By Gilbert Gutierrez III
Daily Titan Staff Writer

After coming off a 13-2 defeat in San Diego at the KROC Center Ice Arena, the Cal State Fullerton hockey club fell once again to the Aztecs of San Diego State University with a score of 11-2 Saturday night at the Anaheim Ice Arena.

The Titans returned home for the first time since Oct. 17 after a four-game road trip to Loyola Marymount University, Northern Arizona University and SDSU.

CSUF came out of the gate early in the first period with a goal scored by sophomore center Dalton Braniff just 36 seconds into the game. But at the end of the first period, the score was 4-1, with the Aztecs ahead by three.

“The Titans are facing some of the tougher teams whose programs have been around for a great while,” said Claire Holmes, team manager.

There was no question about that, but despite the quick speed and toughness from the Aztecs, CSUF gave their opponents some hard hits for their home crowd to enjoy.

This, however, led to the Titans finding their way into the penalty box twice in the first period and twice more in the second.

SDSU didn’t look baffled or afraid at all and skated the ice with blazing speed and intensity as the Titans worked together, trying to find a way to match up with their opponents.

At 2:45 into the second period, Aztec senior forward Phillip Wong was penalized with a five-minute major, game misconduct and was ejected from the game for checking a Titan player from behind.

CSUF’s attempts to find the answer for their opponents were nowhere to be found as the Titans came up short one attempt after another to find the goal, but Aztec goalie Scott Dainty would not allow another goal by him after sophomore forward Elan Dunaev scored the Titans’ second and last goal of the night during the second period.

With 1:07 left to play in the second period, Titan freshman forward Jacob Daniel was penalized with a five-minute major, game misconduct and was ejected from the game for face-masking an Aztec defender.

The scuffle developed in front of the Aztec net, and at the other end of the ice, a second skirmish occurred and two Aztecs were penalized for rough and unsportsmanlike conduct.

“It’s one thing to be down, but they kept getting kicked (down by the Aztecs), so they responded, … at least they’re showing some heart,” said Jacob Vasinda, Titan forward coach, about his team when they were being pushed around by their opponents.

The Titans started off the third period skating shorthanded with two men in the penalty box and were trailing SDSU 6-2.

Within 20 seconds of the period, the Aztecs scored another goal.

At 8:57 senior forward Alec Nadelle scored his second goal of the night for the Aztecs against CSUF junior goalie Alex Miller.

With 10:38 left in the game, Titan Head Coach Nick Moran substituted goalie Greg Lewis in for Miller to rest his legs for the rest of the game.

He came up with a lot of excellent saves, including one while lying flat on his back.

However, Aztec junior left-wing Anthony Sansone was able to find the hat trick and score his third goal of the night toward the end of the game.

At the end of the game, Vasinda said that the team came out strong in the first period, but missed assignments throughout the rest of the game.

“One missed assignment leads to another,” he said. “SDSU’s a really good team. Two years ago they were Division II champs.”

Vasinda was asked about Miller’s performance in front of the net, and he said, “All three goalies are awesome – Brandon, Alex, Greg – but when you don’t give them support, goalies can’t make every save every game. He did what he could; he did more than he could.”

Lewis was the back-up goalie during the game and saw some action late in the third period, including a penalty shot taken against him.

“I came out as far as I could, took up the angle, and hopefully he’d take a shot that was stoppable, and he took one that hit my pads,” he said.

He was also fortunate enough to save the puck from gliding in while he was flat on his back: “As I went up to cover it on the right, somebody got their stick on it and pushed it out to the left, so I reached back with my stick to the left … It was between my arm and my body, so that was when it got underneath me … I got a little out of position definitely, but I just tried to stay as solid as I could,” Lewis said.  

One of the Titans’ co-captains, junior defender Jason Holmes, said that the team came out a little flat, but they did get to hit their opponents a little more than they had the night before.

To prepare for next weekend, he said that the team will review the video of the game and work on what they need to improve on the ice.

“LMU is smaller than us, and they’re very fast. We have speed but not like that, so our hitting gets in their heads,” Holmes said.

The Titans will face LMU on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Arizona State University on Sunday at 1 p.m., with both games at the KHS Ice Arena in Anaheim.