Beyond the Scoresheet

Knolls wins the Cron (again)

I usually find a way to go to a Cron Tournament game. There have been 11 such tournaments since I began covering hockey in this state, and I have probably been to at least one game in maybe eight of those. From Mendham’s first-ever game back in 1996 to Morris Knolls’ first tournament title in 2002, I’ve managed to see at least one game on a regular basis – I even went directly from the airport once. I made friends with the coaches at Morris Knolls and Mendham at a young age, so I was always about seeing Morris County teams in action. And freezing my butt off.

So it was with a touch of sadness I received a phone call tonight informing me of Morris Knolls’ 3-1 win over Mendham for the Golden Eagles’ fifth consecutive tournament title. (Five in a row ties the record held by St. Joseph Metuchen from 1993-’97.) I remember when St. Joe ruled the Cron roost, beating Rob Loderstedt, Adam Dilly, and a second-year Mendham team in that ’97 final. I remember the Knolls-Mendham rivalry fueled by former Knolls coaches John Kovacs and Rob Dachisen running the show at Mendham; Knolls head coach Bob Loderstedt’s son, Rob, playing for Mendham; Dachisen’s nephew, Mike, playing at Knolls; and the innumerable Kovacs-Keiper connections. Plus, both teams were good for a while.

Knolls finally broke through, of course, to become one of the state’s leading public programs at the moment. A quick skim through my own archives shows that Knolls beat Mendham in the the ’02 semi, and the ’04 final. Of the five tournament titles, Josh Ofner won the MVP award twice, Bobby Jones once, Dennis Zak once, and now Tommy Tomensky after a 12-point performance in three games. Maybe next year I’ll be there to see if Knolls can make it six.
Round up
While Knolls won the tournament, Mendham showed very well and appears to be part of a very strong Halvorsen Division. In case you missed it, Pingry appears to be legit this year. The Big Blue have quietly been improving in numbers and skill level over the past few years, and they’ve always had the experience on the bench in the inimitable John Magadini. Pingry drilled Princeton 8-1 on Wednesday and beat Mendham 6-4 last week. Those two appear to be the class of Morris County’s ‘B’ division, ahead of Kinnelon and West Morris. Pingry and Mendham could very well beat Mountain Lakes and give the other Mennen teams a run for their money.

Elsewhere Wednesday, in scores I have received, Wall earned an emotional 3-2 win over Rumson-Fair Haven with former Bulldog coach Dave Smith behind the Wall bench as an assistant to Mike Dianora. It is the first regular-season win for Wall against RFH. The Knights are getting it done with defense, with 3-1 and 3-2 games so far.
The favorites held in the CVC and Morris County and both MKA and Sparta pulled off non-league wins.
In the Central Conference, St. Joseph (Metuchen) rallied to knock off Bridgewater-Raritan 4-3 in a game that is sure to sting for Panther head coach Patrick Alvin for quite a while. Fellow Irish namesake Pat Verney appears to have stolen Alvin’s late-game luck, as Verney’s Hillsborough squad held off South Brunswick 3-2. I’m sure that’s not how the former Hudson Catholic star drew it up.
There’s plenty more I could write about, but here’s what to watch for on Thursday: a telling non-league contest between Notre Dame and TRN; Red Bank-Old Bridge in Southern White action; Bishop Eustace-MonDon in a critical early Southern Red game; and debutant Jackson Memorial tries to go 2-0 by taking Brick Memorial.
Keep sending scores!

falling asleep at the wheel

I’m more than a little tired on this morning after I got back from baseball’s winter meetings. They’re still going on, but I had to get back to work. I had a really good two-day experience, interviewing for the jobs I want and trying to help a former broadcast partner of mine land his first job. We’ll see what happens on both fronts, but we worked hard and accomplished most of our objectives (other than landing a job on the spot, obviously).

On a more local note, I hung out with Point Pleasant head coach Mike Ryan, who was really troubled about missing the Panthers’ first two games but breathed easier after their 12-2 win Monday. He said he had been the subject of an interview from a New Jersey newspaper reporter, who asked him a great but impossible to answer question: which would he rather win, a South Atlantic League championship or a Southern Blue division title? I won’t spoil the answer, but if anybody has seen the article online, please let me know so I can post a link to it. I also met, for the first time, former Paramus Catholic player Brendan Burke, now a broadcaster for the Wheeling (W.V.) Nailers in the ECHL and an aspiring baseball broadcaster as well – he worked for short-season Batavia last summer after graduating from Ithaca College in the spring.

On one more baseball note, I came across this terrific article (EDIT: link fixed) this morning. If you have ever collected baseball cards, autographs, or just been a big fan of a player, it should make you smile. I’m still waiting for an autograph from one of Walt Keiper’s younger brothers from when I was an autograph hound.

