Rhinos pay tribute to fallen teammate

DANESE KENON Rochester's Stoian Mladenov works the ball upfield against Milwaukee's Matt Bobo Saturday at Frontier Field.

By Jeff DiVeronica
Democrat and Chronicle

(Sunday, October 7, 2001) -- There was a moment of silence before last night's playoff match at Frontier Field to honor Rhinos forward Mickey Trotman, 26, who died in a car accident Wednesday in Trinidad.

He was there training with the Trinidad & Tobago national team, which has retired his jersey number. Last night the Rhinos had a huge "14" -- Trotman's number -- painted on the field near their bench and flew a Trinidadian flag at half mast. Defender Scott Schweitzer trotted out during introductions wearing Trotman's jersey, then laid it over the team bench where it remained.

"One more for Mickey," coach Pat Ercoli wrote on a message board after the 1-0 victory, which moved the defending A-League champion Rhinos to a fourth straight title game.

Trotman played in only 11 games for Rochester because of T&T duty, but pushed his teammates in practice, they said. They've dedicated the rest of the season to him.

"He wanted to be a part of it, to do things to help us win," Schweitzer said. "When I talked to Mickey (last week) all he wanted to do was win a championship. He thought this was the best chance he's ever had. This would be the most meaningful championship I've ever won."

Mission possible: Rhinos goalie Scott Vallow said forward Steve Butcher, traded from Rochester to Milwaukee in late July, told him after Game 1 that the Rampage weren't sweating their one-goal deficit for Game 2 because it would be "impossible" to shut them out.

Before last night, the Rampage were blanked just once since Butcher's arrival, but Butcher and forward Digital Takawira, last year's league MVP, didn't create much in two games.

"We knew what Butcher could do and we knew he can be intimidated," Schweitzer said. "I know he's afraid of Fuseini (Dauda) and Mali (Walton) and he probably doesn't like me too much, either."

Hershey update: The Wildcats lost 1-0 last night in Game 2 to Vancouver but won the series 4-1. Ex-Rhinos forward Darren Tilley scored the only goal for the Whitecaps (18-10-2).

Hershey's A-League Goalie of the Year Jon Busch (16 shutouts) left the match in the 31st minute after colliding with the goal post, but the Wildcats Doug Miller, an ex-Rhino, said Busch was OK.

Flight problems: Milwaukee players received a scare when their flight attempted to land in Rochester Friday night but pulled out late because of fog.

"They thought they were going down," said team general manager Jim Harwood, who drove to Rochester.

The team landed in Syracuse and rented buses.

Throw-ins: Last night's victory was Rochester's 15th straight home postseason win... . The Rhinos outshot Pittsburgh 24-9 last week in Game 2 and Milwaukee 26-9. They also had 11 corner kicks compared to just two for Milwaukee.