The University of South Florida Ice Bulls continued their struggles on the road Friday night against the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, but bounced back at home Saturday to come out of the weekend with a split.

FGCU beat a Bull team lacking intensity for most of Friday night’s game by a 5-3 score.

As they have so many times when away from the friendly confines of the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon, USF came out flat. The Eagles, a team looking to establish themselves as a force in Florida DIII college hockey, dominated early and jumped out to a 1-0 lead.

The Ice Bulls were out hit, out shot and out worked by a strong FGCU team. South Florida struggled all game to clear the puck from their own end and spent long stretches chasing the puck around their defensive zone.

Despite their poor play, the Bulls managed to tie the game 1-1 on a short-handed breakaway goal by Bobby Stecher.

USF took a brief 2-1 lead in the second period when Alex Ford buried a shot, but after that, it was all Eagles. They scored the next three goals and the Bulls trailed 4-2 at the second intermission.

The Ice Bulls tried to battle back in the third. Jeff Borges pulled the Bulls within one late in the period, but FGCU responded and stretched their lead back to two and then held on for the 5-3 win.

The Bulls showed their greatest intensity after the game was over.

An Eagle player shot the puck into the empty USF net well after the final buzzer. Connor Lyons immediately responded by taking down the offending player and a melee ensued involving most of the players on the ice.

”Is that enough to get you going tomorrow?” coach Jay Jodoin asked the team after the game. “We have these same guys coming into our home rink tomorrow night. Let’s get it going.”

Get it going they did.

Despite losing top line players Connor Lyons and Ricky Nelson to suspensions as a result of the post game fight, the Bulls bounced back Saturday night and beat the Eagles 3-2 in a hard fought game.

It was clear from the beginning that the Ice Bulls were ready to play. They came out skating hard and won the small battles, showing all of the intensity they’d lacked the night before.

After 18 minutes of scoreless hockey, the Bulls jumped out in front on a goal by Jeff Borges when he took a pass from P.J Morales and slid it past the FGCU goalie. The Bulls took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

The Bulls continued rolling in the second. Just 1:15 into the period, Borges returned the favor and fed a pass to Morales who drove the puck into the net. One minute later, Rick Merlo got loose and snapped the puck into the top corner of the net and the Ice Bulls were up 3-0.

South Florida goalie Jason Smith made the lead stand up.

The Eagles battled back for two goals in the second, but would not get the puck past Smitty again. The Bull goalie made some fantastic saves, including a pad save sliding across the crease as the final buzzer sounded to preserve the 3-2 Bull victory.

”It was a good team effort all the way around the get the win,” Jodoin said.

The Ice Bulls will fly out to Hillsborough, N.C. on Thursday afternoon to compete in the Jim Spakowski Memorial Tournament. The Bulls will face off against Vanderbilt on Friday night, the University of Richmond on Saturday and will close out against DII UNC Chapel Hill on Sunday morning.

Michael Maharrey