The St. Joe’s club roller hockey team has found success this season with the play of the five first-year members of the club.
This year, the team will be competing in the Philadelphia Collegiate Roller Hockey League (PCRHL), playing against teams from Villanova University, the University of Pennsylvania and Neumann University.
St. Joe’s posted a 14-1 win over Villanova in their second game of the season on Nov. 10. That early win helped give the team some momentum to start this year.
“That was a really good confidence booster for the boys,” said senior captain Ethan Roiter. “We’re doing pretty good this year, and I’m excited to see how things go.”
The team’s overall record so far is 4-3. For junior starting goalie John Kromchad, who is also the alternate captain and club president, the keys to the team’s current success, as well as potential future success, can be found in the hands of the younger players on the team.
“The newer guys, they’re giving us a little bit of a jolt with their talent, and they’re looking promising,” Kromchad said. “When freshmen come in and they’re talented, that’s a good start for the next four years.”
Kromchad said many of these new players have a high “hockey IQ” and play smart while out on the plastic tile rink.
“They know where everything’s going to be, when it’s going to happen, and who it’s going to happen to, and so they’re able to complement the guys from previous years really well,” Kromchad said.
One of the new players is senior forward Pat Falco, playing on the team for the first time.
“For his first year, he’s putting up a good amount of points, so he’s stepping up,” Roiter said. “We really expect big things from him and put him in a starting role every game.”
Team treasurer and sophomore forward Kevin Finn highlighted the contributions of the new players as well.
“They have taken it to a whole other level definitely, just having more depth on the bench and then just all these kids that played high school hockey coming in, that’s huge,” Finn said. “There’s definitely a little bit of a transition from ice hockey to roller hockey and once they get past that, it just clicks out there for us.”
On top of that, Finn said some of the team’s success this year is due to the tight bond among players.
“It’s definitely like a real kind of family feel to it,” Finn said. “We’re all brothers out there and just kind of have good chemistry.”
