Emily Goldberg ’12
Web Sports Editor
The boys’ Staples-Weston co-op hockey team experienced an unfortunate defeat on Dec. 17, their first game of the season. The Wreckers lost 9-0 to one of their biggest rivals, last season’s state champions, St. Joseph’s High School.
The Wreckers lost to St. Joe’s in overtime of the championship game last season. While the St. Joseph Cadets have a similar team to last year’s, the Wreckers have lost 10 seniors, and only gained five new freshmen, which makes for quite a smaller team compared to last season.
“They caught us early in the season, but I think we’ll surprise them later in the year when we play again,” said Weston tri-captain Mike Zaken ’10.
In order for the Wreckers to play to their fullest potential with a limited number of players, the team’s goalies, tri-captain Clay Englehart ’10, Luke Andriuk ’11, and Alex Skinner ’12, will rotate playing defense this season. Andriuk proved his defensive abilities against the Cadets on Thursday night in the starting line-up.
The Cadets started the game off with a bang, scoring on the Wreckers early in first period. The remainder of the period went without goals from either team. However, freshman Sam Brancucci suffered a wrist injury and was taken out of the game.
In the second period, the Cadets were relentless, scoring a total of seven goals. The Wreckers were unable to stop the Cadet’s strong offense.
Late in the period Staples made a goalie change from tri-captain Clay Englehart ’10 to Alex Skinner ’12, who also played for the third period.
The co-op team was able to hold their own during the third period, not allowing St. Joe’s to score. Yet, the Wrecker’s offense was not able to score either, ending the game 9-0.
“We got some nice shots and had some scoring opportunities that couldn’t be converted to goals, but St. Joe’s goalie also made some great saves. There are no excuses, but I think if we get more shots, more pucks will end up in the back of the net,” said Zaken.
The team will learn from their mistakes from Thursday’s game and improve for the future. “There were a few minor mistakes that were addressed and the team will hopefully implement them in the next game,” said Zaken, “like not getting the puck out of the defensive zone, stick-handling around the blue line, passing up the middle of the ice in the defensive zone and inconsistent defensive zone coverage.”