Generals forward Marcola makes NCAA commitment

April 17, 2020

The Northeast Generals of the North American Hockey League (NAHL) are proud to announce that forward Thad Marcola has committed to play NCAA Division III hockey for Trine University.

 

The 6’2/194 lbs. native of Almont, Michigan, is a true ladder of development success story. Marcola, 21, began his junior hockey career with the Generals NA3HL team.

 

During the 2017-18 season, he played in 41 games and had 14 goals, 11 assists for 25 points for the NA3HL Generals.  He followed that up with a monster second NA3HL season in 2018-19 where he saw all of his numbers jump.  He finished the year with 25 goals, 46 assists and 71 points in 47 games.

 

His play in his second season earned him a tender with the NAHL’s Generals.  In 2019-20, Marcola carved out an amazing role with the NAHL team.  He appeared in 40 out of 50 games and had 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points.  But numbers don’t tell the entire story.

 

“To me Thad was the best penalty killer we had.  He did an amazing job and was my first guy over the boards.  There were a few games where he dressed as the 13th Forward and his first shift would come cold 18 minutes into the game when I would just throw him out there on the penalty kill.  He always did what was asked of him.  He has amazing work ethic and self-discipline,” said Generals Head Coach Bryan Erikson.

 

“Thad came to us three years ago and played for Coach Locke in the NA3HL.  He was a healthy scratch for the first 6 games of his career as he needed to work on his skating.  There was an injury in Game 7 and Thad got thrown into the fire and responded.  He never came out of the lineup again for Coach Locke.  That translated to his rapid improvement and ability to move up to the NAHL.  He is such an amazing kid.  Simply showed up ready to work each day.  Trine is getting not only a great kid but a great hockey player.  He is still improving and has a lot of offensive ability that I think will help Trine right away,” continued Erikson.

 

Trine University is located in Angola, Indiana and plays in the NCHA (Northern Collegiate Hockey Association) against some of the top programs in the Nation including Adrian College (ranked 6th), Lake Forest (ranked 11th), St. Norbert (ranked 13th) and many other great schools.  Last year Trine finished 13-12-2 good for 5th place out of 12 schools (and just 3 points out of 3rd place).