ECAC Quarterfinals at Colgate

[stereax]

Having to possibly buy pizza to entice students to attend for 3 whole games might bankrupt Colgate.

They don't actually do this... right?

[Chris '03]

Being the parent of a recent Colgate graduate, the students there seem rather apathetic when it comes to attending sporting events. Even without spring break it likely wouldn't be too difficult to get tickets.

Yeah, but somewhere along the line, "the Cornell game" for Colgate became something on the level of "the Harvard game" for us. Everyone needs a Hated Rival(tm) for the greek system to show up once a year, and we'll do.  (Playoffs are different)

Also, free pizza.

Rich, still have the Ballad of Matt Weder kicking around somewhere?

[Trotsky]

Having to possibly buy pizza to entice students to attend for 3 whole games might bankrupt Colgate.

They don't actually do this... right?

They famously used to do this at Starr, but I don't know if they need to at the new place, which looks nice on TV anyway, and with a good team to root for.

[RichH]

Rich, still have the Ballad of Matt Weder kicking around somewhere?

Heh, I guess it's impossible to find after missing the migration from Age's old forum software.  Until now, as I just happen to have my trusty old drive with me.  It's a bit fitting that Coach Schafer opened his run here with this QF opponent, and it's also interesting to note that current Colgate coach Mike Harder played in that series.

Anyway, I wrote this for some reason late at night in 1999, while homesick in...wait for it... Manhattan Beach, CA. (Ian Shane was born the following year.) Please to enjoy.



With Apologies to Theodore Geisel,

The Ballad of Matt Weder

Gather 'round all ye faithful, and I will tell,
the REAL story of a sieve whose name we all yell.
His name was Weder...played for the Red Raiders,
Just at about the time we started being Colgate haters.
Winter of '96 was the time this all took place,
And our beloved Red were on the home-ice chase.

In January to Hamilton we trekked, it wasn't that far,
but a small group of Cornell fans stomped into Starr.
What luck! Colgate's sieve Dan (not too dull)
Was out for 3 weeks with a groin muscle pull.
The shaky backup came off the pine with some jitters,
He approached warmup pucks like they were some sort of critters.
Matt Weder was his name and we knew that without trying,
by the end of the game, we'd have this boy crying.

But what's this? Before we even knew it,
It was *our* team, not theirs, that was playing like sh*t.
"Fraud!" we screamed, as Colgate scored four,
They were swarming our zone, and looking for more.
We scratched for 3 quick goals, maybe a bit late,
but we could see weakness in the team from the 'gate.
Our comeback fell short, even with a stick check,
Final 4-3.....arghhh...blast it to heck!!
Weder survived this day, his grin extended to China,
but we all knew, he wouldn't be this lucky in Lynah.

A few days later, Colgate's bus rolled to town,
And the Faithful were all ready to taunt them all down.
Colgate looked confident, a-rarin' to go,
they even brought fans that packed Section O.
We were revving up pre-game and starting to taunt,
But Weder egged us on, like he had something to flaunt.
OUTRAGE! How dare he act cocky,
We'll see about that...it's time to play HOCKEY!

The puck was dropped, and granted, he made an OK save,
as Section O went bonkers!! And started to rave:
"WEDER...WEDER...WEDER!" was their forceful yell,
it seemed, almost, that they wrote off Cornell.
A couple of chants later, and shots that juuuust missed,
but there was that sieve Weder shaking his fist!
Section B roared with anger and disgust,
he was taunting us! We'll have his head...we simply must!
You see, no opponent...not even a fool
should act like he owns us...particularly this tool.
A bench-sitter, a nothing! We wanted him dead.
But as a few of us noted...we got in his head.

First came the shots, and then came the goals
Cornell made all the passes, found all the holes.
We kept pouring it on, and ran up the score,
Section B led the cheers, we ALL wanted more!
Now it was our turn. To mock Section O:
"Weder....Weder..." It started to grow.
He certainly didn't act very big anymore.
We pointed out his 5-hole had gotten quite sore.
We laughed in glee as Weder hung his head low,
It was a big mistake to have put on that show.
5-0 we went up, and man it felt sweet!
Payback for the previous game...it was quite a treat.
The mocking chant "Weder" as it had grown,
slowly and surely, turned into a drone:

"Weeeeeeeeederrrrrrrr.....Weeeeeeeeeeeederrrrrrrrr"

The final score was just 6-3,
From the Colgate jinx, we were finally free.

The season marched on, the team continued to gel,
it was apparent the playoffs would go through Cornell.
Coach Schafer delivered some magic of the past,
A cry rose to the rafters: HOME ICE AT LAST!
Once we saw just who we'd be playing,
We smiled and said "Weder better start praying."
It was Colgate, by gum! No way we'd be nice,
Matt would start twitching the minute he hit ice.
But Brenzavich was back, and started in net,
we still wanted Matt to know we didn't forget.

