3/3/01
When Cushing and St. Sebastian's meet for the New England prep title at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow at the Icenter in Salem, N.H., the former will be seeking to become the first prep school to go undefeated in 28 years while the latter will be hoping to become the first Keller Division team to win a prep title in 11 years.
The two schools got there by a pair of 3-0 wins in today's semis.
In the first game, St. Sebastian's defenseman Noah Welch provided the heroics when, with one second left in the second period of a 0-0 game and his team on the power play, the Arrows captain wristed a knee-level shot into a crowd in front of the Deerfield net. It glanced off a Big Green defender, found the back of the net, and proved to be the game's turning point.
It stayed a 1-0 game until late in the third when freshman Joe Rooney put a nifty move on a Deerfield defender just outside the blue line, and fed it to senior linemate John Toffey, who fired it past Big Green goaltender Matt Hanson at the 13:07 mark.
Toffey added an empty-netter with 1:01 remaining for the final margin of victory.
Senior Dave Cacciola came up big in net for the Arrows, kicking out 20 shots to earn the shutout.
Welch, asked about his goal, said. "Tony Coskren slid it over to me (from the other point). When they came out, I looked to go down to Mike Morris with it, but he was covered. Then I saw Boyle and wristed it in there. I didn't see exactly how it went in, but it must have hit someone going through because Boyle said it didn't hit his stick."
The goal provided a huge shift in momentum. "It really lifted us up," Welch said. " All season, we've played our best in the third period, so we came back out with a lot of confidence."
Deerfield coach Jim Lindsay said simply, "We didn't bring our A game today," and allowed as to how Welch's goal caused an emotional letdown. " We'd outchanced them up to that point, but that goal took the wind out of our sails. Their D did a good job -- they were mobile, disciplined, and took away center ice nicely."
Now St. Seb's can set their sites on tomorrow. The last Keller team to win a prep title? Belmont Hill, in 1990. Several current Arrows, including Rooney, hadn't even reached their fifth birthday that March day.
In the second semi, Cushing got a shutout from junior Mike Boudreau, his ninth of the season, and a goal in each period as the Penguins topped an upstart Berkshire squad, 3-0.
The score could have been greater. A number of missed shots and some excellent saves by Berkshire junior goaltender Jeff Pietrasiak allowed Berkshire to hang around until senior Yale Lewis banged in his own rebound at 9:33 of the final period to put Cushing up 3-0, the final margin of victory.
Earlier, with 2:22 remaining in the first period, Cushing junior defenseman Brian Yandle walked in from the right point and fired a bullet that beat Pietrasiak stick side. It would prove to be the game winner.
In the second, junior Dan Murphy converted a nice goal-mouth pass from Michael Woodford to put Cushing up, 2-0.
And then Lewis sealed it in the third.
Afterward, Cushing coach Steve Jacobs praised his team's total defensive effort. " We only gave up two 2-on-1's. We played solid defense, and it was a team effort all the way around. We also had a wide territorial advantage."
Berkshire coach Larry Rocha said, "The pressure was on them. If we had been able to convert in the first we may have been able to put them back on their heels a bit, but we couldn't and that let them get rolling a bit. They're a great team."
Rocha said that, overall, he was pleased with the season. "It's difficult to get this far in the season," he said. " You need great goaltending and we got that from Jeff all season long. He's the main reason we got here. Hopefully, we can return again sometime soon."
In the meantime, Cushing prepares to put the finishing touches on a season for the books. The last t eam to go through a full season undefeated was Exeter, which, under George Crowe, had back-to-back undefeated campaigns in 1971-73, going 16-0-1 the first season and 16-0-0 the following year. ( Those numbers include prep competition only; Exeter in those days played both college freshman and JV teams.)
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In Div. II play, #1 seed Tilton spotted St. Mark's an early 1-0 lead but roared back with four unanswered goals. Senior Andy Boschetto (1g,3a) had a hand in every one of them.... Williston rushed out to a 5-1 lead against Hebron, then held on for a 7-4 win. Senior Jesse Draper (4g,1a), junior Jared Brewer (2g,2a), and senior Travis Albano (1g,3a) provided the firepower. Williston and Tilton meet for the Div. II title at 12:30 pm tomorrow.
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