LANCASTER, Pa. – Freshman Paul Ruppert and junior Adam Gross scored two late, fourth-quarter goals to help Frostburg to a 9-8 win over Franklin & Marshall for its first victory, Saturday.
Frostburg (1-1) opened up a 7-4 lead after three quarters of action behind goals from freshman Jake Bowling (11:08) and junior Nate Collins (0:05) in the third.
However, the Diplomats (0-2) answered by opening the fourth quarter with three-straight goals over a four-minute stretch to tie the game at 7-7 with 9:00 to play.
A pair of turnovers and a save from freshman keeper Jack Marks on F&M's next three possessions helped keep it from taking the lead. At 3:54, F&M was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty setting up Frostburg's two late goals.
Twenty five seconds into the 1:00 roughness penalty, Bowling found Ruppert for a man-up goal and a slim 8-7 FSU lead.
Senior Kyle Horak won the ensuing face off and nearly two minutes later, freshman Jimmy Lucas connected with Gross for another goal and a 9-7 lead.
Franklin & Marshall pulled the final to 9-8 with the game's final goal with 42 seconds left.
Despite the win, Frostburg was outshot 45-19 and won just 4-of-19 faceoffs. Marks finished with 10 saves in net and Frostburg jumped out to leads of 3-1, 5-2 and 7-4 as the game headed for the fourth quarter.
Gross, junior Nick Pontorno and Bowling found the net for three-consecutive goals in the first quarter as FSU built its edge to 3-1.
Franklin & Marshall stopped the run with the first goal of the second, but junior Keegan Colegrove scored with 4:08 left in the second and again with 2:53 to play that gave the Bobcats a 5-2 advantage at the half.
Gross finished the afternoon with two goals and one assist, Pontorno churned out one goal and two assists, while Bowling totaled two goals and one assist. Gross also paced the team with three ground balls.
The Diplomats were led in scoring by George Briggs with two goals and two assists, while Mike Rama had two goals and one assist. Scott Hatch made just three saves in suffering the loss in goal.
FSU returns to action on Wednesday when it travels to Lebanon Valley at 4:00 pm.
