Moon, PA- The Robert Morris Rocket League program is going strong, highlighted by the Blue teams run this season in the NACE Rocket League playoffs. After a convincing sweep over Arcadia Black earlier this week, RMU had their round 2 match against Edinboro. RMU entered as the #3 seed in the C bracket, Edinboro as the #6. While it was not as dominant as round one, the Colonials still swept the opposition 3-0. Their victory was a 1-0 OT win in Game 1, 5-1 in Game 2, and a 6-1 victory in Game 3 to secure the match.

Game 1: RMU wins 1-0 (OT)

The focal point of this game was each side coming up with incredible saves. Both teams were forced to take away goals from one another, and they did so with surprising regularity.  Slurpe (Ryan Conti) found himself frequent as the guardian of the goal as he picked up 3 saves in the match for RMU. His finest save came late into the game when he went flying from post to post to deflect a shot away from the top corner and keep the game 0-0. Edinboro made a combined 5 saves in the match. RMU had better possession and more time in the offensive zone than Edinboro which allowed them to get more chances. However, Edinboro's quick counterattack style of play prevented RMU from getting too many quality chances in order to prevent something from going the other way. 

In overtime, it would come down to who made the first mistake. That team would be the Fighting Scots just past 20 seconds into overtime. Reprivation (Michael Campbell) cleared the ball out of his own corner and lofted it down the field and away from danger. However, Edinboro's back line pushed up too far not expecting the clear, and no one was back to recover the ball. The ball found its way into the bottom right corner and RMU took game one in overtime 1-0.

Game 2: RMU wins 5-1

Game 2 would start a little faster offensively, at least compared to Game 1. Despite both teams having a few good chances early, Slurpe would be the one to score first in Game 2. He launched a shot that went off the crossbar and straight down into the net mouth. No one was there from Edinboro to clear the attempt, and Slurpe knocked home his own rebound to give RMU the lead with 3:07 to go in the game. 32 seconds later just before the game hit its midway point, Slurpe buried another one with a rocket of a shot to extend the lead to 2-0. He nearly got the hat trick with 2 left in the game, but the cheeky overhead aerial got denied at the goal line. 

Reprivation got his second of the night not long after to make it 3-0. RMU took a game to get comfortable, but they really started opening up the Edinboro defense in the second game. The Colonials made it 4-0 soon after shooting a shot off the defenseman and in on a partial breakaway. Edinboro scored their first of the match before game's end, but Captain_IceFire (Chris Willard) got his first of the night was well in what ended as a 5-1 RMU win. RMU outshot Edinboro 14-5.

Game 3: RMU wins 6-1

The Colonials got pushed back on their heels a little bit to open Game 3. The Fighting Scots came out with a flurry of offensive chances, but RMU stood tall and turned them all away. Reprivation would open the scoring for RMU to give them the 1-0 lead. He'd add a second goal 30 seconds later to make it 2-0. Robert Morris then locked down defensively and took away a lot of chances, led by Captain_IceFire made a string a good zone clears. Slurpe would capitalize on a defensive breakdown with 58 seconds remaining to make it 3-0. Edinboro would make it a game late, scoring to make it 3-1, but Reprivation got his hat trick on a breakaway goal with seconds left. He then proceeded to add two more within the remaining 10 seconds, and finished the game with 5 goals.

RMU wins Game 3 6-1 and wins the series 3-0. Next up on the schedule, a meeting with #2 seed Northwood. Northwood finished 7th overall in league rankings in the regular season with a 7-3 record. That game can be viewed at twitch.tv/rmucolonials.

Alexander Gagnon '21
Club Sport Information Director