When the No. 11 Western New England Golden Bears made their schedule back in the fall, you can bet that they were thinking a trip to Keene, N.H. would be a nice little warm up before they shipped off to Stevenson to face the defending national champions. That wasn’t the case though, as the Keene State Owls blew WNE away in the first half and were able to hold on for a 12-10 upset in their first game of the season.
Tyler McKelvie scored five goals to lead Keene State with his fifth and final tally breaking a 9-9 tie midway through the fourth quarter. Ryan Hart’s game-tying goal just before McKelvie’s ended a 6-0 run by WNE that saw an 8-3 advantage turn into a 9-3 deficit. Tyler Reilly provided the other half of the McKelvie fourth-quarter sandwich that produced an 11-9 lead that gave KSC just enough breathing room to keep the Golden Bears from stealing this one.
But what a theft it would have been. WNE went into the half trailing 6-3 – a manageable deficit for a top-15 team – but saw things go from bad to worse right out of the gate in the third quarter. Faceoff man Bryan Rotatori won the opening draw, sprinted down the field and blew one by Brandon Body just 14 seconds into play. Rotatori won the ensuing faceoff as well, starting a break that ended with McKelvie finishing a feed from Reilly and just 25 seconds into the second half the KSC lead was at 8-3.
Keegan Dudek netted an extra-man goal a minute and a half later to start WNE’s comeback train (patent pending). Then Patrick Dillon finished, then Dudek scored his second. From there, it was all Adam Knapton. The senior attackman scored the next three goals to give WNE a 9-8 lead with 4:43 left in the third quarter, capping an incredible six-goal run that spanned 10:03 of game time.
The McKelvie sandwich to open the fourth gave Keene its lead back at 11-9, but then Knapton closed the gap again at the 4:03 mark on a feed from Dudek. Hart dealt the final blow in the final minute, giving us the final score of 12-10 and one of the biggest upsets in this young season.
This is definitely not what WNE was looking to do in preparation of its trip to Stevenson on Saturday, but now this team has been afforded the opportunity to learn some things about itself. The Golden Bears showcased a resilience in coming all the way back from such a deficit, but with the loss they will now find out how they rebound from a loss and deal with adversity. There were lofty expectations placed on this team after an Elite 8 run in last year’s tournament. Now they’ll have to deal with the fallout of an early season misstep.
Leading Scorers: Keene State – McKelvie (5 goals, 5 points); WNE – Knapton (4 goals, 4 points)
Goalkeepers: Keene State – Alex Sharp (W, 10 GA, 12 saves); WNE – Body (L, 12 GA, 4 saves)
Faceoffs: Keene State – Rotatori (6-15), Hunter Palancia (1-1), Kevin Carey (0-1); WNE – Jesse DeLuca (4-8), Alex Meschutt (5-7), Joe Benincasa (1-1), David Cedrone (0-1)
Special Teams: Keene State (4-8, McKelvie 3, Robert Hall); WNE (1-5, Dudek)
