Seniors sound off

Seniors reflect on final game as Grizzlies

By Brittany Ochtinsky
Contributing Reporter

The lone senior on Penn State University's hockey team had one last chance at a National Championship. After finishing as the runner-up in the previous three seasons, this year goalie Chris Matteo was determined to go out on top. Oakland University's seniors made sure he wouldn't.

With two Division 2 National Championship titles under their belts, the six seniors had one last thing to accomplish -- beating Penn State in the Division 1 finals. Will McMahon led the charge and the team defeated the Nittany Lion Icers 5-1 in one of the most emotional games ever.

Now the senior class share their thoughts on going out on top in their final game in the black and gold.

"I still don't believe it. We were watching the game on the bus and I was still nervous that we might lose. All we keep talking about is winning. I couldn't have written a better story –- I wouldn't have. I mean, if I wrote the story, I would've had me with three goals instead of four. It's one thing to score four goals, it was nice, but to do it and to know that you just helped your team win the National Championship... I mean, I did not win the National Championship myself, but to know that you helped your team that much was just really, really special to me in my last game ever." - Will McMahon

"I had a good feeling after we beat Illinois that we were gonna win, but I knew Penn State was gonna be really tough. It was an emotional game, but it probably would have been more emotional if we would've lost. Losing would have been pretty devastating, but also to get that far, as the tenth seed and not doing so well in the regular season, it was the perfect ending. You couldn’t have asked for anything else." - Adam Chornoby

"Besides just being happy for the players, it means a lot to our coaches, especially Sean Hogan. I remember being a freshman and all Sean Hogan would talk about was Penn State and Ohio and Illinois. He would pump their tires so much and any time something would happen with them, he was always talking about it. When Hogan took over the team and decided to move up to D1, we were like, 'Sean, are you kidding me? We've gotta play these teams, we don't have the resources. We barely had the resources to make it in D2.' He was always telling us, 'We're fine, we'll be fine.' And to go out and win the National Championship four years after hearing him say that, it just seems surreal that it actually happened. We're just pretty happy for him as well because he was the main guy who started this whole run in D1 and he was probably the only guy to believe that we could do it." - Scott Elder

"For me, it was more exciting to play for my dad because he's been at every practice, every game, he never misses a tournament, he's just always there. I think it was exciting for him to see us win one last time. I think more than just winning it for me or the other guys, for him it was just huge." - Jordan Ingram

"For all six of us seniors, you couldn't go out on a better note. Just to see how the program has grown and now we're in Division 1 and that we won the Division 1 National Championship is pretty amazing. It's a great accomplishment, but you've also gotta hand it to the guys who started this team seven years ago. I remember seeing a game when Will was a freshman. The team had only been around for a couple of years and they weren't anywhere near what we are now, so you've got to hand it to them. It's also nice to hear things from other people around the ACHA congratulating us and to do it back-to-back from Division 2 to Division 1 is quite an accomplishment." - TJ Schaeffler

"What a way to go out. We came into this tournament tenth seed and I didn't think we should've been there. I didn't think we were gonna get past that first round with Lindenwood. Obviously, we proved that chemistry and who you play with means more than what you have and how much money you have. We came together at the right time and we won some big games that we knew we could win. A lot of us went in there thinking we couldn't do it, but we ended up doing it. What a way to go out, beating the number one team twice in a month's time and I think we proved to everyone in the league that we could do it. It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life." - Jon Paul Ferrari