PAGE 4C — Addison Independent, Thursday, December 15, 2016
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MUHS Girls’ Hockey By ANDY KIRKALDY MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Union girls’ hockey team has been close to the program’s first Division I title the past two winters, reaching the final two years ago and earning the No. 2 seed before falling in a semifinal last season. Co-coaches Matt Brush and Derek Bartlett expect the Tigers to be in the running again this winter. “Realistically, we expect to be even better than we were last year. We return a lot of our strong players and we have some new additions as freshmen that add to the overall product that we can put on the ice,” Brush said. “So we’re confident that we can improve on last year’s results.” Ten of the Tigers are juniors, and they are expected to play key roles for the team this year. “We have a large junior class that has a lot of talented hockey players. And typically by the time you’re a junior you’ve figured everything out. You know what it takes to work day-in and day-out,” Brush said. “So we think the experience this junior
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class has had in the last two seasons will serve us well.” The Tigers will play the twoforward, three-back system pioneered by the Middlebury College programs. Two defenders will be paired together, and two forwards and a left defender who typically will take faceoffs. Junior Andi Boe and senior Monroe Cromis will skate up front with Julia Carone as the left back on one group, with juniors Helen Anderson and Tully Hescock together up front with freshman Lexi Bartlett at left back next out of the chute. Three players could rotate into the two slots in the
third forward pair, junior Georgina Mraz and freshmen Isabella Pistilli and Taylor Moulton, with junior Polly Heminway at left back. Senior Molly Wetmore; juniors Satchel McLaughlin, Abigail Gleason, Raven Payne and Justine Smith; and freshman Kate Donahue will pair up in the back. Senior Rowan Hendy and junior Kathryn Billings will share time in goal unless one steps up and seizes the job, Brush said. Overall, Brush said the outlook is positive. “We have strong forwards. We have strong defensemen. We have
to have the opportunity to be back there,” Bartlett said. “I think with what we have, with our roster, our personnel, we’ll definitely be competitive.” Despite the graduation of about a half-dozen seniors, including one of their two top goalies and three of their top scorers, the program is blessed with plenty of skaters: The roster lists 32. “The numbers are great. I couldn’t be happier with the numbers we have in our program,” Bartlett said. Many of them will skate regular shifts. The Tigers will skate the twoforward, three-back system popularized by the Middlebury College programs, and Bartlett said three groups of two forwards/one back and three pairs of defenseman see regular ice time. He said going deep into the lineup will be necessary with the speed and physicality of D-I play, and the Tigers
have the talent to do it. “At this level you can’t really get away with running two (lines). The physical demand of this pace is too much,” Bartlett said. “With what we have with the top 15 guys I think we’ll be very competitive.” The three groups of two forwards/ one back he planned on deploying, at least to start this past Saturday in the Tigers’ opener vs. Hartford, were the pair of sophomore Henry Hodde and junior Tyler Giorgio up front with senior back Brett Viens, sophomore forwards Kolby Farnsworth and Jake Peluso with freshman back Kamrin Bartlett, and two of seniors Josh Girard and Eli Tucker and junior Jack Donahue along with freshman back Devon Kearns. Most likely to crack the lineup, Bartlett said, were two forwards, senior Marty Niemo and junior Wills Huntington. On defense, Bartlett set the initial
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of, we should be a tough out on any given night for anyone in our division.”
Middlebury Union High School Girls’ Varsity Ice Hockey Date Opponent/Event 12/13 BFA-St. Albans 12/17 @ Beekmantown 12/21 @ Rutland 12/28 Midd. Tourn. vs Cougar Hawks 12/29 Midd. Tourn. vs Spaulding 1/4 Burr & Burton 1/7 @ South Burlington 1/11 Colchester 1/14 Northfield
Time 7 p.m. 4 p.m. 5 p.m. 5 p.m. 5 p.m. 5 p.m. 6 p.m. 5 p.m. 5 p.m.
