LYNN — After playing a large role in the St. Mary’s boys hockey team’s Division 1 state championship as a junior last year, Saugus native Anthony Bono is back with an even larger role for the 2017-2018 version of the Spartans.
Bono, now a senior captain, was looked upon mainly to score last season, which led to him leading the team in goals (20) and finishing third in total points (31) in the championship campaign. He has a little less help in the scoring department this season with the loss of top scorers Mike Zampanti and Dante Maribito, so Bono feels the need to put that extra weight on his shoulders. So far so good, as Bono currently leads the team in goals (5) and points (8) through eight games.
“It just makes me feel like I have to play a little harder,” Bono said when asked about the pressure of performing. “I’ve had some not-so-great games and some pretty good games so far this year, so I have to be more consistent and keep getting better every day for the team.”
“Whenever you have the leading goal-scorer from a championship team coming back, you feel good about it,” said St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee. “We really are a different team when he’s out on the ice. He’s a dominant player and he’s going to lead the offense for us all year.”
But that’s not to say that Bono is alone out there on the ice. With a team full of younger players this year, it’s taken some time to see who is ready to step up and help share the scoring burden. In addition to solid play from fellow upperclassmen Nico Scali (Bono’s co-captain), Tommy Cash, Nick Napolitano and Colin Reddy, Bono and the Spartans have seen a lot of promise in young players like freshman Jaiden Moriello and eighth grader Davis Kinne.
“Last year we had a pretty big group of guys that we could count on for 20-30 points a year, and a lot of those guys are gone now so we’ve got to find others who can step up,” said Bono. “And we have so far, we’ve had all different guys stepping up and making plays for us and we’re going to need that to keep happening.”
Which brings us to the other side of Bono’s game, the off-the-ice game that is so necessary to being a good captain. According to Lee, Bono has that part of the game down pat as well.
“He’s not necessarily a ‘rah-rah’ kind of guy, he’s a little more soft-spoken, but he does everything you want a captain to do,” said Lee. “He’s in the locker room talking to all the guys and keeping everyone positive, and he along with his co-captain Nico Scali really do a great job running the team and running the locker room.”
Things seem to be going well so far, as the Spartans have notched big wins against some high-quality opponents like Division 1 powers Hingham and Austin Prep over the past week. For a young team, wins like that can spur the Spartans on for the rest of the season.
“I think coming off of a couple really big wins for us, we feel like we can play with anybody,” Bono said. “As long we keep pushing and don’t play down to our opponents, our confidence will keep growing and we’ll keep winning.”
That confidence will once again be put to the test on Saturday night when the Spartans host Arlington Catholic in a rematch of last year’s Division 1 North semifinal.
