By Megan Sanders, Feb. 25, 2025
Cal Poly Pomona’s Roller Hockey Club had two teams compete in the last tournament of the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League’s regular season, where the Division III team took second place, and the affiliate team had three players skate in their first ever set of games.
The tournament took place at The Rinks, Corona Inline, Feb. 15-16.
The club’s DIII team, a more experienced team, won three out of four games with its only loss being against UC Santa Barbara 4-3.
The DIII Broncos came back in their second game to beat UC Santa Barbara 5-1 with Broncos being all three stars of the game.
Broncos forward Matthew Augustine stood out the entirety of the tournament, recording over 1 point per game.
Augustine’s strongest game was the fourth and final game of the tournament against the University of Arizona, where he had four goals and one assist.
According to Augustine, the DIII team was hoping to win as many games as possible before nationals and use this tournament as a time to get a feeling for the teams they will be facing there.
“We played good this weekend, and we’re looking strong for regionals and then nationals in Florida,” Augustine said. “We won regionals last year, so we want to come back again and win it.”
The Broncos played their best against Cal State Fullerton, winning with a final score of 9-2 with five players scoring at least 1 point.
Broncos forward Jerry Castaneda recorded 5 points against Cal State Fullerton, which consisted of four goals and an assist.
CPP’s affiliate team didn’t walk away with any wins, but according to forward Kaelan Ho, the team played better than expected.
“We are looking to get better for sure,” said Ho. “We have a lot of guys who have never even played a hockey game before, so they’re going into this completely brand new. But it’s been fun, not only playing as a team, but also getting better.”
Three Broncos played in their first roller hockey games during this tournament.
The goal for the DIII team going into the tournament was to end the regular season high in the standings, and the goal for the affiliate team was to have a good time and be competitive, according to coach John Paerels.
“We want to go be a competitive team at nationals,” said Paerels. “You never know what is going to happen.”
The affiliate team for CPP completed its competitive season, but the DIII team looks forward to facing off in the conference championships in Corona, and nationals which will be held in Florida the first week of April.
Feature image courtesy of Megan Sanders