This week’s notebook highlights Upper Moreland, Hatboro-Horsham, William Tennent and Abington.
By Mike Prince, Sportswriter
Upper Moreland has been fighting for that all-important top spot in the Suburban High School Hockey League’s American Conference all season. And while the Bears sit two points behind Archbishop Wood for first place and will most likely fall short of winning their conference, their season has still been as good as anyone could’ve expected.
With a record of 10-1-2, it’s no secret that the Bears’ success has rode highly on the offensive play of Matthew Iehle and Matthew Baumgardner, as well as the goaltending of Jared Burch, who is considered one to be as good if not better than any other goalie in the league.
But it has been the play of a few others, specifically senior defenseman Joshua Barber, which has been a very important factor in why Upper Moreland is where it is right now.
“Josh has been a very quiet player for being our top defenseman,” Upper Moreland coach Jim Stampler said. “He doesn’t get all the offensive stuff, but he’s a really, really solid defenseman and he’s usually up against the other team’s first line. He’s doing such a great job back there for us and he’s a guy who didn’t even play defense until two years ago.”
Along with Matthew Beck and Matthew Shilling, Barber is helping to lead a defense that has improved greatly since the last two seasons.
“The guys back there have been the same the last couple years, but they are the biggest difference in why we are where we are this year,” Stampler said. “These guys are back for their third year and have made a huge difference. Obviously, when you have a guy like (Jared) Burch in goal, you see his save percentage and say ‘wow, he’s great,’ but these are the guys you don’t see in the books that are clearing guys out of the box and playing defense. They’re pretty consistent in taking away the second shot from other teams.”
Sitting at the opposite end of the spectrum in the American Conference is Hatboro-Horsham, a winless team with only one game to play (which happens to be against Upper Moreland).
This season hasn’t seen many positives from the Hatters, who haven’t been involved in a close game since late December. But as Wood coach Sam Gallen said two weeks ago, Hatboro-Horsham has the potential to be a “dangerous” team moving forward.
“I’ve known Sam (Gallen) for years and he’s a very nice guy, and I think anything is possible if the kids put their effort into it,” Hatboro-Horsham coach Gus Salfiti said. “We have a young team and that’s why we haven’t won anything. We have mostly first and second-year players and with that being said, if the guys stick together and progress together, having a good future is a possible for us. As long as we have a good number of players coming in, I think we can at least be competitive.
“As far as not winning games, we know as a coaching staff that we’re not going to win many right now and we’re just trying to get one kid at a time going in the right direction. We’re watching them have fun and that’s the important thing.”
Despite having zero wins this season, one of the positive the scoring of Zach Aubry, who leads the team with 15 goals and four assists.
“Zach is a AAA player and it shows,” Salfiti said. “The fact that he didn’t shy away from a team that was rebuilding from the ground up says a lot about him as a person and about his love for the game and his school. You have to respect that a lot. He’s a very skilled player and hats off to him for showing up. He doesn’t feel that he’s too good for a developing team and he gives the other players a spark and something to aim for.”
While teams like Upper Moreland are prepared for a playoff run and the Hatters are just looking towards next year, there are teams like William Tennent that seemed to have everything going fine until the last few weeks.
It appeared the Panthers (6-10-1) were destined for the playoffs, but after four consecutive losses since Jan. 23, Tennent will now try to end its season on a positive note in its final game (at Council Rock North this Thursday at Warwick Rink 1) before looking forward to a better outcome next season.
“I think (our struggling) has been a mixture of things,” Tennent coach Nick D’Aurizio said. “A big part of it is discipline and we got into some penalty troubles in a lot of games. Against Abington, we took too many penalties and didn’t score any goals and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. We’ve had a lot of injury problems that factor in as well, but it’s mostly because of our lack of discipline.”
As a team, the Panthers have recorded 334 penalty minutes, with four different players with at least 37 a piece.
On a positive note, Tennent’s younger players really stepped to the forefront this season. After starting goalie C.J. Lineman went down, sophomore goalie Zachary Dorsey stepped up big time and played very well throughout the season, despite what his numbers may show.
“Zach has been a godsend for us,” D’Aurizio said. “After C.J. went down, Zach really stepped in and played well for us this season and he’s been big for us and you couldn’t have asked for much more from him.
“As far as our skaters go, we have five freshmen who all have really stepped up to the forefront and played some big minutes. Guys like Charlie Feeney, Brendan Sherwood, Andrew Bean, Alec Dugan and Brett Goldstein have all played well and we’re a better team than we were last year and these guys are a big reason why. You can’t ask for much more out of guys who only 14-years-old.”
Bean leads Tennent with 13 goals and 19 points on the season. Dugan is third in scoring with 12 points, including a team-high 10 assists.
Also in the National Conference, Abington still has an outside shot of winning the division, but it would need Council Rock South to lose to CR North before the Ghosts and Golden Hawks square off for their season finale this Thursday night.
While the game may prove to be meaningless as far as the standings are concerned, there is still the possibility that it could be the biggest game of the year for both teams. And even if the game ultimately ends up not counting for anything in the standings, Abington coach Pat Croce believes the game will be very meaningful for his players either way.
“I think the guys are treating it like they know they have to finish what they started,” Croce said. “You can’t look at standings. Meaningless or not, they know they have to use this game as a measuring stick to see if we’re prepared for the playoffs. They want to debunk the myth that the last meeting was a fluke and they’re looking forward to proving that we can actually play a good game for all three periods. We also have our seniors who are treating it as their last home game, so they’re looking forward to that as well.”
Abington came back from down six goals in the second period to beat CR South back on Feb. 6 in the only other meeting between the two teams.
Entering the playoffs, the Ghosts will look towards the usual scorers – Erik Walther, James Campbell and Paul Abendroth – to fill the score sheet, but how senior goalie Bryan Rossi plays will be crucial towards Abington’s postseason success.
“It’s pretty critical to get solid play from Bryan,” Croce said. “He has stolen a couple games for us and that’s what we’re looking for him to do. He provides that calmness back there so everyone else can focus on making good plays rather than worrying about too many defensive breakdowns. He’s huge back there for us.”
Rossi, who has started all but one game this season for the Ghosts, holds a record of 8-5-1 with a goals-against-average of 3.88 and a save percentage of .871.
The Ghosts currently hold a record of 11-5-1 with only one game remaining, while CR South (12-5-0) sits ahead of Abington by one point with two games to play.
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