EULESS, Texas – Playing Southern Methodist University for the first time since 2017-18, East Texas Baptist University swept the Mustangs improving to 11-2. ETBU took game one on Friday, 6-2, and then again on Saturday, 5-1.
In game one,
Spencer Mills and
Mitchell Dolese each collected two goals. The remaining two goals were scored by
Jason Guntow and
Caleb Kerns.
Tyler Fitzgerald defended the crease for the Tigers stopping 12 out of the 14 shots.
In game two,
Carson Loos scored his first hat trick of the season. Tim Zittel and
Jason Guntow both scored a goal for the 5-1 victory.
Nick Bozzuto minded the net stopping nine out of the 10 shots.
GAME 1: ETBU 6, SMU 2
Playing SMU for the first time since their Texas Collegiate Hockey Conference (TCHC) withdrawal in the 2017-2018 season, ETBU came away with a 6-2 win.
The Tigers immediately got to work once the puck dropped. Just 39 seconds into the period,
Spencer Mills scored the game's first goal giving the Tigers the upper hand. The period went scoreless following Mills' goal until Dolese lit the lamp with just 6:38 left in the period, putting ETBU up, 2-0, entering the second period.
For almost half of the second period, both teams struggled to find the back of the net. With 13:59 left, the Mustangs snagged their first goal of the night. Dolese responded seven minutes later (6:06) to increase the score to two, 3-1.
ETBU started the third period on a power play and just 1:24 seconds in Guntow scored as ETBU went up 4-1. Then, with 9:39 left in the game, the Mustangs scored again, bringing their deficit to two, 4-2. Mills found the back of the net to push the lead to, 5-2, with just 3:23 to go. With just nine seconds left in the game, Kerns took advantage of the final power play and grabbed the final goal for the ETBU victory, 6-2.
GAME 2: ETBU 5, SMU 1
The second game of the weekend went just as the first had ending with a big win, 5-1.
The first period started slowly in comparison to game one. The Mustang's switched up their defense which landed them seven penalties in the first period alone. The largest break between power play opportunities was only 6 minutes long. With 13:55 left in the first, Guntow used one of the power play runs to put ETBU on the board first. Just five minutes later, Zittel matched Guntow's goal improving the score to 2-0.
SMU found the net just over four minutes into the period as ETBU went scoreless making it, 2-1.
Loos started the final period with a goal a minute into the period extending the lead to two, 3-1. Things slowed down for the next 10 minutes until the 9:40 mark as Loos grabbed his second goal of the night taking a 4-1 lead. Only 30 seconds later, Loos netted his third goal of the night earning him his first hat trick of the season.
ETBU took the final game, 5-1, improving to 11-2. They will face the University of Northern Colorado on Sunday in Richardson, Texas.
