With just one game remaining in the regular season, the varsity ice hockey team has had a successful run so far and plans to continue winning throughout the playoffs.
The team is led by head coach Tyler Greene and three captains: seniors Samuel Hosier and Nathan Tai and junior Justin Heller. The team brought home six victories straight at the start of the season against schools like BCC, Upper Montgomery, Magruder and Richard Montgomery. Their first game was a 14-0 blow-out win against NWQO, with Tai scoring three goals. Despite Tai being the leading scorer, the whole team made a great impact in this game.
In their game on Jan. 2, the team played and lost to their rivals, the Churchill Bulldogs. The score was 8-5, but players like Tai, Hosier and junior Owen Goozh fought rigorously to close the gap as much as they could. “We created and made enough offense to win, but we didn’t do a good enough job defending the win,” Hosier said.
On Dec. 6 the team’s winning streak was broken by a 6-5 loss against the Sherwood Warriors. Nevertheless, they came back by beating Richard Montgomery for the second time this season 7-3. However, in their most recent game on Jan. 10 against the Walter Johnson Bobcats, the team lost 3-0. “So far in our season we’ve had a strong start, but we’ve lost a couple winnable games recently. I think once we get going in our upcoming playoffs and play stronger as a team we can start winning more,” Tai said.
Since none of the public schools in Montgomery County has a private ice rink, the Rockville Ice Arena – where many of their games are played – is where the hockey team practices. They are only able to practice on Mondays and Wednesdays, but they don’t let that stop them from improving and succeeding throughout the season.
Winning seven games has carried this team high in the rankings. As the third place team in the Maryland Student Hockey League with a 7-4 record, the players are optimistic about playoffs this year. “I am looking forward to playoffs because I believe our team could go very far if we play well,” Heller said.
The JV team ended their season undefeated with a 7-0 record. They played and beat teams such as Blair, Richard Montgomery and Rockville. Not only did they manage to keep a clean sheet, they also ended in first place in the MSHL JV rankings. Sophomore Nathan Geeng had a significant impact on this season with 42 goals scored and 26 assists total.
Varsity will play Montgomery Blair on Jan. 24 to close out the regular season and finalize their record and rank. Playoffs are scheduled to begin as soon as the regular season is over on Jan. 31, which means this team still has much to prepare for. The team is working hard to ensure that they end with wins and to do that requires a stable team dynamic. “The team dynamic has been good. We have been able to work with each other very well,” Heller said.
