(Photo: Amanda Luberto/WCSN)
With vengeance on their minds, Long Beach puts in a valiant effort on offense but couldn’t get past the Sun Devils as they take the 11-2 victory.
The Brady Morgan, Justin Butler duo showed up early this game as they put the Sun Devils on the scoreboard, soon followed by an unassisted goal by Joey McEwan. Continuing the trend in a weekend of firsts, this was McEwan’s first goal of the season.
Cal State Long Beach’s Ian Hoang had a beautiful break away goal against Kyle Dietriech, after practically a 5-on-1 on the ice.
Arizona State responded with two more goals to end the first period. Jamie Cotnior and Dan Kuenzi both rack up points, giving the Sun Devils a commanding 4-1 lead.
The Morgan and Butler duo called a reverse as Morgan found Butler wide open in front of the goal and Butler hits nothing but the back of the net. It was the duo’s third goal together in this series alone. Parker Foltz finishes up the ecstatic first period with another goal for Arizona State, putting the Sun Devils up 6-1.
49er goalie Steven Strother was electrifying in the second period, saving nearly everything that came his way. The defense for Cal State Long Beach was nowhere to be found, so head coach Frank Mitrano relied mostly on Strother.
Justin Butler broke through the slow stretch when he brought the Sun Devils back into the game and scored unassisted. Long Beach continued to dominate the period for the remaining six minutes, but Arizona State kept the lead, 7-1, at the end of second period.
Four straight goals came by the Arizona State Sun Devils in the last period. 55 seconds into the third, Butler completed the first hat trick of the season for the Division II Elite team after being assisted by Jason Kuta and Jacob Weisman. Butler collected even more points that night by returning the favor to defenseman Weisman.
Ryan Mohr scored on an unassisted beauty and Cotnoir achieves his second goal of the night before Zac Zomaya reminded everyone that Cal State Long Beach is still in the game, scoring with 44 seconds remaining on the clock.
ASU finished out the series with an 11-2 win, and completed a sweep over the Cal State Long Beach 49ers. DII Elite has an 11-game road trip coming up, but starts out the 2014 calendar year with a game against Texas A&M on Jan. 11th at Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe, AZ.
