Boys' Hockey Triumphs with 27 Wins
The boys’ varsity hockey team had a dominating season this year, finishing with a record of 27-4-1. The 27 wins are the 3rd most in the history of Exeter hockey. With the exception of their playoffs loss against Milton Academy, all of Big Red's losses and ties were in overtime.
The team started off its season at an exciting pace with five consecutive home game wins. Its winning streak ended in an overtime loss of 4-5 against the Kent School, but only 3 days later, the team traveled to the Dexter School and recovered with a win of 3-1.
That Saturday, the boys headed to Cushing for what many of them called one of the biggest wins of the season. According to Senior Jordan Haney, Exeter’s coach, physical education instructor Dana Barbin, made it clear that Cushing was one of the toughest teams in the league.
While the boys took a 3-0 lead in the first period, Cushing went on a 4 goal streak to take the score to 3-4 midway through the 3rd period. With only 17 seconds left, postgraduate Christian Thompson’s 2nd goal of the game sailed into the back of the net, tying the game 4-4.
During the extra five minutes for overtime, Senior Jacob Dupont assisted Senior Ben Solin’s second goal to win the game for Exeter. Solin boasted the game as one of the most memorable of the season. “Playing against Cushing is big because they're a rival, and it's always fun to beat them, especially in overtime, at their rink,” Solin said. He was the top scorer of the season with 21 goals.
“I love being in the locker room with the boys and the feeling of knowing every guy on the ice has your back.”
The win against Cushing wouldn’t have been possible without a goal from prep Garrett Foster. Exeter’s team is unique in comparison to other schools since it has lines with both postgraduates and preps. For the Exeter players, age doesn’t matter much on the ice. The group has become very close anyways. “Despite the team being half seniors and the rest a mix of ages, I have never been on a more close knit team,” postgraduate Steven Upton said. According to captain and senior Peter Christie, the two preps on the team, Hunter McCoy and Foster, became the team’s “little brothers” as well as valuable assets on the ice.
McCoy admitted that at first he was nervous to play with guys so much older than himself, but quickly realized that the older boys were great teammates who wanted to help him. He praised the team’s two captains. “Peter [Christie] and [senior] Trevor [Cosgrove] were unbelievable captains this year, they were great leaders and teammates and they really showed us younger guys what hockey is about,” McCoy said. “We're definitely going to miss them and all of the seniors a lot next year.”
Christie found his new role as captain to be challenging at first because he is not typically a vocal person. He viewed a good captain as someone who is direct and tells teammates what to do. However, he soon learned how to lead in a different way. “Over time, I realized that the boys wanted to follow my example, regardless of how loud or commanding I was,” Christie said.
Following the Cushing game, the team beat Tilton School and Berwick Academy, but tied with Brunswick School in overtime before heading home for winter break. Coming back early after Christmas, they then beat Albany Academy and St. Andrew’s College.
The boys' second loss was in overtime at Brooks School, but they quickly rebounded and beat St. Paul’s School 7-0 at home that weekend.
A week later, the team beat its biggest rival, Andover, 7-0 at home with a huge crowd of fans cheering them on the whole time. Cosgrove described it as a game he’ll never forget. Andover’s inability to score was in part due to postgraduate Joseph Lazzaro, Big Red’s goalie, and his stealthy saves. He was voted co-MVP of the year by his teammates. An experienced goalie, he started playing hockey when he was six-years-old simply because “the pads looked cool” to him. He discovered joy in other facets of the sport as well.
“I love playing goalie because you can beat any team with a good goalie, and I like the pressure of that,” Lazzaro said. “Most challenging part [of the season] was playing a 30 game schedule and being able to be ready mentally for each game.”
Following the win against Andover, the boys had a close game against Tabor Academy. In the last minute of the third period, the team scored a goal to tie the score 1-1 and bring the game into overtime. Yet after just a minute of extra time, Solin snuck in another goal, winning the game 2-1 for Big Red.
Big Red also won its next game against Hotchkiss School 5-3. However, later that week the boys had a tough home game loss of 3-8 against Kimball Union Academy. Eager to finish strong, the team then held an 11 game winning streak for the rest of its regular season games.
One of the most exciting games of the last 11 was the team’s match against Choate Rosemary Hall. The score was 1-1 near the end of the third period, but with seconds left, upper Matthew Mcshea sent in the winning goal for Exeter. For Mcshea, this game stood out to him because of the care of his teammates. “I love being in the locker room with the boys and the feeling of knowing every guy on the ice has your back,” Mcshea said.
Finally, at the E/a winter pep rally before the close of the season, the team all stood in front of the crowd as Upton rode a unicycle and juggled to excite the crowd. Lots of fans turned up for the big match against Andover the next day, anticipating a close match since Andover’s first line had recovered from its absence during the two teams’ first matchup. However, feeding off the energy of the crowd, the team beat Andover 5-2. “The two E/a games were memorable especially with all the amazing fans that came out to support us!” Upton said.
Yet after an exciting regular season, the team lost 2-5 in its first game in the playoffs to Milton Academy. Even though this brought an end to their winning streak, and the year, the boys will still look back fondly on the season and the memories they collected together. Dupont said he’ll miss warming up for games by hopping around and listening to Justin Bieber in the locker room. The remaining half of the team will miss the graduating class and all the fun times they had together. “I know I’ll miss the seniors next year,” lower Sam Stone said. “We had a final scrimmage at 5:00 a.m. on the last day of winter term and looking back I feel nostalgic already.”