The St. Anthony’s varsity hockey team has been one of the top Tri-state programs year in and year out.
Head coach Bob Lund expects his team to continue their winning ways. “We expect to go undefeated, win the Long Island championship and go to states and win.”
St. Anthony’s enters the season on a 44 league-game winning streak. In those league games they outscored their opposition 245-52. They have won back-to-back CHSHL titles in dominant fashion. In the last two seasons, though, the Friars fell in the state title game to St Joe’s of Buffalo.
The Friars finished last season as the top-ranked team on all of Long Island by News 12 Varsity. Last year’s seniors Greg Barynach and Michael Haggerty finished on the All-Long Island hockey teams, while junior Nick Cozzi and senior goaltender Nick Wanderlingh finished on the honorable mention list.
Last season the Friars swept Chaminade in the best-of-3 series to determine the CHSHL champion. In the past three seasons St. Anthony’s has met Chaminade in the finals. The Friars won the last two with the Flyers winning the year before.
Chaminade has been St. Anthony’s toughest competitor in the past few seasons and the games have come to a wild finish on more than one occasion—a 5-4 win to clinch the title and, two years ago, an exciting overtime victory in game one of the championship series. Coach Lund said of the matchup: “Chaminade is always the big game, we play them three times this year and we expect to have a good fan base [at the games].”
Looking ahead to this season, the Friars have experienced a complete roster turnover. St. Anthony’s lost thirteen seniors including Captain Andrew Sciaretta and Assistant Captain’s Greg Barnych, Michael Haggerty and Joe Pacifico. In addition, both goalies that combined to allow only 27 goals in 18 games last season have graduated. The Friars also lost two of their up-and-coming superstars in John Riggins and Ryan Mahlmeister to prep schools.
Although the Friars lost a great deal of leadership on the ice, Coach Lund expects the returning seniors to fill the void and provide the leadership that will carry them to another championship. Tim Allen, Nick Cozzi, John Forlenza, Ryan Haight and Matt Tullo are some of the players Coach expects to have big seasons.
Coach Lund is excited about some of the young talent on this year’s roster. “We have some young, exciting talent on the team this season,” he said. In particular, Dylan Murtagh, Marc Gonzalez, Vincent Migliore, Ryan Fitzmaurice and Matthew Coronato are players expected to progress. Last year’s team dominated on offense scoring 116 goals and won the league Championship; the team’s new leaders and emerging players have a big task ahead to live up to the Friar tradition.
The Friars’ home opener is against Iona Prep on Tuesday December 5th at Dix Hills Rink. Their toughest opponent and biggest rival is Chaminade, who they will play three times. The first game will be at home on December 14th at Dix Hills Rink. The next game against Chaminade is away on December 29th at East Meadow, Northwell Health Ice. The last meeting will be home on January 18th at Dix Hills Rink.
The Friars will finish up their season against Iona Prep at home on Tuesday January 30th at Superior Ice Rink. Come out and support this year’s team as they look to make another run at the title.
About The Authors:
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Alex Rocco Alex Rocco is a sophomore at St. Anthony’s High School, writing for his second year with Friar Scoreboard. He hopes to have a career in Sports Management one day. He is also a member of Friar Faithful, PBJ Club and Special Needs Ministry. |
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Jared Valluzzi Jared is a freshman at St. Anthony’s writing for his first year with Friar Scoreboard. He is also a member of the Friar Media club and attended Hofstra University’s Sports Journalism and Broadcasting Institute for Teens. |
