Broncos knock off Rams
Andersen, Corrao score in victory over state champs
BURRILLVILLE — The reigning co-state champion La Salle boys hockey team didn’t lose its first – and only – game of last season until the final weekend of the regular season when Burrillville shocked the Rams at Levy Rink.
The new-look Rams, who graduated or lost to transfer over a dozen regular contributors, returned to Levy Friday night to start the new season and suffered a similar fate.
Burrillville junior all-division defenseman Ben Andersen gave the Broncos a lead they would never relinquish 2 minutes, 28 seconds into the second period and Jack Corrao netted the game-winning goal 90 seconds into the third period, as the Broncos secured a crucial 2-1 Division I victory.
“We definitely think we can beat the private schools and this is the team to do it with,” Andersen said after the Broncos beat either Mount, Hendricken or La Salle for the fifth straight season. “This is a great group of boys. We just outworked them and it was a great all-around team effort. We were also super physical with them.”
“This feels great. Any time you get a win in this league it feels great,” Burrillville coach David Farrell said.
“It was a battle tonight and it will be a battle [Saturday]. The biggest thing since the first game was we worked on positioning and eliminating some of the silly mistakes like an errant dump or failing to go tape-totape on a 10-foot pass. We go mostly two lines, so getting the puck deep is incredibly important.”
Burrillville (1-1-0 Division I) was coming off a 4-4 tie with Division I newcomer East Greenwich last week, so the emphasis over the last seven days was on improving the little things in the defensive zone. The Broncos did that for the most part and senior goalie Lucas Hundley cleaned up the rest of the mistakes, making 24 saves in his first varsity start.
Hundley’s biggest contribution came with less than a minute left when senior forward Josh Hogue retrieved a puck below the goal line and tried to stuff it past Hundley at his left post, but the Broncos managed to block the shot and cover up the puck.
“Lucas was huge tonight,” Farrell said. “He’s a pretty big kid and he’s pretty athletic. When he goes down in the butterfly, he’s still covers a lot of the goal. He showed it on that play. As a team, I like this group because they work hard and they work hard in film. They have good hockey IQ and have a high ceiling.”
La Salle (0-1 Division I) is back in action Saturday night at its home rink – Smithfield Municipal – against Division I newcomer Cumberland at 8:30 p.m. The Rams received a third-period goal from freshman Ronan Peterson on a shot from the left circle that crossed up Hundley.
Burrillville, which travels to Pawtucket’s Lynch Arena Saturday night to play Moses Brown, broke a scoreless tie in the second period when Andersen took advantage of a bad bounce to put a shot past junior goalie Maxwell Cute.
A La Salle penalty late in the second period helped the Broncos double the lead early in the third. After good work from senior Nathan Steele, freshman Joseph DeCesare had his shot saved by Cute, but Corrao was on hand to put in the rebound.
“We have to build off this win against Moses Brown tomorrow,” Anderson said.
“We’ve picked off a couple of private
schools before so we know what the formula is,” Farrell said. “This is a different group from the past, but at the end of the day, it’s about working your tail off and being willing to do the dirty things you have to do to win games.”