LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield boys hockey team’s quest for its first state championship in 23 years begins Saturday at McVann-O’Keefe Memorial Rink, when the Pioneers kick off the 2019-2020 season with a home game against Cape Ann League rival Triton at noon.
Last year’s team posted a record of 11-5-4 only to fall in the first round of the Division 2 North tournament to a tough Tewksbury team in overtime, 2-1.
This year, coach Jon Gardner feels he has a good combination of experienced returners and promising newcomers.
“It’s a dead split between returning veterans and kids coming up from a very good JV team,” said Gardner. “Eight of them have been promoted up to varsity and we also have a couple of freshmen, so we are off and running. It’s still early and we have a really tough schedule starting out, but we could be there in the end if everything works out.”
This year’s team returns nine seniors, but the team will have to find a way to fill the voids left by a talented 2019 class that included leading scorer George DeRoche (20 goals, 20 assists) and the Pioneers’ top defenseman, Jaret Simpson (8 goals, 15 assists), both of whom earned Cape Ann League All-League honors.
The loss of both DeRoche and Simpson leaves Gardner searching for players to step up on the power play.
“George, obviously a 100+ guy and Jaret, were so important on the power play so that definitely hurts,” Gardner said. “That is probably our biggest question mark.”
Also gone are CAL all-stars Will Garofoli (10 goals, 10 assists), a forward, and starting goalie Aidan Kelly (2.28 goals against average).
The good news for Lynnfield is that nine seniors are returning with significant varsity experience. Forward John Simonetti, forward Ronnie Fucillo and defenseman Danny Mack will serve as co-captains with fellow senior forward Sam Pifko serving as assistant captain.
Simonetti is the only returning CAL all-star. He scored eight goals and was second on the team in assists with 17.
Other senior returners include forwards Robert Tashjian, a St. John’s transfer last year, Sean Robbins and Jackson Hammersley, defensemen Jack LaCoste and goaltender Anthony Magwood.
Also back for a second year on varsity are junior forward Alexander Buonopane, junior defenseman Cole Trainor and goaltender Jack DeBenedictis.
DeBenedictis has won the starting goaltender nod.
“Jake put in a lot of work over the summer and has been working at it two to three days a week,” said goalie coach Jay Gardner. “He has some pretty big shoes to fill, but so far he has looked very good and has been equal to the task.”
The newcomer group is led by seniors Colin Dennison and Christian Maney along with junior Brendan Henehan. A large group of sophomores made the leap up from the JV squad including goalie Phineas Mitchener, Tyler Scoppettuolo, Pat Barrett, Owen Kennedy, Phil Berquist, Janssen Sperling, Chase Carney and Will Steadman. Freshmen Drew Damiani, who is coming off a broken leg suffered during the fall season, and Nathan Alves also made the squad.
As far as the league goes, Gardner says the cream of the crop will be the usual suspects – Masconomet, Triton and Newburyport.
“Masco is always tough and Triton is always strong, plus they have the Ryan Sheehan factor (Sheehan is a former LHS hockey standout and assistant coach of the Pioneers baseball team),” said Jon Gardner. “We hit them right out of the gate and then have a tough turnaround with Masco in the next game, so we will see.”
Once again, the Pioneers face a challenging non-league schedule with games against Medfield (away), 2019 North Division 2 finalist Westwood (home), Saugus and a home-and-away series against Gloucester.
The Pioneers have not won a tournament game since 2017, have not a CAL title since 2005 and have not won a state championship since 1996, all of which are high on Gardner’s list of priorities.
“We want to be there in February competing for the league title, we obviously want to qualify for the tournament and we need to win a tournament game to advance,” Gardner said. “Last year we had a really strong second half of the season and were undefeated in seven straight before we laid an egg against Gloucester, so we felt that we could beat any team in the North. Unfortunately, we didn’t.”
