Stoneham, MA-In a meeting of catholic conference rivals, the Austin Prep Cougars beat Arlington Catholic 3-1 in at Stoneham Arena tonight. The first period was a bit sloppy and pretty even. AC had the two better chances as sophomore giant Adam Haytayan hit a post about half way through the period and then Thomas Milne and Evan Noonan had a 2 on 1 break blue-line in and Milne was stopped by AP goalie Rob Farrell (Wilmington, MA) who came out to challenge. Austin Prep’s first line of Nolan Ricci (Wilmington, MA), Joe Solimine (Middleton, MA) and Max Pineo (North Reading, MA) sniffed at some chances in transition but AC’s bigger defenseman kept them from getting to the net. Arlington Catholic goalie Nicholas Pazzia played well with good energy and great positioning. The teams went to the locker rooms with no score.
The second period featured a series of penalties by Austin Prep. Junior defenseman Will Cohen (Billerica, MA) and Farrell were major factors on the PK along with an aggressive forecheck up ice. Cohen drew a penalty at the end of a 5-3 PK to even things up and give his team some momentum. Things opened up a bit and finally Austin Prep was able to break through. Joe Solimine found a wayward puck, quickly took his ice, used the defense as a screen and fired a quick shot home. The goal was unassisted and gave his team a 1-0 lead with 2:52 left in the second. The period ended that way but only after a flurry by AC, including two excellent saves by Farrell in the last 40 seconds of the period.
The third started quickly for Austin Prep as sophomore Joe Thibodeau (Danvers, MA) barreled into the zone, pushed a bad gap on the AC defense and sniped top corner to give AP the two goal lead. Assists went to sophomore Ben Nichols (Andover, MA) and junior Chris Roy (Tewksbury, MA). Austin got in some unnecessary penalty trouble again an just as one PK was ending Arlington Catholic’s Thomas Milne took a pass from Ben Murphy, separated and scored on the breakaway to make it 2-1 with 10:22 left in the game. The goal seemed to wake AP up as they put together some quality shifts in the Arlington Catholic end. One ended in a goal as the first line cycled, slipped, passed and kept possession for 30 plus seconds before Ricci created and put a pass on Pineo’s blade for a one time goal in the slot. That sealed the deal and Austin Prep was able to finish with the 3-1 win.
First Star: Rob Farrell (Austin Prep)
Second Star: Will Cohen (Austin Prep)
Third Star: Max Pineo (Austin Prep)
NZ NOTES: Milne was Arlington Catholic’s best player. Good speed with decent hands. Pazzia is a smaller goalie but smart and puck mostly hit him square. The goals were not his fault as on two his D had terrible gaps.Sophomore forward Hayayan is interesting. He is huge (easily 6’4″ and 230lbs) but balanced and took smart angles. He will score some this year, skating must improve but he was a factor. Sophomore Dominic Metro played a solid game. All situations type with decent feet and a good stick. Has to get stronger and tougher to play against. He has some tools. Austin Prep must stay away (like every team) from bad penalties. They had a few tonight. Cohen seemed to play better as the game went on and he has a decent frame with the ability to play in all situations. Farrell is very aggressive and has nice feet in the crease. Eighth grader Jack Farrell played on the second pairing on defense. Played some PP some PK and looked fine. He has good speed, went back well for pucks and squeezed off the rush. Youngster to watch. He never looked out of place. The first group for Austin Prep are fast, clever, skilled and slick. They are also small. Their transition game will be good all year but to have an elite season, that group must learn to play together and slip and slide and cycle and make other teams play in their end. They did that in the third period and AP was a much better team, even when they didn’t score. Good game by two good teams and we thought the officials were good as well.