NEWS

Rochester Hills, MI – The Rochester College Warriors are excited to face the Oakland University Grizzlies in games three and four of this season’s Battle for the Jug series. The Warriors currently hold a two game lead in the best of five series after sweeping the Golden Grizzlies in a two game series played in October.

Rochester College won both games in October by two goal margins. #8 Joe Giordano scored three goals and #19 Brock Malatches two over the span of the two games in October. Oakland managed to outshoot the Warriors by an 80-69 margin over the course of the two games but Rochester goaltender, #30 Zakk Olvin, managed to stop 75 of the 80 shots that he saw for a 94% save percentage on the weekend. The scoring for Oakland was spread throughout their line-up with no individual player earning more than two points through the course of the weekend.

The Rochester College Warriors come into this weekend battle winning five of their previous eight games, including victories of Liberty University, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Western Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University. #19 Brock Malatches leads the Warriors in scoring with 12 goals and 18 assists for a total of 30 points. #7 Josh Botimer is currently tied for fifth in the country for scoring amongst defensemen with 8 goals and 21 assists for 29 points.  #4 Jake Zarzycki and #21 Chris Williford are heating up as they have combined to score seven goals since the start of the second semester.

The Golden Grizzlies enter the weekend after going 5-5 in their last ten games. Oakland will be without leading scorer #10 Billy Balent for this weekend series as he as the honor of representing Team USA in Granada, Spain for the 2015 World University Games. Balent is followed in scoring by #4 Ryan Rotondi. Rotondi has earned 13 goals to go along with 17 assists to total 30 points on the season. The Grizzlies also boast one of the top scoring defensemen in the league as #11 Ian Jacobs has scored 5 goals and added 16 assists for a total of 21 points.

This weekend marks the first opportunity that Rochester College has had in it’s early history to win the Jug. Winning the Jug has been a goal for the Warriors from the very beginning of the season and competing with a perennial power program in Division 1 of the ACHA been a benchmark in the development of the young program. The Jug represents the first tangible reward for all the hard work each player has put into this season and seasons past and a reminder of the shared benefits of working together in pursuit of a common goal. The Oakland Grizzlies currently hold a 4-2 all-time edge in the series and the only remedy is to take hold of the Jug.

We invite all of our fans to participate in our pursuit of the Jug. The first game of the series will take place at 8:50pm at the ONYX in Rochester Hills. Tickets are $7/ticket and you will need to arrive early as seating may be limited. Fans that are unable to attend may follow the live online stream of the game here: http://www.mes-tv.com/oakland-university-golden-grizzlies-hockey-on-mes/. The Warriors will return to defend home ice at Fraser Hockeyland on Saturday evening. The game begins at 7:15pm. We appreciate and thank you for your support, now let’s go finish this.