Boys’ Hockey
By ANDY KIRKALDY MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Union boys’ hockey team has contended in Division II for the past few years, but fell short of a title — last winter the Tigers reached the semifinal round before losing to eventual champion U-32 and finished 16-5-2. The challenge will be greater this year: The top teams in D-II — the Tigers, U-32, Woodstock and Stowe — were all bumped up to D-I. They will compete in one six-team D-I division with Colchester and Rice, playing those teams twice each, while facing the other six D-I teams in the other division — St. Albans, Essex, Spaulding, Rutland, Champlain Valley, South Burlington — once apiece. Then all the teams will be seeded together for the postseason. Coach Derek Bartlett said the Tigers, who spent a few years in D-I a while back, welcome that challenge. “As a program we’re very excited
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strong goalies,” he said. “And if everyone is able to compete at the level that we know they are capable
pairings as seniors Andrew Gleason and Erik Sherman, juniors Brian Kiernan and Krystian Gombosi, and juniors Alexander Yurista and Ziven McCarty. In goal, senior Doug DeLorenzo returns as the No. 1 after playing well while sharing the job last winter, and freshman Jeffrey Stearns is the top backup. Bartlett said team speed as well as depth should be an asset. “We need to be able to get up and down, which I think we can,” Bartlett said. “It will be just a matter of how well we can execute in our defensive zone and our offensive zone.” And he said the team will not lower its sights just because it is playing at a higher level of competition. “Our goal is to be one of the top two teams in that subdivision,” Bartlett said, and then see where that leads in the overall state tournament at the end of the season.”
1/21 1/25 1/27 2/1 2/4 2/8 2/10 2/15 2/18 2/22 2/25
@ Essex @ Spaulding Beekmantown @ Burr & Burton Rutland @ Mt. Mansfield South Burlington @ Colchester @ Northfield Essex @ BFA-St. Albans
3 p.m. 5:30 p.m. 5:30 p.m. 5 p.m. 5 p.m. 8:15 p.m. 5 p.m. 4:30 p.m. 12 p.m. 5 p.m. 5:30 p.m.
Middlebury Union High School Boys’ Varsity Ice Hockey Date Opponent/Event Time 12/8 Rutland 7 p.m. 12/12 Lyndon Institute 7 p.m. 12/15 Missisquoi 7 p.m. 12/18 Hartford 7 p.m. 12/21 @ Lake Placid 6 p.m. 12/23 @ Rutland 6:15 p.m. 12/29 Midd. Tournament – NCSS 7 p.m. 12/30 Midd. Tournament – Lake Placid 7 p.m. 1/2 Burlington 7 p.m. 1/6 @ Burr & Burton 5 p.m. 1/9 @ U-32 5 p.m. 1/16 @ St. Johnsbury 7:30 p.m. 1/20 Stowe 7 p.m. 1/23 North Country 7 p.m. 1/27 @ Northfield 8:45 p.m. 2/3 @ Brattleboro 7:15 p.m. 2/5 @ Woodstock 8 p.m. 2/9 Milton 7 p.m. 2/13 Harwood 7 p.m. 2/17 @ Mt. Mansfield 6:15 p.m.
Middlebury Union High School Varsity Girls’ Hockey Coach: Matt Brush and Derek Bartlett Name Grade Julia Carone 12 Monroe Cromis 12 Rowan Hendy 12 Molly Wetmore 12 Helen Anderson 11 Kathryn Billings 11 Andrea Boe 11 Abigail Gleason 11 Polly Heminway 11 Tully Hescock 11 Satchel McLaughlin 11 Georgina Mraz 11 Raven Payne 11 Justine Smith 11 Lexi Bartlett 9 Kate Donahue 9 Taylor Moulton 9 Isabella Pistilli 9
Middlebury Union High School Varsity Boys’ Hockey Coach: Derek Bartlett Name Grade Douglas DeLorenzo 12 Joshua Girard 12 Andrew Gleason 12 Marty Niemo 12 Erik Sherman 12 Eli Tucker 12 Brett Viens 12 Jack Donahue 11 Wyatt Galipeau 11 Tyler Giorgio 11 Krystian Gombosi 11 Wills Huntington 11 Brian Kiernan 11 Ziven McCarty 11 Alexander Yurista 11 Riley Brown 10 Kolby Farnsworth 10 Austin Goodell 10 Max Hirdler 10 Henry Hodde 10 Aaron Larocque 10 Cooper O’Brien 10 Jake Peluso 10 Benjamin Turner 10 Daniel Wiles 10 Kamrin Bartlett 9 Quinn Berry 9 Robbie Bicknell 9 Eli Billings 9 James Jette 9 Devon Kearns 9 Jeffrey Stearns 9