Getting back to hockey, you may have noticed I am only posting scores I get from emails or other reliable sources (aka NOT the NJO forum). We’ll see how long this lasts, but you can make life a lot easier by emailing those scores in before or after you post on the forum. Just try to include some relevant details so I know it’s not a phony score (it does happen). As of 3 pm CDT this afternoon, I am missing the following scores: Paul VI-Rumson and Parsippany-Morristown. As always, jty [at] njhockey.org will suffice. And I really do appreciate everybody who has already been sending me scores, especially other journalists and many coaches.

I also wanted to touch on the high-flyin’ Robbinsville Ravens, who won the first varsity game they ever played earlier this week with a dramatic 7-6 win over Hamilton. Head coach Dan Bergan had this to say in an email after his team killed off a six-on-four situation over the final 1:36:
“The kids hit the ice like they won the Stanley Cup. Surreal.
Best part of the game? Matt Hamilton, the Hamilton coach, showed so much class … genuinely congratulating my players because he knew it was a special, historical moment for them and that it was bigger than the W or L. Total class and what this sport is really about.”

I can’t say it much better than that, so let’s close on that note. Enjoy the games!

Opening Day, 10 years later

Well, if it is 34 degrees in Houston, it must be hockey season! I’m psyched for the start of the season tonight, even though I likely will not see a game until after Christmas (I did squeeze in one scrimmage during the Thanksgiving holiday). And today marks 10 years since I first decided to cover high school ice hockey, way back when Pope John won its first ever game over a very different Morris Knolls team. As Mike Morreale pointed out in his blog, the number of schools fielding hockey teams has nearly doubled since then. Likewise, my dedication to and coverage of N.J. hockey has increased, and this is always a fun time. While you’re checking out previews and blogs, don’t forget to check out Dan Rosen and the guys at the Varsity Aces blog, including Dan’s Bergen County preview. And in my neck of the woods, Dan Breeman should have a preview coming out soon in Morris County’s Daily Record, but football coverage appears to be dominating the section today. Down the shore, Bob Badders previewed CBA’s season in the Asbury Park Press

With those guys, who are actually on the scene and usually in closer contact with the coaches than I am, handling previews, I do not plan to go very in depth with mine. I have other things on my plate, such as writing high-school football columns, trying to find a broadcasting job, and making plans for Rice’s first bowl game in 45 years.

But I can’t let Opening Day go without a little something, so let’s touch on a few things. First, my HNIB Top 10, which should be available in local rinks at the moment. Remember, preseason rankings are virtually pointless AND I had to submit this before practices even started.

HNIB Preseason Top 10 (11/13/06)
1. Delbarton
2. CBA
3. St. Peter’s Prep
4. Seton Hall Prep
5. Pope John
6. Bergen Catholic
7. Don Bosco Prep
8. Montgomery
9. Ridge
10. Bishop Eustace

And remember, please email me with scores the night of the game, it is a huge help and time-saver for me to have reliable scores coming in so I’m not scouring the newspapers the next morning. You know the drill, jty [at] njhockey.org.

Continue reading Opening Day, 10 years later…

view from down South

Sup, y’all. Before I write a bit about the state tournaments and the season, I want to take a second to thank all the people who took the time to drop me a line, either by commenting on this site or by sending me an email, wishing me luck. There are ups and downs associated with every and any move, and I’ve had plenty of both already, but those emails made dealing with the downs a bit easier. I really missed being around for the culmination of the hockey season, and although I kept informed – writers and coaches called me and I listened to some of the Continental games online – it could not top the excitement of actually being there. It’s safe to say I already miss New Jersey high school hockey and all the people that are a part of it.

That said, a big shout-out to newspapers around the state for their coverage of the end of the state tournament. Everybody in the hockey community laments the lack of space given to hockey during the season in favor of basketball and wrestling and the other winter sports (bowling, really?), but I thought coverage of the state tournament was very good. In particular, props to Mike Morreale and Paul Bruno, colleagues and friends, for their hard work. Trying to cover four games in one day and two late games in another – while dealing with deadlines and editors – is pretty out of control and deserves some respect. And one more shout-out to the Ledger for getting the job done by sending two additional writers and by posting video highlights (that just happened to be lifesaving for those of us who have to write about games we haven’t seen).

My final Top 20s are posted, and while I’m sure they will not be without controversy, I hope they are consistent with the style and system I used all season. I’m not going to recap the final few games here – they’ve been well covered already and I didn’t even see them. A few notes, however: You have to love the irony of Morris County sweeping the titles in the name of Aspen Ice, not Mennen Arena; Pope John became only the second coed private school to reach the semifinals; Randolph has reached the public final in four of the last five years and gone 2-2 in those games; never bet against Tenafly or Fair Lawn in the state tournament; Chris Volonnino is a beast around the net; and both championship goalies appeared to sport playoff beards, if I saw things correctly.

