The Northwood Junior Team traveled to Salem, New Hampshire for the final weekend of games in the New England Fall Prep League. The Huskies had their first undefeated weekend, going 3-0 beating 3 tough teams.
The Junior Team huddling before a game in Salem, New Hampshire in the fall of 2017.
The first game was anything but easy. They played NEFPHL U19-Selects, whom they lost to the previous week and beat earlier this fall. The series between the Huskies and the Selects was tied at one. This would be the tiebreaker, and it turned out to be the hardest game. The game started off with the Huskies flying and scoring the first goal. It was a nail-biter finish, but the Huskies edged out the Selects winning 6-3. Goals came from Matt Shanklin (2019, Forward), Tommy Bannister (2020, Forward), Santeri Hartikainen (2018, Forward), Sam DiBitetto (2018, Forward), Cameron Plourde (2019, Forward) and Patrick Callahan (2018, Forward). This is was just the start the Huskies needed to begin a big weekend. Rico Dimatteo ‘19 also shined in net, making some big saves in key times for the Huskies. Nate Boak described it as a “great team win. We wanted to start off the weekend strong and we did just that.”
The second game for the Huskies was against ENE of the NEFPHL league. The Huskies started the game strong and kept their foot on the gas for the whole game with a 9-0 win. Shanklin and DiBitetto both tallied hat tricks. Elijah Devereaux (2020, Forward), Will Arquiett (2019, Forward), Stephen Panico (2019, Forward) each added one to seal the lopsided win. JaCob Mucitelli ‘19 was solid in net and earned his second shutout of the year. Mucitelli said “the guys played really solid in front of me, and it wasn’t the hardest win.”
Next the Huskies had to play North NEFPHL. They had to finish the weekend off strong by playing one of the top teams in the league. They started the game off flat by falling behind 2-0; however, Bannister quickly changed that by adding 2 goals, one on the powerplay off a beautiful feed from Daniel Lambert (2018, Defense). Devereaux and DiBitetto each added another goal apiece to seal the win for the Huskies, making it their first undefeated weekend of the season. Mucitelli was great again in net for his 2nd win on the weekend.
Coach Cassidy was proud of the way the team played. “It was a good weekend in terms of results,” Cassidy said, “but I thought it was better in terms of how we played in some really difficult conditions in games we were challenged in, and we were happy with the way our team was able to rise in a couple tough games.”
The Junior Team faces off against Stanstead College at home next weekend. Looking ahead, Jared Lambright (2020, Defense) said “hopefully we can ride this wave that we are on and build on the momentum from this past weekend.”
