Lady Flames hockey team takes down rival Adrian College in weekend series

Closing her eyes and breathing in the cold, crisp air from the hockey rink, goalie Nadia Rupoli reminds herself to stay in the moment before and during every game, especially during games like this. 

On Friday, Rupoli claimed her fourth shutout of the season, beating Adrian 3-0, and then claimed another win against them the next day 6-3. 

“Adrian is always a good team,” Head Coach Chris Lowes said.  “They will battle, and that brings good, competitive hockey. But before that game on Saturday, we had to match our intensity because we knew they would be hungry for a win.”

Coming out firing, the Lady Flames did not let Friday’s win define how Saturday’s game would turn out.  In the first game of the series, the Flames did not score in the first period, but Saturday they scored three goals in the period. Junior Danica Polson scored the first goal just six minutes in, and sophomore Grace Machholz and senior Dana McLeod assisted her.  

Following Polson’s goal, Yannick Truter scored two goals, assisted by junior Shelby Bradford, senior Tiana Lisle and senior Deena Birney and leaving the Flames up 3-0 at the end of the period.

“We did great keeping up our energy in the first,” Polson said. “We did such a good job of finishing on our goals and counting on Nadia (Rupoli) made things so much easier for us.”

Only 55 seconds into the second period, senior Vanessa DeMerchant netted a goal, this adding another layer of tension on the ice, leaving more players in the penalty box as the game progressed.

“I know we are never going to get a perfect game on paper,” Lowes said. “But the first two periods looked pretty good as far as I’m concerned.”

Rupoli battled in front of her net, and during the second, she would continue to keep Adrian far away from scoring a goal, and with seven minutes remaining in the second, Machholz took a shot and scored a power-play goal.

“We started the second great, but then we got so tired,” Polson said. “We got caught in the third, and we finally started to get the pucks out.”

Heading into the third period, the game play looked a little rough, and Rupoli did her best to keep Adrian away, but the Bulldogs would score two goals to narrow Liberty’s advantage. But Polson scored another power-play goal to extend Liberty’s lead before Adrian responded for the last goal of the game, leaving the game at its final score of 6-3.   

“We got overly excited I think,” Rupoli said. “They are technically our rivals, and we thought we were up by enough, and we let them get excited too.” 

The Flames still came out with a win, and after the game the celebrating began. The Lady Flames are set to play Midland
University Nov. 1.