Holliston skates to fore
Turns new year into a new order in TVL
The flip of the calendar to 2018 seems to have symbolically ushered in a new era for both Holliston and the Tri-Valley League hockey hierarchy.
The Panthers were moderately successful in December, going 4-1-1 with the lone loss coming to defending Division 3 North champion Lowell. Not bad for a program coming off a seven-win season, and with just 11 victories overall in Dan Geary’s first two seasons as head coach.
Then came the Jan. 3 meeting with rival Hopkinton, one of the preseason favorites to win the TVL title. Despite falling behind early, Holliston surged back and grabbed an eye-opening 3-1 victory. Three nights later the Panthers served notice even more with a 3-2 victory against powerful
Medfield.
“Last week was a huge week for our program,” Geary said. “I thought we’d compete. Did I know we could win? I didn’t.”
Tack on another victory Wednesday night against
Norton, and suddenly Holliston (7-1-1) already has matched last year’s win total and was sitting atop the TVL standings entering last night’s game against
Dover-Sherborn.
“We knew it would be tough to beat teams like Medfield and Hopkinton, but we knew we could do it,” senior defenseman Jake Kober said.
Asked if he’s been surprised by the results so far, Geary — who took over just days before the start of the 2015-16 season — admitted to not having the most patience when it comes to building a program. “I’m surprised that we didn’t perform better the last two years,” he said.
At the same time, Geary understood that growing pains and learning how to win were a necessary part of the process. Give a big assist to the self-motivation of this year’s senior class after the team fell one point short of the tournament last season, finishing 7-8-5.
“It was tough,” senior forward James Franco said. “We knew we had to put in a lot of work over the offseason. We had a lot of workouts, a lot of street hockey, stuff like that just to get ready for the season.”
Said Geary: “They have an internal drive they haven’t had before. A lot of it is my senior defensemen and the seniors are really pushing the kids. (Last season) hurt. That hurt, and we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves. That left a mark, and the kids said they’re not letting that happen again.”
Franco is part of an allsenior top line along with Jack Larche and Cam DeCristofaro. Kober transferred from St. Mark’s to shore up a defense that also features seniors Jack Wilkie, Tim Ringie and Will Fitzgerald.
“They understand what it takes. They’re tired of losing,” Geary said of the senior class. “So it’s a combination of, they’re understanding the game better, they’re more mature and they don’t want to lose.”
Freshman goalie Nico Quatromoni has been a big addition who took the reins early in the season and stabilized things in net, allowing the Panthers to fulfill Geary’s approach of building everything from the defense out. That was on full display in the wins against Hopkinton and Medfield, along with a growing confidence in all of the players.
“I think what that week did for us is now the kids believe,” Geary said. “Now they’re like, ‘Wow, if I work hard, this is what we can do.’ And that’s a big eye-opening thing because we haven’t had that in years past.”
However the subsequent 2-1 win against Norton, a game that was scoreless entering the third period, presented a new wrinkle: Teams suddenly were going to be gunning for the new TVL leaders.
“We’re not going to sneak up on anyone anymore,” Franco said. “I think the Norton game gave us what we needed to remind us we need to stay focused for the rest of the season.”
All in the family
Arlington’s John Messuri became the ninth active boys hockey coach to reach 300 career victories when his defending Super Eight champion Spy Ponders edged Middlesex League rival Woburn last Saturday.
But Messuri’s milestone came with a unique twist: The winning goal came off the stick of his son, sophomore Anthony Messuri.
Taking a pass from Brendan Jones, Anthony Messuri fired it home to give the Spy Ponders a 5-3 lead in what eventually would be a 5-4 victory. It was the 85th victory at Arlington for John Messuri, who is in his seventh season at the helm of his alma mater after coaching Winchester to 215 victories over 15 seasons from 1994-2010 (including a one-year hiatus).
“That was pretty cool,” John Messuri said of the father-son connection.
Messuri joined a select group with at least 300 wins that includes: Dan Shine (Arlington Catholic), Mark Lee (St. Mary’s), Bob Conceison (Malden Catholic, Burlington), John Maguire (Waltham), Brian Foley (Longmeadow, Cathedral/Pope Francis), Steve Scanlon (Wilmington), C.B. “Moose” Matthews (Westfield) and Mike Nanartowich (Hudson).
Challenge is set
The second annual Middlesex League/Catholic Conference Challenge will take place tomorrow at Woburn’s O’Brien Rink. The daylong affair will feature five games including all five Catholic Conference teams. The schedule is: Burlington vs. St. John’s Prep (noon); Winchester vs. Xaverian (2 p.m.); BC High vs. Reading (4 p.m.); Belmont vs. Catholic Memorial (6 p.m.); and Malden Catholic vs. Wilmington (8 p.m.).