Horace Greeley/John Jay skates to victory over Byram Hills

Clockwise from top left, Emmet Geller of Horace Greeley/John Jay makes a glove save in victory over Byram Hills. Freddie Gross celebrates after scoring a goal.  Jack Hartney makes a pass in win over Byram Hills. Brendan Asta leads a rush up the ice for Horace Greeley/John Jay. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

By JIM MACLEAN  

A hockey team walking off the ice with a 7-4 victory should feel pretty good about the results, but sometimes the final score doesn’t tell the whole story.

Horace Greeley/John Jay dominated the action, when it was at full strength, against Byram Hills and pulled away for the 7-4 victory Jan. 8, at the Brewster Ice Arena.

The team is off to a hot start as Horace Greeley/John Jay improved to 6-1 overall with the win over Byram. It was an impressive performance on the ice, trailing 3-2 in the second period when the team rallied with four goals in the final five minutes of the period and closed out the victory. A good win, but coach Alex Lichorat felt one problem stood out, and that was seeing too many of his players sitting in the penalty box.

“Stupid penalties, at the end of the game that was just bad hockey, bad penalties, we’ve got to stay out of the box,” Lichorat said. “That’s the moral of the game and our season so far, if we stay out of the box we’re a really good 5-on-5 team. We stay out of the box, we go on good streaks and I think we can play with anyone. When you keep having to kill penalties, then we’re not going to be able to play against the good teams.”

Horace Greeley/John Jay got off to a good start against Byram as senior captain Brendan Asta opened the scoring early in the first period with a goal off an assist from Brody Stogsdill. The pair reversed roles later in the period to make it 2-0 as Stogsdill scored off an assist from Asta.

And then the penalties started coming one after the other for Horace Greeley/John Jay. Byram took advantage, scoring late to end the first period trailing 2-1.

Byram then scored a power play goal and took the lead with two early goals in the second period, but then Horace Greeley/John Jay turned it around. Ryan Marcus scored off an assist from Stogsdill, and then Stogsdill scored off an assist from Thomas Pollard. Marcus scored his second goal unassisted with 1:50 left in the period.

Stogsdill then finished off the rally with a short-handed goal. It was his third goal of the game for the hat trick off an assist from Jack Hartney with just three seconds left in the period to make it 6-3.

Once again the senior trio on the first line of Asta, Marcus and Stogsdill lead the way as it combined for six goals, but Lichorat also wants them to stay out of the box and help set the example for the rest of the team to avoid unnecessary penalties.

“Our leaders, our captains, they have to stay out of the box too, they know better,” Lichorat said of his first line of Asta, Marcus and Stogsdill. “They did score and all three of them played well. When they play 5-on-5 hockey they are hard to stop.”

In the third period, Byram scored a goal to cut the lead down to 6-4, but any thoughts of a comeback were put to rest when Freddie Gross scored off an assist from Hartney to make it 7-4. Gross, Hartney and Frankie Epstein teamed up together on the second line for Horace Greeley/John Jay and played well 

“The second line, we kind of threw that line together and they played well today,” said Lichorat. “We’ve had some guys missing and haven’t been at full strength with guys out injured, so we’re still trying to figure out that second line and they did well.”

Horace Greeley/John Jay goalie Emmet Geller closed out the victory with another strong game between the pipes.

“[The]team is doing very well, a win is a win, but now we shot ourselves in the foot for Sunday and we have to go short-handed against a really good team,” admitted Lichorat. “Two suspensions, any conflict at the end of the game you have to back off and they didn’t, and now we have two guys missing. Defensively, we’re getting better as we go. We have two goalies rotating and they’re both playing well. We’ve got some momentum and have to keep it going.”