[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
When you grow up playing hockey in Massachusetts, it’s every kid’s dream to represent their high school and play in the famous Super Eight Tournament. For the better part of the tournament’s existence, the Super Eight has been dominated by Catholic Conference schools such as BC High, Catholic Memorial, and Malden Catholic, as well as the same general group of public high schools such as Burlington, Hingham, and Reading.
Entering the 2016-2017 season, most high school hockey nuts around the Bay State figured it would be another year where a significant portion of the Catholic Conference, one or two of the usual-customer public high schools, and a wildcard from out in Western-Mass (Springfield Cathedral or Pope Francis) would make up this year’s Super Eight. Nobody - absolutely nobody - saw Walpole putting together an undefeated 21-0-1 record, winning the Bay State Conference by daylight, and earning a Super Eight play-in round date with perennial powerhouse Catholic Memorial on Monday night at Chelmsford Forum.
Walpole sophomore forward Conor Foley (16) rushes up the ice and works the puck into the CM end late in the third period. Photo by Michael Flanagan
Both the Knights and the Rebels traded blows throughout the first two periods, and despite Walpole appearing to take a 1-0 lead late in the first period on a shot that went bar down (goal waved off), the Knights and Rebels entered the third period still without a goal. However, senior forward and captain Owen Hunter finally broke the ice and fired home a rebound on a net-mouth scramble to give Walpole a 1-0 lead less than three minutes into the third period.
Throughout the course of the 2016-2017 season, one of Walpole’s strengths was their ability to play lockdown defense and keep the opposition off the score-sheet. Walpole outscored their opponents 107-11 throughout their 22-game regular season. The Rebels averaged exactly a half a goal allowed per game, while averaging 4.86 goals scored per game. Senior goaltender and captain James Corcoran and the Rebel defensive unit displayed their dominance on Monday night with the defensemen clogging shooting lanes and winning puck battles in the corners, all while Corcoran showed why he is one of the elite high school goaltenders in the state (13 shutouts on the year), making save after save and corralling rebounds to thwart secondary scoring opportunities for the Knights.
Despite Walpole’s incredible defensive play throughout the game, the Knights tied the game at one late on the power play. However, the Rebels showed their mental toughness by staying composed and sticking to their game plan, working the puck down low in the opposing end and generating some incredible scoring opportunities that were unfortunately turned aside by the CM goaltender just before the end of regulation.
Into overtime they went.
Andrew Moore (7) and the rest of the Walpole Rebels say hello to the Brigade following their thrilling win over the Knights. Photo by Michael Flanagan
Following the game, Martin talked about his game-winner and praised the hard work of fellow line-mate and senior captain Owen Hunter that led to his goal.
“Owen Hunter did a great job of winning the face off,” said Martin. “I saw a loose puck right in front of the net, so I said in my head ‘Why not?’ and then I shot it as hard as I could and hoped for the best. It was surreal.”
Rebel head coach and Walpole High School athletic director Ron Dowd praised his group following the win, and said that he and his team thought little of how they compared to the rest of the Super Eight field in terms of each team’s strength of schedule throughout the regular season.
“People kept bringing it up. I told my guys before the game that we hadn’t played that bad of a schedule. Natick and Wellesley and other teams in our conference are very good hockey clubs,” said Dowd. “Credit to the guys, they came out here and gave everything they could, and I am just so proud of them.”
So, how did a Bay State Conference school like Walpole come out of nowhere and make this much noise in the Super Eight in 2016-2017? Well, Cam Martin says that it is not from playing together growing up. Instead, it is from several things: their coaching, a collective drive to win, incredible sacrifice and practice on their own time, and having a special group of players who love working together.
“Most of us were actually separated in youth hockey,” said Martin. “Being in different age groups and some of us being on club teams, we all never really got to play together until the juniors and seniors now became upperclassmen. Coming in freshman year, I knew that our class was going to be something special. Over our years of playing together in high school, we’ve developed chemistry and jelled so much together as a team. During the offseason, we always try to find ice time available just to work with each other and get better together as a team.”
Monday night’s win over Catholic Memorial was easily one of, if not the, biggest win in the history of Walpole High School hockey. Even better, it silenced all those who doubted whether or not the Rebels deserved to be there. The Rebels will now enjoy some time off before suiting up next week against another Catholic Conference power, No. 2 seed BC High, in their Super Eight quarterfinal series.
Congrats to the Rebels. Simply phenomenal.