Cornell was ready and dented the twine,
over and over sent us to cloud nine.
And what reappeared after every Red score?
Our new favorite chant...we were writing the lore:

"We want Weder! clap clap clapclapclap We want Weder!"

When what did our wondering eyes should occur??
It was Brenzavich to the bench...and out stepped Matt Weder.
We couldn't believe it! What was Coach Vaughn thinking?
Like sending sheep to the slaughter...he must have been drinking.
We hooted and hollered. Up arose laughs and cheers!
We'd be talking and laughing about *this* over beers.
Some felt sorry for Matt, it seemed like a dream,
A few cheered for *him* as well as our team.
He let in one goal, and that's all we saw,
Vaughn called him back and then that was all.

Cornell won 8-3, game 1 in the books
Our wish for game 2 was that the refs were not crooks.
Game 2 on Saturday saw more of the same:
More Cornell glory and more Colgate shame.
It was over early, Section O melted like acid,
As all of Lynah knew: We were headed to Placid!
"We want Weder" grew louder and louder,
Even the townies could not have been prouder.

8-1 was the final, and the fans stormed the ice,
The team took a victory lap, the seniors went around twice.
We all know in Placid, Cornell lit even more lamps,
when it was all over, we returned home as champs!

And so, young Faithful, keep this story in mind
when you use the "Weder" chant, you know the reason behind.
It's the eve of the Colgate series, still filled with ire,
Perhaps this lesson will help light the fire.
What have we learned? I'll help serve this reminda...

Nobody...but NOBODY...can act cocky in Lynah.

I must make one more rhyme before I slog off to bed,
Cheer loud for me, and of course...

LET'S GO RED!!!

Faithfully submitted, RichH '96

[Will]

Having to possibly buy pizza to entice students to attend for 3 whole games might bankrupt Colgate.

They don't actually do this... right?

They famously used to do this at Starr, but I don't know if they need to at the new place, which looks nice on TV anyway, and with a good team to root for.

I don't believe it happened at this year's Cornell @ Colgate regular season game, but then again I got to the game late so maybe I missed it.

It's also worth mentioning (for those who weren't there or weren't yet with us) that at least once about two decades ago, the Colgate students got it in their heads to use said free pizza as projectile weapons against us visiting Cornell fans.  Suffice it to say, I personally rank the Colgate student pizza hockey fans among the worst in the ECAC.

[stereax]

Rich, still have the Ballad of Matt Weder kicking around somewhere?

Heh, I guess it's impossible to find after missing the migration from Age's old forum software.  Until now, as I just happen to have my trusty old drive with me.  It's a bit fitting that Coach Schafer opened his run here with this QF opponent, and it's also interesting to note that current Colgate coach Mike Harder played in that series.

Anyway, I wrote this for some reason late at night in 1999, while homesick in...wait for it... Manhattan Beach, CA. (Ian Shane was born the following year.) Please to enjoy.



With Apologies to Theodore Geisel,

The Ballad of Matt Weder

Gather 'round all ye faithful, and I will tell,
the REAL story of a sieve whose name we all yell.
His name was Weder...played for the Red Raiders,
Just at about the time we started being Colgate haters.
Winter of '96 was the time this all took place,
And our beloved Red were on the home-ice chase.

In January to Hamilton we trekked, it wasn't that far,
but a small group of Cornell fans stomped into Starr.
What luck! Colgate's sieve Dan (not too dull)
Was out for 3 weeks with a groin muscle pull.
The shaky backup came off the pine with some jitters,
He approached warmup pucks like they were some sort of critters.
Matt Weder was his name and we knew that without trying,
by the end of the game, we'd have this boy crying.

But what's this? Before we even knew it,
It was *our* team, not theirs, that was playing like sh*t.
"Fraud!" we screamed, as Colgate scored four,
They were swarming our zone, and looking for more.
We scratched for 3 quick goals, maybe a bit late,
but we could see weakness in the team from the 'gate.
Our comeback fell short, even with a stick check,
Final 4-3.....arghhh...blast it to heck!!
Weder survived this day, his grin extended to China,
but we all knew, he wouldn't be this lucky in Lynah.

A few days later, Colgate's bus rolled to town,
And the Faithful were all ready to taunt them all down.
Colgate looked confident, a-rarin' to go,
they even brought fans that packed Section O.
We were revving up pre-game and starting to taunt,
But Weder egged us on, like he had something to flaunt.
OUTRAGE! How dare he act cocky,
We'll see about that...it's time to play HOCKEY!

