PITTSBURGH — On Friday, the Robert Morris Colonials took on the RIT Tigers in the first of two games this weekend. The game got off to a slow start, but late in the second period is where the action took off.

The Colonials caught RIT in the middle of a change that left a lane to the net open for freshmen Geoff Lawson. Lawson took the ice in front of him and got a shot off, but it was stopped initially by Tigers goaltender Logan Drackett. The rebound came right back to Lawson and he slid the backhand shot right under Drackett for the first goal of the game.

About five minutes later, the Tigers inability to stay out of the box proved costly as the Colonials cashed in when Dan Willet took a penalty. This gave the Colonials a four on three power play. Junior Eric Israel hammered one in from the right circle and the Colonials went up 2-0.

Three more minutes passed and the Colonials struck again. After a barrage of shots by RIT, the Colonials got a break as junior Daniel Mantenuto came down on a two on one and ripped one over Drackett’s shoulder for the third and final goal of the game. All three goals were the first of each Colonials’ season.

The third period saw Robert Morris control play for a majority of the period and junior Francis Marotte shut down any offense that the Tigers could muster. Marotte ended the game with a 25-save shutout but didn’t waste any time to give credit to his teammates.

“We played a full sixty, it’s easy as that. I think we came out to play and we came out hard,” said Marotte. “What we did in practice showed in the game today.”

After tonight, the Colonials have an overall record of 2-2-1 and a conference record of 1-1-1. Head Coach Derek Schooley thought highly of his team’s performance in the 3-0 win.

“At the end of the day we played hard, and it wasn’t one guy going and four watching … it was a five-man unit going together,” Schooley said.

The Colonials’ next game is Saturday against RIT again for the second game of the weekend series.