Florida Atlantic University’s Division II hockey club (4-2-1) played in their second annual Battle at the Beach tournament on Oct. 25 at the Palm Beach Skate Zone. FAU defeated Lynn University (5-2-0), 10-4. 

The Owls came back to defend their title from last year. The first time the tournament occurred, the Owls beat the University of Central Florida Knights in the championship game 5-4. 

“We obviously knew we had to play a good game to defend our title and last year was the first tournament win that I think the club has ever gotten,” said head coach Christian Long. “So we were excited about that, but we were more excited to kind of get back here and defend it.” 

Intensity was high between the teams, as both FAU and Lynn racked up multiple penalty minutes. The most came during the third period. Last season, in their only matchup, FAU’s Division II team beat Lynn’s Division II team with a final score of 10-3. 

Battle of the Beach Tournament championship game will take place at the Palm Beach Skate Zone on Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. 

Recap

FAU started the first period dominant by winning the face-off. The team kept their fast pace up, with one of their starting forwards Emilio Stabile scoring about three minutes into the game, 1-0. Center Hunter Litman and defenseman David Israel assisted him.

Lynn struggled to set up in the offensive zone and maintain pressure. FAU shut down passing and shooting lanes, holding a strong forecheck throughout the first period. This caused chaos in front of the net for the Lynn defenders and goalie. 

FAU’s offensive pressure in the first period led to five more goals within the first twenty minutes of play. Forwards Jake Murphy, Caleb Owens, Keith Goldberg, Jason Seefeldt, Tommy Zienba and defenseman Justin Machovia made the scores. 

The first penalty of the game happened with 1:08 left in the first period, resulting in a Lynn powerplay. Machovia was then given a two-minute penalty after being called on roughing. The period ended with FAU outshooting Lynn 27-5. 

“I think that we played a really good game. I think we made them [Lynn] look way worse than they actually were,” said defenseman Justin Machovia. “We just played four good lines; our three defenseman pairs played awesome. Our goalie did great, and I think we just had our high guys high the whole night.”

The second period started with a Lynn power play, with Machovia still having a little less than half of his penalty left. Lynn forward Benjamin Merrill scored a power-play goal to put them on the board 6-1.

Zienba got injured about four minutes into the second period and game play briefly stopped.  The exact events are unclear, but Zienba was able to get up and skate back to the bench. 

Lynn scored their second goal of the night on a power play, after FAU forward Brady Baehser got two minutes for roughing.

FAU gained momentum late into the period after killing off a three-on-five shorthanded situation. The Owls almost lost their momentum, but were able to turn it into a shorthanded goal by Israel, with three minutes left in the period. 

Coming off of that goal, forward Caleb Owens scored again,  bringing the game score to 8-2 at the end of the second period. 

The third period started hot, with players of both teams roughing near the net. This resulted in a penalty against two Lynn players: forwards Jarret Scoppettuolo and Ian Uram. Both teams wound up in the box quite a few times. Overall, there were 15 penalties between the two teams in the third period. 

“We like to take it [the game] speed-wise, get in there and be physical. But you know, when it gets a little shifty after the whistle blows, we’re not big fans of that,” said Long.  

Although they were racking up penalty minutes, Lynn and FAU were both able to score two more times in the period. Goldberg got a goal in for FAU, bringing the score up to 9-2. Lynn counteracted their goal with one of their own a minute later. 

With six minutes left in the game, FAU forward David Israel was given a 10-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for cursing at a referee. He was benched for the rest of the game.

Right after Israel was given the penalty, Lynn scored their fourth and final goal. FAU responded by scoring goal number 10 about a minute and a half later. 

The game resulted in a fight between both teams, with about two minutes left. They stopped play and handed out three penalties: a two-minute cross-checking penalty and a five-minute charging penalty to two Lynn players. FAU’s forward Machovia got five minutes for fighting. 

FAU ended with a total of 69 shots on goal during the game. Lynn scored only 20. Keith Goldberg was named the “player of the game” after picking up two goals. 

After the brawls, FAU maintained their 10-4 lead to secure the win over Lynn as they head into the championship game against the University of Tampa (3-1), who defeated UCF 6-1. 

Rayne Welser is a contributing writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email her at rwelser2024@fau.edu or DM her on Instagram @_morgan.ray.