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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Coming into the 2016-2017 season, expectations were high for the Walpole High School boys varsity hockey team.
“Our hopes are pretty high,” said head coach and Walpole Athletic Director Ron Dowd before the season began. “We have three solid leaders in Pat (Donovan), James (Corcoran) and Owen (Hunter), and it helps having a goalie like James come back and give you that anchor in net. He’s a mainstay and we’re definitely looking to build off of our success from last year (11-5-3).”
The Rebels (13-0-1, 8-0-1) have not only lived up to Coach Dowd’s expectations with more than half the season behind them and still no losses, but the group has been absolutely dominant, having only surrendered six goals on the year.
Following a 3-0 victory at Weymouth on January 18, the Rebels took down non-conference opponent King Phillip 6-0 on January 21 before tying Framingham 2-2 and ending their winning streak to start the year at 13 on January 25.
As of January 27, per masshshockey.com, the Rebels were currently ranked eighth in the state, ahead of perennial Catholic Conference hockey powerhouses such as Malden Catholic (10) and Xaverian (14). If the Rebels finish in the top eight in the standings at the regular season’s end, they’ll be the first Bay State Conference team to qualify for the Super Eight tournament since Weymouth accomplished the feat in 2011.
Senior captain and goaltender James Corcoran praised his group of forwards for their consistent production throughout the season that has allowed the Rebels to get off to such a tremendous start.
“Our offense has been playing very well and all of our top-six forwards have been contributing,” said Corcoran. “Cam Martin, Pat Donovan (C), and Matt Morris have been incredible producers for us.”
Following the praise of his forward core, Corcoran also stated that his defensemen have done an incredible job of keeping the puck away from their net and have been a significant reason why the Rebels currently hold such an amazing goals-for/against ratio (75-6).
“The defense is great at keeping shots to the outside and clearing out rebounds,” said Corcoran. “The thing they’ve done best though is breaking the puck out and moving it up to our forwards. Andrew Moore and Ted McElaney are playing great.”
Senior forward Cam Martin attributes the Rebels’ success in 2016-2017 to the group’s collective drive to win and the excellent chemistry that the team developed with one another over the offseason.
“When we came in freshman year, I knew our class had something special,” said Martin. “Over the past few seasons of playing together, we’ve grown as a team and have developed some great chemistry. During the offseason, we always try to find ice time available just to work with each other and get better as a team, and I think that has allowed us to go out and get the results that we wanted so far this year.”
Martin also praised the efforts of his goaltenders James Corcoran, Jon Stasiukevicius, and Michael Panciocco on their incredible play up to this point in the season.
“Our goaltending has been outstanding,” said Martin. “With only six goals allowed on the year, we have confidence every night that they are going to be solid between the pipes and bail us out if the need be.”
As far as expectations go for the rest of the season, Martin says that his team is just taking it game-by-game and making sure that they do not overlook any opponents, as every win matters in order to earn a high seed in the State Tournament come March.
“We have to take every game seriously and not take anybody lightly,” said Martin. “Every game from now on is more important than the last, because we want to get a very high seed in the playoffs.”
At the time of print, the Rebels will look to stay unbeaten at home against Milton on February 1 before traveling to Dedham on February 4.
