The Colonials accomplished history against the Cleveland State University Vikings by winning against them for the first time in program history by a final score of 14-5 on Saturday.
The Colonials’ chance at history started when Adrian Torok-Orban tacked on the first goal, making it 1-0 at 11:40 under the lights at Joe Walton Stadium on Friday night.
RMU’s offense went a little bit soft in the middle portion of the first quarter as the Vikings tacked on two goals, leading Cleveland to take their first lead of the game 2-1.
While Robert Morris’ offense was slow in the middle portion of the first, that slowly started to pick up when Matt Schmidt tied the game with just under four minutes remaining with an assist from Tyson Gibson, knotting the Colonials and the Vikings at two apiece.
Schmidt started to lead RMU back towards their goal of victory tonight when he tacked on a goal, making RMU take the lead back 3-2.
The first quarter ended 3-2 RMU.
The second goal started with the Schmidt show as he got the scoring started with another goal, completing a hat trick on the night, adding to RMU’s lead to make it 4-2.
With Schmidt playing magic-maker for RMU during the game, he described how he was able to attack so quickly against the Vikings.
“We got a lot of transition early on and we were able to just capitalize, it just so happened I was the guy finishing,” said Schmidt.
Carter Yepsen and Jimmy Perkins made their own contributions to RMU’s cause when they added a goal each, Yepsen’s from the right wing, making it 6-2.
Cleveland’s frustration against the Colonials cooled off slightly when they earned one of their goals back from RMU, making it 6-3 RMU.
Halftime ended with Robert Morris holding a 6-3 lead at the half.
The third quarter began with Ryan Smith calling the shots when he got a goal just 27 seconds into the quarter, leaping RMU to a 7-3 advantage.
Jake Boudreau added his own goal when he scored one right down the middle 11:42 remaining in the quarter, making it 8-3 RMU.
Eddie Smith helped add to Cleveland’s misery when he added a man-up goal, making it 9-3 Colonials.
Corson Kealey added the next two goals with assists from Schmidt and Justin Mayfield, putting up a 11-3 spot in the quarter.
The third quarter ended 11-3 RMU.
Tyson Gibson helped with the route when he added a goal of his own unassisted, making it 12-3 RMU.
Boudreau added a second goal to the game about halfway into the quarter, slapping Cleveland with a 13-3 deficit.
RMU ran away with the lead, but Cleveland started to have a meaningless rally towards the end of the game when they added two goals that proved utterly useless with about two minutes left to spare, leaving it being 13-5 Robert Morris.
The last goal by the Colonials was by Mayfield unassisted, delivering the final score of 14-5 against Cleveland.
Head coach Drew McMinn talked about his team’s performance against the Vikings.
“Overall, we talked about just making sure we have a complete game, we wanted to see the execution at both ends of the field, and then first and foremost that we put together a full 60 minutes,” said McMinn.
The Colonials go on the road for their next game on Saturday April 21 at 1 p.m. at Wagner College in Staten Island, N.Y.
