WEST ORANGE, NJ – The Seton Hall Prep ice hockey team opened the 2018-19 season with a 6-2 victory over Bergen Catholic at Richard J. Codey Arena in West Orange on Sunday, Nov. 25.
Senior forward Thomas Colucci collected two goals while fellow seniors Anthony Martine and Ryan Kemp each had a goal. Freshman goalie Jake Schunke turned aside 21 shots in his varsity debut.
Martine opened the scoring just 1:36 into the first period when he stole the puck at the Bergen Catholic blue line, sped in, and scored. Less than three minutes later, sophomore Oliver Grinkin scored off a scramble at the left circle, assisted by seniors Christopher Kelly and Kevin Harcourt. Colucci finished off a two-on-one with Phil Feinberg and buried a shot from the right circle with 2:11 left in the period.
Kemp and Colucci added goals in the second period while Bergen Catholic scored a power-play goal to make the score 5-1 after two periods.
Senior James Gabriel tapped in a cross-slot pass from Martine while Bergen Catholic scored a minute later to make the final 6-2.
Seton Hall outshot Bergen Catholic, 42-23.
Following the game, Schunke said, “I didn’t feel any pressure. The upperclassmen have been really welcoming and it’s been easy to come and play here at Seton Hall Prep.”
Colucci added: “We wanted to get on the board early. We have some big games early in the season and we want to build off of this game.”
Fourth-year head coach Mike Atkinson said, “We graduated half the team and it was kind of starting over but we had some seniors and juniors who stepped up and filled in nicely. I think that our new guys stepped up in handling the pace and physicality and the turnover has been a lot less dramatic than we thought.”
Photos by Rich Morris/courtesy of SHP
About the Author
