Captains Lead North To Championship

The North Hunterdon Ice Hockey Club captured the Cross County JV League Championship Sunday night in a thrilling 5-4 overtime victory against the NJ Freeze at Aspen Ice in Flemington. Junior defensemen Mark Schwanda opened the scoring 2:38 into the first period when he intercepted a breakout pass, skated in and fired a wrist shot top shelf to stun the Freeze and bring the home town crowd to their feet. North’s lead was short lived however as the Freeze roared back scoring three unanswered goals as North suffered from sloppy play in their own zone.

The two teams battled evenly during the second period until sophomore center Alec Schleicher took a pass from freshman Zach Bennedsen, skated around the slot and found the back of the net to bring North within one with just 1:30 remaining in the second stanza. Sophomore defensemen Wyatt Kunzman and Dan Seminara, freshman Brian Clancey and Schwanda along with junior goaltender Eric Sydrow keep the Freeze off the scoreboard and helped work North back into the game.

North came out after the second intermission determined to win and center Greg Mustillo, the Lions only senior, took a pass from junior Ben Marchesini and scored to tie the game just 1:15 into the third period. The celebration didn’t last long as the Freeze responding just 19 seconds later to retake the lead. North continued to apply pressure throughout the third. Junior forwards Greg Garcia and Jordan Gianos almost evened the score on a power play and junior Casey Lotz was effective on the penalty kill.

Sophomores Taylor Lee and Meaghan Gallagher, both who normally play defense, were very effective as a checking line and kept the Freeze high powered offense off balance on more than one occasion. Freshman Jimmy Pytell and John Buckhout filled the role as grinders as North started to win more and more battles as the period went on. “the Freeze beat Central 12-2 in their semifinal round” explained coach Jim Schwanda, ‘It was essential that our forwards bottle them up in their own end”.

North’s hard work paid off as Greg Mustillo scored his second goal of the game off a pass from Schwanda to tie the game midway through the third and this time the Lions would not relinquish the lead.

In sudden death overtime, Zach Bennedsen stripped the puck from the Freeze defensemen with a pretty poke check and Ben Marchesini picked up the biscuit and skated hard to the net where he deked the goalie and roofed the puck to win the game just 54 seconds into overtime.

In the beginning of the season the team elected Marchesini, Mustillo and Schwanda as their captains and the team chose well as the trio combined for four goals and two assists in the biggest game in North’s short but successful history. North, who had a respectable 11-4-1 record in their inaugural season last year, finished this season with the league championship and a 16-3-1 record with wins over many established prep school and travel team programs.

Many of the Junior Lions, North Hunterdon’s middle school team, were in attendance to cheer on the squad as was junior forward Mark Warner who was out with a knee injury. Sophomore goaltender Kyle Fischbach, who posted a 11-2-0 record and three shutouts over the season was dressed but was nursing a knee strain sustained last week in the Lions 8-0 semifinal round win over Somerville High School .


Photo by Ted Lee

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