Gophers Top Royals In Landmark Semifinal

TOWSON, Md. - Goucher filled one of the spots in Saturday's Landmark Conference championship game by pummeling Scranton, 12-2, today in the semifinals of the conference's inaugural postseason tournament.

As the tournament's No. 2 seed, the Gophers (11-4) will take on top-seeded Drew which outlasted fourth seed USMMA Wednesday evening.

Against the Royals (12-5) today, head coach Kyle Hannan's Gophers needed only eight shots to produce five unanswered goals in the opening quarter. An illegal procedure penalty on Scranton led to an extra-man goal by Sam Fitzpatrick (Littleton, CO/Arapahoe) that put Goucher ahead 1-0 just 1:28 into the contest.

Over the final 6:29 of the first period, the Gophers tacked on even-strength goals by Alex Boucher (North Wales, PA/Germantown Academy), Cooper Mazon (Littleton, CO/Mullen), Brian Hoge (Crofton, MD/Arundel) and Dave Duff (Westwood, MA/Suffield Academy) to stretch their lead to 5-0.

Goucher, which had to go into overtime to defeat Scranton earlier this season, struck for four more goals - including a pair by Adam Pietrocarlo (Hamburg, NY/Frontier Central) - in the second period for a commanding 9-0 advantage at halftime.

The Gophers went ahead 10-0 on an unassisted goal by Alan Tiet (Aurora, CO/Smoky Hill) 3:04 into the third period before the Royals finally got on the scoreboard on an unassisted goal by Doug Homan after 35:10 had elapsed.

Austin Main (Berlin, MD/Stephen Decatur) went the distance in goal for Goucher and made saves on 17 of the 35 shots the Rangers got off.