The puck was dropped, and granted, he made an OK save,
as Section O went bonkers!! And started to rave:
"WEDER...WEDER...WEDER!" was their forceful yell,
it seemed, almost, that they wrote off Cornell.
A couple of chants later, and shots that juuuust missed,
but there was that sieve Weder shaking his fist!
Section B roared with anger and disgust,
he was taunting us! We'll have his head...we simply must!
You see, no opponent...not even a fool
should act like he owns us...particularly this tool.
A bench-sitter, a nothing! We wanted him dead.
But as a few of us noted...we got in his head.

First came the shots, and then came the goals
Cornell made all the passes, found all the holes.
We kept pouring it on, and ran up the score,
Section B led the cheers, we ALL wanted more!
Now it was our turn. To mock Section O:
"Weder....Weder..." It started to grow.
He certainly didn't act very big anymore.
We pointed out his 5-hole had gotten quite sore.
We laughed in glee as Weder hung his head low,
It was a big mistake to have put on that show.
5-0 we went up, and man it felt sweet!
Payback for the previous game...it was quite a treat.
The mocking chant "Weder" as it had grown,
slowly and surely, turned into a drone:

"Weeeeeeeeederrrrrrrr.....Weeeeeeeeeeeederrrrrrrrr"

The final score was just 6-3,
From the Colgate jinx, we were finally free.

The season marched on, the team continued to gel,
it was apparent the playoffs would go through Cornell.
Coach Schafer delivered some magic of the past,
A cry rose to the rafters: HOME ICE AT LAST!
Once we saw just who we'd be playing,
We smiled and said "Weder better start praying."
It was Colgate, by gum! No way we'd be nice,
Matt would start twitching the minute he hit ice.
But Brenzavich was back, and started in net,
we still wanted Matt to know we didn't forget.

Cornell was ready and dented the twine,
over and over sent us to cloud nine.
And what reappeared after every Red score?
Our new favorite chant...we were writing the lore:

"We want Weder! clap clap clapclapclap We want Weder!"

When what did our wondering eyes should occur??
It was Brenzavich to the bench...and out stepped Matt Weder.
We couldn't believe it! What was Coach Vaughn thinking?
Like sending sheep to the slaughter...he must have been drinking.
We hooted and hollered. Up arose laughs and cheers!
We'd be talking and laughing about *this* over beers.
Some felt sorry for Matt, it seemed like a dream,
A few cheered for *him* as well as our team.
He let in one goal, and that's all we saw,
Vaughn called him back and then that was all.

Cornell won 8-3, game 1 in the books
Our wish for game 2 was that the refs were not crooks.
Game 2 on Saturday saw more of the same:
More Cornell glory and more Colgate shame.
It was over early, Section O melted like acid,
As all of Lynah knew: We were headed to Placid!
"We want Weder" grew louder and louder,
Even the townies could not have been prouder.

8-1 was the final, and the fans stormed the ice,
The team took a victory lap, the seniors went around twice.
We all know in Placid, Cornell lit even more lamps,
when it was all over, we returned home as champs!

And so, young Faithful, keep this story in mind
when you use the "Weder" chant, you know the reason behind.
It's the eve of the Colgate series, still filled with ire,
Perhaps this lesson will help light the fire.
What have we learned? I'll help serve this reminda...

Nobody...but NOBODY...can act cocky in Lynah.

I must make one more rhyme before I slog off to bed,
Cheer loud for me, and of course...

LET'S GO RED!!!

Faithfully submitted, RichH '96

Give this man a Grammy.

[upprdeck]

Goalie, Sieve, Weder

Goalie, Sieve, Weder

[Snowball]

A Grammy and a Pulitzer.

[upprdeck]

You look at the advanced metrics vs Colgate.

We won in OT in a game we outshot them by 30

We lost by 3 in a game that was even but they had 2 PP and an EN goal in the last 12 min.

When we score more than 1 we win

Colgate is scoring 4 goals a game the last 7 but allowing 3.5
Cornell since Feb is scoring 3.8 and allowing 2.1

Lets hope thats a sign of a team getting healthy and creating more.

We had 46 close chances vs Clarkson and scored once. Union 36.
More than enough quality chances those 2 losses we scored once

[617BigRed]

Wow The Ballad of Matt Weder, the quality content i come here to see all-time classic!

[upprdeck]

I see Colgate didnt sell many tickets for tonights  game. Almost half or more of every section is available

[Iceberg]

If I were still in upstate NY tonight, I definitely would've gone to this game. It would've been the opportunity to check Hamilton off the list because I don't see when I'd be going there otherwise

[ACM]

Line chart. DeSantis out, Donaldson in.

[Trotsky]

Line chart. DeSantis out, Donaldson in.

Damnit.

[Trotsky]

I assume that is our band and the horns sound excellent.