Matt Johnson exulted in Middletown High School South’s hockey team winning its second straight Shore Conference A South Handchen Cup title, beating Brick Memorial High School for the second straight year, 4-2. But he believed his season would not have been complete until the team made the state tournament, after falling short of qualifying last year.
Middletown South players hold the Handchen Cup Trophy up after winning it for a second straight year defeating Brick Memorial, 4-2, in the final on Feb. 27 at Winding River Park in Toms River. LINDA LITTENBERG The junior forward, who has led the Eagles in scoring the past two seasons, saw that come to fruition as the Eagles beat Jackson Memorial High School in the opening round, 8-1, and then fell in the NJSIAA Public Schools quarterfinals in overtime to Howell High School, 4- 3, at Gold Coast Arena in Wall on March 3.
“I’d rather lose the Handchen Cup final and win in the states,” said Johnson.
Coach Stan Gutt said that “next year, the goals will be set even higher,” with only five players graduating from this year’s 16-6-2 team.
“They really came together at the end,” said Gutt, whose team loses to graduation forwards Justin Horowitz, who scored 12 goals and had 10 assists, Jim Valan and Paul Vilanova, and defensmen Terrance Doyle and Nick Camoniti.
Johnson thinks the Eagles can be even better in 2010-11.
“I think we’ll be much better, but we have a bunch of good players coming back, including some new ones who really helped the team this year,” said Johnson, referring to two transfers from Christian Brothers Academy, including his sophomore brother, Brett, who scored 15 goals and had six assists. “It was fun playing on the line with my brother, who scored a lot of goals lately. He’s always fast and is always getting behind the defense for a breakaway pass.”
Brett Johnson had an immediate impact on South.
“Since becoming eligible in January, Brett really made a difference for our team,” said Gutt.
But Matt Johnson, who led the way with 19 goals and 13 assists as an All-Shore A Division first team selection, said he and his mates were eager to advance to the semifinals against Randolph before their season was cut short.
“We were looking forward to that,” said Johnson. “My buddy on Howell, Dave Ramos, always finds a way to score, and when they threw it on the net, he was in good position for the rebound [with 28 seconds left] that forced the overtime.”
Both played club hockey together at one time.
Then in the overtime, Howell scored one of the few breakaway goals this season against Middletown South goalie Chris Morsillo, a third-year starter who made the All-Shore A Division second team, with a shot to his lower stick side at 1:57.
“They made a good passing play,” Gutt said of the winning goal. “We were on a rush and they went on a counterattack off a blind pass [by Middletown].”
Matt Johnson said it was a misdirected pass that led to the turnover and overtime goal.
“We could have thrown it deep in the zone, but we threw it in the middle and they picked it, and I could not track their guy down,” said Johnson.
Ironically, the teams played in January with Middletown South winning by a 4-3 count. Down 3-1 with around five minutes left in the game, the Eagles scored three times to pull out the victory.
Along with the Johnsons, some good firepower returns in Chris Connor, who logged 12 goals and eight assists; Jason Zimel, who had a dozen goals and five assists; Tyler Ralph, who had six goals and 10 assists, and Jimmy Burns, who assisted on 13 goals. All are sophomores except for Zimel, who is a junior. Other returning sophomores are Zach England, Matt Littenberg and Steve Sangermano.