BELMONT – On the opening evening of the MIAA winter season, defending Div. 1 boys hockey champion Catholic Memorial rapidly picked up the place it left off.
Powered by a potent offensive assault, the Knights shut out Belmont 6-0 to open with a non-league victory.
The evening had a little bit extra which means than the stereotypical first sport of the season. It was the primary highschool sport on the Skip Viglirolo Skating Rink after the power had been closed since 2022.
The Marauders’ girls and boys ice hockey packages referred to as close by John A Ryan Skating Enviornment house for the again half of the 2022-23 season and the whole thing of the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, however will now return to their rebuilt house that’s on the identical grounds as the highschool.
“It’s nice to be again right here,” Belmont head coach Tim Foley stated. “It’s a good looking facility, nice ice and now we have our personal locker room once more. We scheduled this sport some time in the past, now we have opened the season with CM a couple of occasions and we stated ‘this would be the first sport.’ So right here we’re and we bought what we requested for.”
Whereas it was a particular evening for the Belmont group, Catholic Memorial was desirous to play spoiler. The defending Div. 1 champions exploded for a 21-7 shot benefit within the opening interval and fired three pucks previous Belmont goalie Quinn Harrington.
The primary got here on the penalty kill when sophomore A.J. Ankstitus feathered a saucer move to senior James Baker, who fired a snap shot into the again of the online for the sport’s first lead.
“Pucks to the online,” Baker stated in regards to the offensive technique. “My teammates are going to seek out me and discover one another. That’s simply how we play, that’s the CM approach. We fireplace pucks to the online, create chaos and overwhelm groups.”
A number of minutes later, junior defenseman Liam McKinney fired a wrist shot from the purpose and sophomore Ronan Foley tipped it previous Harrington to increase the result in two. Shortly after the following faceoff, freshman Shaun Farrell picked a nook from the purpose to make it 3-0.
“We have been making an attempt to determine who we have been, we nonetheless are,” Knights head coach Larry Rooney stated. “We’ve bought a pleasant returning group of gamers and now we have a superb group of recent guys with us as nicely. We’re nonetheless figuring that out, as each staff is at this level within the season. It’s a superb begin.”
The Knights didn’t take their foot off the fuel pedal within the second interval. Simply 2:30 into the center body, Michael Melvin scored off an help from Baker. A few minute later, Ankstitus fired a move to Dan Antonellis, who buried it five-hole to make it 5-0.
“A.J. is a dynamic participant,” Rooney stated of Ankstitus. “He’s robust on the puck, he’s a little bit participant however he doesn’t play little. He generally is a distinction maker for us and I believe we noticed that tonight. He can put some factors on the board.”
The third interval featured an extra Knights aim, this one from Christian Hinkle and assisted by Ankstitus, to spherical out the scoring.
Whereas it wasn’t an explosive begin for the Marauders, Foley stated he noticed some poise from his inexperienced group that solely featured three skilled gamers from the 2024-25 squad.
“We misplaced 14 gamers from final yr,” Foley stated. “We’re getting higher day-after-day, we’ve solely had 10 days collectively and are wanting ahead to the season.”
With the primary win within the rearview mirror, Baker stated he’s excited to see how the staff grows.
“It’s a superb begin however we’re removed from the end,” Baker stated. “The aim goes again to the Backyard March 16. I imagine on this staff, now we have the canines, we’re fueled up and we all know we are able to go back-to-back.”