Embarrassing Note of the Week: When submitting my Top 20 to HNIB this morning, I noted that I totally overlooked Ridge’s state tournament performance when doing the rankings, so the Red Devils are in there where they belong, and adjustments made accordingly. Careless mistake on my part, so my apologies to all.

looking at the brackets

Now that I have a second to sit back and check out the brackets, let’s see what I can come up with. First of all, I talked to several members of the seeding committee about this stuff beforehand, and I know the committee members work very hard to go into the meeting prepared and come out with fair brackets. Props to them, it is no easy task. That said, here are some of my thoughts:

St. John Vianney (6) and Chatham (4) are in my opinion too high. How does St. John Vianney finish seventh in the Gordon Conference and get seeded sixth? If you take their Gordon Conference position and rank Morristown-Beard and Bishop Eustace ahead of them, they should be No. 9. To take a different approach … usually the seeding committee favors head-to-head results over standings. But CBA was 1-0-1 against SJV, including a Feb. 8 win. St. John did beat St. Peter’s Prep twice, but those were in December! The Lancers also lost their last six Gordon games. SJV at No. 6 creates a harsh quarterfinal matchup (Delbarton-CBA, two teams that were a combined 20-for-22 in reaching the semifinals) and a harsh first-round matchup (St. Peter’s Prep-Bishop Eustace) and a relative easy quarterfinal pairing (Pope John-St. John Vianney) for two teams that have a combined one semifinal appearance all-time. Questionable.
As for Chatham at No. 4 … it’s more legit than the SJV ranking. But the fact remains that Bridgewater-Raritan beat Chatham, and Montgomery has earned the right to be ranked ahead of BR. I think Montgomery at 4 (I had them at 3, but 4 would be fine), Bridgewater at 5, and Chatham at 6 would have been more fair – and I’m a guy who hates matching up teams from the same conference! So of the high rankings, Chatham was a bit questionable and St. John Vianney was a lot questionable. The coaches of both teams are on the seeding committee (but usually try not to participate in the placement of their own team.)

The NBIAL got some (deserved) love. The top four NBIAL teams were ranked 10-11-20-21, but three of the four are paired with Northern Conference teams for the first round. I would’ve liked to see a little more geographical diversity, but that’s not a big deal. I was surprised Indian Hills was seeded ahead of Ramapo, considering Ramapo won the league by a game and a half. But, as I mentioned earlier, the committee favors head-to-head results. An eight-spot differential between Ridgewood and Ramsey is tough, but probably necessary due to the glut of competitive teams from 1-20.

At-large bids. By now, you know. Red Bank Catholic, MKA, Middletown South, Paramus, and Morris Hills got at-large bids. Verona is the only team with a real complaint about the process, and I told you two weeks ago somebody deserving was going to be left out. Paramus didn’t make the playoffs in the weakest Red Division but had head-to-head success against Morris Hills, Tenafly, and even Clifton. Verona’s only big win was St. Joseph Metuchen, and the Hillbillies lost to West Orange. Morris Hills played the toughest schedule of the borderline three. Tough call all the way around, but I’m glad the committee supported the maximum of five teams.

Mouth-watering matchups. Don’t think Randolph isn’t already worried about playing Mountain Lakes a third time if they meet in the Round of 16. And a fourth Knolls-Chatham contest in the semifinals could be really enticing. Best possible first-round games: Steinert-Wall, Ridgewood-Fair Lawn, Clifton-Ramsey, Mountain Lakes-Montclair. For the round of 16, almost every game has potential.

The private tournament. Always a different atmosphere than the public tournament because there’s very little early-round drama. For example, Gloucester Catholic should definitely be ahead of Pingry, but it doesn’t really matter, because they don’t stand much of a chance of making the quarterfinals from either spot. I’ve already touched on the matchup that will keep either Delbarton or CBA out of the semifinals. Morristown-Beard could lose in the first round or make the semifinals, they’re that unpredictable. You have to figure Seton Hall Prep against Delbarton or CBA in the private final.

I know that was critical, but I really do think the committee, by and large, did a good job with this year’s field and definitely set things up for an exciting postseason.

brackets are out!

State tournament brackets are up. Click on the ‘states’ link above to get the brackets for the 2006 state tournaments.

gone fishin, be back Monday

The great seeding debate is in full swing, from inane forum posters to well-studied fans to nervous coaches to excited players. I’ve made my list of 49 (possibly 52) and my list of 18 (possibly 20), and it was so difficult that I’m skipping town. Cup tournaments may start today, but I’m taking a break with a four-day sojourn to Texas for some great college baseball, a little soccer, and some serious catching-up with friends. I should be able to update the site with scores and standings most nights, so hopefully you’ll hardly notice I’m gone. And I’ll be back Monday in time for full Mennen Cup coverage, plus whatever other games I can get to Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Enjoy.