Ice hockey team pumped for first SCT
By: John Beisser
The transition from jayvee to the varsity level continues to be a smooth one for the explosive Hillsborough High ice hockey machine, which improved its record to 4-0 with a pair of impressive wins last week.
The Raiders skated past Livingston 5-1 in their home opener at Aspen Ice in Flemington on Friday. Junior forward Alex Merry scored two goals to pace the Raiders to victory. Merry opened up the scoring with a goal at 0:10 of the first period off assists from junior defenseman and captain Eric Psihoules and junior forward Michael Lysyj. Most of the scoring occurred in the second period, with sophomore forward Corey DeFranco scoring at 13:43. This goal was assisted by sophomore forwards Matt Daugherty and Joe Kubrak.
Lysyj registered an unassisted goal at 7:36, while Matt Janos also scored an unassisted goal at 5:43. Mike Bukantz of Livingston cut the deficit to 4-1 at 1:18 of the second period. At 6:45 in the third, Merry notched his second tally off an assist from senior forward Dominick Valenzano to round out the Raider scoring.
Hillsborough was on the offensive all game and had plenty of scoring opportunities but were consistently turned in away by the Livingston goaltender Brandon Waldner, who saved an astounding 42 of 47 shots on goal.
"We have such and explosive lineup and one of the reasons we are so dangerous is because we have an offensive defense," HHS head coach Jeff Kampf said. "Our defensemen are going a great job holding down the other team’s offense, but they are scoring themselves. We have so many kids on the ice who can score."
While Hillsborough’s talent is obvious, another key to the Raiders’ success is a quality that is hard to define but obviously abundant and that is team chemistry. Hillsborough’s players have a natural feel for one another on the ice and Kampf believes this is because many of the Raiders have been teammates or opponents of one another for many years.
"So many of our guys grew up with the game of hockey and a bunch of them were teammates on club teams so they know each other’s strengths and how to play alongside one another," Kampf said. "Some guys played against each other as well, which is kind of neat."
The winning ways continued for Hillsborough on Saturday as the Raiders posted a 6-1 road victory over Watchung Hills in another Blue Division tilt. After Watchung Hills opened the scoring with a quick goal, it appeared the Raiders took the 1-0 deficit personally. DeFranco scored at 6:41 of the first period to knot the score at 1-1. Assists were provided by defenseman Psihoules and junior forward Janos.
At 4:55 of the second periods, DeFranco scored again off another assist from Janos. The new line of DeFranco, Janos and Kubrak was clicking for the Raiders as Janos scored a big goal in the second period at 7:57, assisted by Psihoules. Watchung Hills was tough and moved the puck well throughout a number of power plays but the Warriors couldn’t put one in the net, even with Hillsborough being down two players on occasion.
The key offensive contributor was the Raiders’ alternate captain, Valenzano, who registered a hat trick. His first goal came at 9:55 of the second, his second came at 6:33 of the third and he found the net a third time at the end of the third period.
Hillsborough outshot Watchung Hills 37-23. The Raiders’ consistent defense, along with the continued fine play of sophomore goaltender Eric Visnovsky, took away much of Watchung Hills’ thunder.
Hillsborough was slated to play at Hopewell Valley on Monday and then at A.L. Johnson of Clark on Wednesday. The one game all of the Raiders have circled is Friday’s showdown vs. Pingry in the first round of the Somerset County Tournament at the Bridgewater Ice Arena. Bridgewater and Ridge are the top two seeds, respectively, while Hillsborough is seeded fifth in the seven-team tournament.
"Pingry is a really good team," Kampf said. "This should be our biggest test of the season so far and will tell us a lot about our team. If we can get past them, then we’ll face Bridgewater and that would be a huge, huge test for us."

