MARLBORO – Welcome back, high school hockey.
A new season was unofficially ushered in by the 17th annual Garrett Reagan Summit on Sunday, as 51 boys and girls hockey programs competed within 27 total scrimmages across New England Sports Center’s seven rinks.
Many of the frequent returners again participated in the premier preseason bonanza, using it as a quality dress rehearsal to gear up for the regular season.
That includes several premier programs with high ambitions every season.
“The Reagan Summit is the best way to start your season,” said St. John’s of Shrewsbury boys head coach Michael Mead, whose program reached the Div. 1 state final last year. “It’s a great way to honor Garrett and his memory, but also provides kids (an opportunity) to see a lot of other teams. … This is a big opportunity for these kids, and it’s a good opportunity for coaches to learn how their teams are going to be. How do they adjust in the early going? We’ve been coming here since its inception, and we love it.”
“Obviously, we started Monday, but this sort of wakes everyone up that (the season) is really here, and it’s ready to get going,” added Marshfield boys head coach Dan Connolly. “You look around, you see familiar faces you haven’t seen in a couple of months and it’s good to see everyone here playing. … It’s a good gauge. You get to watch those teams, see how they are, see how you are in comparison to them. And it just sort of gets the excitement going for the kids.”
The event pays tribute to the late Hingham legend it’s named after, while giving teams an opportunity to further solve their identities and learn much-needed early lessons.
The Hingham boys beat Xaverian 3-1 with an empty-netter in one of the most notable pairings. The Harbormen scored twice early, including a goal in the first minute, before Xaverian cut it to a one-goal game.
“We just picked the team on Friday, we had a scrimmage last night and it didn’t go that great,” said Harbormen head coach Tony Messina. “We had a lot of things that we had identified we needed to work on today. We wanted to play a little more physical, push the pace more – it’s a good-skating team so we like to push the pace – and then stay out of the box. … We accomplished all of them, all three of those things.”
“It’s great for our guys, kind of going back-to-back – yesterday we had a scrimmage (against Pope Francis),” said Xaverian coach Dave Spinale. “Hingham was great today, they jumped on us early. That was a really good wake-up call for us to know that you can’t wait to start. … (But) we learned we don’t quit. We came back. Second period was a pretty good period for us, I thought we had tons of really good chances.”
In girls action, Div. 1 threats Pope Francis and Shrewsbury played to a 1-0 Lady Cardinals win. Elise Musa scored the game-winner with a minute left.
“I love the atmosphere, it’s more of a game atmosphere than a regular scrimmage,” said Shrewsbury head coach Frank Panarelli. “It gives the freshmen to feel that game atmosphere. … It was a good game, it was a fast game. Pope Francis has a very good team, so it was a good test for us. I think we’ll be alright.”
The St. Mary’s of Lynn and Reading boys played in a matchup between strong Div. 1 threats. Reading edged out a 3-1 win with an empty-net goal, separating from a 1-1 game in the last period.
“Today was great, St. Mary’s always brings it,” said Reading head coach Mark Doherty. “Win, lose, tie here is irrelevant – it’s more about (how) it’s good to play a team like St. Mary’s. … A day like this is terrific. To me, it’s the first bus ride together for the kids to get to know each other a little better, and you can play an opponent like that.”
