BOZEMAN, Mont. – Yet another New England team makes the flight to Big Sky Country.

This time it’s a Central Conn. State team that has emerged as a running mate of Bridgewater State’s for CLC supremacy.

Like the Bears before them, the Blue Devils have a puncher’s chance against the Bobcats.

D-II Round 1: Central Conn. State at Montana State | https://t.co/nYoD4wqMJR #virtualmcla20
— MCLA Tournament '21 (@MCLA_Tournament) March 27, 2020

Junior goalie Mason Colon opened the season with a 26-save effort against D-I Temple and is having a great year. Throw in senior Bryce Lynch and you’ve got a quality shutdown guy.

Noted dog-lover Drew Cedana, a junior middie, poses problems all over the field while rookie attackman Richard Bordiere can rack up points in a hurry.

“This is quite exciting,” said Central Conn. State Brendan Frobel*. “We feel like we have All-American-quality personnel at every level of the field. And we know that will get tested against a quality Montana State outfit.”

Thanks to the scheduling of Chris Kelley, the Bobcats are ready for a big postseason push.

Montana State traveled to Minot, N.D., to face St. Thomas and Duluth before hosting St. John’s and Utah State – all of them tournament teams from 2019.

As such, the statistics have not been quite as prolific as years past, but guys like senior Keegan Lancaster and Alexander Brown can light up a defense that is not committed to slowing them down.

Rookie goalie Ryan Hockenbury – a Vermont transplant – has stepped into the starting goaltending role and held up nicely. He benefits from the gritty defensive middie play of Casey Krueger and junior defender Ian Bolin.

“Pretty safe to say that our kids are pumped up for this matchup,” said Kelley*. “Central Connecticut is big and surprisingly athletic. Hopefully our early season schedule has us well-prepared for this contest.”

[*- The coach didn’t really say this. This is all made up. It’s fake]