St. Joe’s holds off Indian Hills, 3-2 by Jim McConville special to The Record
WAYNE – St. Joseph is playing with a bit of a chip on its shoulder. The Green Knights truly believe that they belong among the top 20 teams in the state, but so far, that recognition has not come their way.
It’s one of the reasons they have scheduled St. Joseph Metuchen and Don Bosco in the next week, and it’s one of the reasons they knew that Friday night’s game with Indian Hills at the Ice house was equally important.
Dominick Posta has shared his team’s frustrations from a personal standpoint. The senior has been struggling to score goals, but when he got a good look 6:15 into the third period, he made sure it wouldn’t be a wasted chance.
His goal proved to be the game-winner as the Green Knights improved to 13-4 with a 3-2 win over the Braves (11-4-2). It was a satisfying tally for Posta.
“(James) Durante gave me a great pass off the boards,” He said. “I was going to give it back to him, but the defenseman went to him and I had a good look at the upper right corner. I put it right where I wanted.”
Posta was at a showcase and missed the Bergen County tournament overtime loss to Northern Highlands, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t sharing the frustration of that loss.
“Coach said we played pretty good, but we have to win games like that,” Posta said. “As a team we’ve had a tough time in some games getting the puck in the net, so maybe this game gets us going.”
St. Joseph coach Larry Mahurter echoed that, saying, “at times we’ve got 10-13 freshmen and sophomores playing regularly. The last couple of years Dom has had a stronger support group, and it’s hurt his production and I know it frustrates him. We’ve got to keep getting better and playing the big time games.”
After a scoreless first period dominated by St. Joseph (16-4 shots), The Braves finally broke through. Matt Paiotti got the puck down low on the left side just off the post and was able to slot it home 1:37 into the period.
Joe Bagi was under siege for the first two periods (30 of his 36 saves), and made a save on a breakaway by Aden Grieco at 6:43 of the second period to keep IH in the lead. Grieco got a second chance and made it count, as he redirected a puck that bounced high in the air and landed behind the goaltender at 12:10.
The Green Knights then got a backbreaking goal with 1.1 seconds left in the second. Andrew Javier took a shot straight on that Bagi saved but the rebound came right to the top of the crease. Anthony Demario was there to put it over the glove and send the Knights into the ice cut with a 2-1 lead.
The Braves evened it up again 1:43 into the third period, as Jason Atkinson found room down low to the right of SJR goalie Pat Lynch (14 saves). He put one low to the short side.
“This is a nice win, but now we have to back it up,” Mahurter said. “That’s why we scheduled these games. We’re looking for a favorable seed in the state tournament and to get there and get people to respect us we need to show we can play at that high level.”
WEST MORRIS CENTRAL 4, WAYNE HILLS 3 – With a chance to reach .500 and strengthen their state tournament hopes, the Patriots won every phase of the game except the scoreboard.
Hills (7-9-1) outshot the Wolf Pack (5-10-2) by a 38-18 margin and had plenty of chances, but they found themselves in a 3-0 hole after two periods. Jarret Ortiz scored for WMC in the first period and Kieran Gruby and Ryan Hall had second period goals.
The Patriots finally got the offense going on an Eric Kruglyak goal 1:25 into the third period and Daniel Mirman scored midway through to get WH within a goal. They could not capitalize on two power play chances and Hall scored with 1:32 left to make it a 4-2 game.
Mirman added his second with 27.8 seconds left but the Pats could not get a solid shot on net. Jeffrey Ward had 35 saves for West Morris while Dan Riina had 14 for Wayne Hills.
MAHWAH 4, RAMSEY 0 – Kevin Johnston scored twice in the first period to get the Thunderbirds off to a good start as they climbed within one game of the .500 mark on the season (7-8-5).
Johnston got Mahwah the lead at 3:14 off an Evan Levitsky assist and doubled the margin at 9:52 with a helper from Shane Ciongoli. Anthony DeAlto and Joe Moschetta scored second period goals as Mahwah broke a three-game winless streak (0-2-1).
Ryan Selman made 22 saves in recording the shutout and Johnston completed the hat trick with 49 seconds to go in the game.
LAKELAND 4, WEST MILFORD 4 – The Highlanders earned arguably their best win of the season thanks to a trio of third period goals that finally gave them some breathing room.
Ryan Pych broke a 1-1 tie with an unassisted goal at 10:48 of the first period, one that started a flurry of scoring in the second period. Twice the Lancers went up a goal only to see West Milford (6-10-1) tie it up.
The Highlanders went up 4-3 on a Chris Dressler goal with 1:31 left in the period and West Milford held the lead until 8:08 of the third period, when Heck completed the hat trick with a shorthanded score.
West Milford answered once again for its second lead with Dressler getting his second of the game. This time, they did not allow the Lancers (12-5-1) back even and Brandon Little and Dressler (empty net for a hat trick) closed out the scoring.