nov. 4 and 5, the team has the weekend off, but will then travel to Robert Morris Springfield for a gold match-up at the Nelson Center the following weekend. For the games, Estes has said he intends to not change anything in his teams approach, just keep up with the cardio workouts and the dryland practice.

Fourth Line Getting the Start against Cincinnati

Instead of the names of Dan Sechrist, Kevin Hicks, or Dale Michonski taking the start against Cincinnati, it was Bob Marshall, Dan Moore, Nathan Rasmussen, or Danny Delvechhio.

Instead of usual goalies Nick Maggio or Eric Grap in the post, it was Brian Blake in front all game one, giving up one goal on 20 shots and accumulating 19 saves in the 10-1 victory.

Blake, like much of the fourth line, has talked all season long about getting a chance to start, even if it is against lower ranked University of Cincinnati, a division three team that was beaten 20-4 in two games.

“Obviously it’s nice to get the shutout, but I don’t really care, but good showing by the whole team. So the victory’s more important than the stats are,” Blake said.

Maggio agreed that he thought Estes wanted to do a little experimentation with the fourth line to try and get them some more playing time, especially against teams that aren’t in Eastern’s division.

“It keeps the morale up a little bit and it gives them something they won’t get to do on a lot of other road trips and a lot of other times during the season. Yeah, line four will be starting tomorrow,” Estes said between the first and second period Oct. 28.

For Delvecchio, pronounced veckio, not veeshio, as the announcer had, capitalized off his first college start with two goals v.s. the Cincinnati Bearcats and a couple shots on goal that just didn’t finish the job.

And fourth line starter Nathan Rasmussen made well with his playing time on the weekend as well with a few assists and a goal in game two.

“Getting to start was just fun, first start in college,” Delvechhio said. “I just picked my spots. It seemed, Wally’s pass was just there, it seemed too easy and I just messed up.”

President and team captain Dave Fitzgerald liked what he saw from the help from the normal bench players.

“We’ve had a couple different injuries lately and a few things come up with different teams and that. Guys are coming together really well and guys are showing that they can play with anyone on the ice,” he said.

Insane Play of the weekend:

Derek Hay shoots one in for the goal, and is immediately toppled on by a wad of University of Cincinnati Bearcats.

After lying on the ice for a couple seconds, Hay struggles to the bench. Just seconds later, he’s back on the ice and off the assist from Dave Fitzgerald, spins around the crease for the ninth goal of the first game, his second.

“My knee just got bent backwards, I just wanted to get back in,” Hay said without a hitch. “You can’t show that you’re hurt; I just wanted to get right back out there. It felt awesome. It was a great pass by Dave Fitzgerald, I called for it, and second time it came out, goalie was out of position and put it in the empty net pretty much.”

In the same game, forward Chris Bennett got the hat trick. Hay went for a combined four goals on the weekend.

Chris Bennett, 87, a forward from Carol Stream, sits in the penalty box with Kevin Kraus, 82, a forward from Algonquin. The Panthers beat the Cincinnati Bearcats 10-1, Saturday night at the David S. Palmer Civic Center in Danville. (Nora Maberry/The Daily

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