Boys’ Hockey Battles For a Tie
In the second-to-last week of the winter season, the boys’ varsity hockey team won its game on Wednesday Feb. 15 and tied its game on Saturday Feb. 18. On Wednesday, it played against the Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH) at home. It won with four goals, compared to NMH’s two. The scorers were lower Gray Betts, senior and co-captain Graham Rutledge, lower Paddy Bogart and upper Kyle Jadatz. NMH scored twice in the third period, with only thirteen minutes left in the game.
Going into the Deerfield game, the team knew that if it wanted to make it to the Elite Eight, losing was not an option. Senior Matthew McShea said, “While we wanted to win, a tie was fine by us.” The team tied Deerfield Academy with a one to one score.
Lower Garrett Foster commented that Deerfield was a much stronger team than Big Red had anticipated. For the majority of the game, Deerfield was winning by one goal, and Exeter had to maintain its determination to score.
Foster credited Exeter’s head coach, Dana Barbin, with keeping the team’s spirits up. According to Foster, Barbin told the team, “Keep them [Deerfield] at one goal, and we will win.” The team continued working to do just that, until senior and co-captain Collin Shapiro scored a goal for Exeter.
“We’re just getting ready for each game as it comes, and playoffs will take care of itself. Now we’re focused on Andover.”
Rutledge explained, “It was a beautiful goal late in the third [period] to tie it.” He added that Shapiro had “a great game.”
“We played great team defense by blocking a lot of shots,” Shapiro said. He said that the game was “a solid team effort.”
In addition, some of the credit for the tie can be attributed to the goalies, prep Ryan Welch and postgraduate Pat Schena. “Welch played great in net,” Shapiro said.
Senior Matthew McShea described highlights from the Deerfield game. “The best play of the game was an early breakaway save by Schena.” McShea also praised the team’s determination, saying, “we demonstrated a lot of heart with players like Greg Shapiro diving to block shots.”
Big Red has just played the first game in the final week of the season. On Wednesday it will play a long-awaited match against Phillips Academy Andover. Although Big Red will be playing against its biggest rival, Rutledge said, “I have full confidence in our team that we will finish strong.”
McShea agreed with Rutledge, saying, “We’re just getting ready for each game as it comes, and playoffs will take care of itself. Now we’re focused on Andover.”
The team currently has a record of 21 wins, 5 losses and 1 tie. Some of the credit for this stellar record can be attributed to the team captains, who Foster said, “have brought a lot of leadership and motivation. They [Shapiro, Rutledge, Bradley Ingersoll] have led the team well.” McShea added, “The captains make us feel loved.”