VERONA/GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The Verona/Glen Ridge high school ice hockey team returns a strong group from last year’s 21-5-3 squad, which captured the Kelly Cup playoff championship and advanced to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Public C state tournament semifinals.
“We have a lot of strong returnees,” said head coach Ken Lilien. “This year’s senior captains are Rowan Brennan, who was the second-leading scorer in the state last year, and Will Benson, who are both from Glen Ridge. We have aspirations of winning titles and going to the state championship. That is our goal. We got a lot of seniors, so we got some great senior leadership this year, coming off the experience of winning a championship and going to the state semifinals.”
Brennan scored 54 goals and added 33 assists for 87 points last season.
Benson and Glen Ridge returning senior Ryan Weissman will lead the defensive corps. The team has a pair of experienced goalies in Glen Ridge seniors Eli Gottlieb and Jeremy Grisafi.
Other Glen Ridge players on the roster are seniors Cara Brett, Mateo Burke, Derek Hart, James Kostas, Ava Otterbein and Evan Twitchell; juniors Abigail McCarthy, Jaden Segal and Pytor Sysak; sophomores Jack Budinick and Griffin Kim; and freshmen James Benson, Max Cohen, Gavin Farrell, Brandon Grisafi, and Cooper Hughes.
The Verona players are seniors Noah Boone, Andrew Eremita and Dylan Toriello; sophomores Michael Compierchio and Yianni Yanniotis; and freshmen Sebastian Ferran and Thomas Gawley.
Verona/Glen Ridge, which was in the Kelly Division last season, relishes the challenge of moving up to the McInnis Division this season.
“We moved up to the McInnis Division, which is the toughest public schools division in the state,” Lilien said. “Every team in the McInnis is a top high school hockey team, so every night is going to be tough, but we are definitely in that elite class of top schools in the state. We’ll be ready to compete every night.”
The team especially is motivated after falling to Morris Knolls, 3-2, in overtime in the state semifinals last year.
“Losing in the state semifinals in overtime last year is something that is something of a monster chip on our shoulders; we want to win the state championship this year,” Lilien said. “We plan on being a very exciting, fast team, very, very aggressive, and hopefully put a lot of pucks in the net.”
Verona/Glen Ridge will begin the season on Friday, Dec. 9, against Livingston at Richard J. Codey Arena in West Orange at 8:30 p.m. The team will host Summit on Monday, Dec. 12, at Codey Arena at 6 p.m. and visit Montclair on Wednesday, Dec. 14, at Clary Anderson Arena at 7:40 p.m.
Photo Courtesy of Mike Discafani
Verona/Glen Ridge hockey team boasts solid experience, seeks another banner season added by Joe Ragozzino on
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