By Jack Weaver ’15 | Staff Writer

Despite losing in the District Semifinals, the boys’ hockey program built a team based around teamwork, and this teamwork would lead them to an unbelievable season this year.

Through the regular season, South dominated their division and rode a 15-game winning streak into the playoffs. They finished with an overall record of 20-3-1, yet still faced an overwhelming first round challenge in Trenton, Dominic Rinaldi ’15 said.

“We had one of the best regular seasons in South history and went undefeated in our league,” said Rinaldi. “We just got unlucky and drew the number one team in our division in the first round.”

From the drop of the puck, Trenton’s sheer size and skill kept the team occupied and having to play defense for most of the first period. By the end of the first, the team found themselves down 1-0 and unsure of how to break down the Trenton forecheck.

“I thought we got caught like a deer in the headlights,” said Head Coach Robert McKillop. “We were looking around rather than try and take the play to them, and we were basically on our heels right from the get go.”

In the second period, missed scoring opportunities would serve as a common theme for South as they failed to put the puck in the net. As the period came to a close South committed a costly penalty, which in turn, would lead to a late second goal from Trenton to give them a 2-0 lead at the end of two.

“We had a couple chances late in the second period to make it 1-1 and didn’t score,” said Mckillop. “Then they score with thirty or twenty seconds left in the second period and that was a big difference in the hockey game.”

With momentum on Trenton’s side, they continued to capitalize on South’s penalty trouble, netting four goals in the final period. South would never be able to get back on their feet after the late second goal in the second period, and fell to Trenton 6-0 ending their hopes of a state championship.

“Trenton had a great team this year and we would’ve had to play a perfect game to beat them,” said Rinaldi ’15. “We got into penalty trouble and they capitalized on all of our mistakes.”

“There’s a lot of teams in the state that aren’t going to win their last game, and we just happened to be one of them,” said McKillop. “We knew it was going to be tough, but I’m so proud of these kids. We weren’t the most talented team, but we worked hard every single day, and every single one of those kids gave me everything they had.”

Once the final horn had sound and the players cleared off the ice, Senior players faced the harsh reality that that would be their final game playing for South. Although this thought was tough to swallow, Seniors Andrew Bigham ’14 and Andrew Wright ’14 were also able to look back on the great memories and life lessons learned while playing for South.

“It was a great season and I had a lot of fun,” said Bigham ’14. “We all wish that we could of went farther in the playoffs. There were a lot of relationships created that will last a long time and coach taught us a lot of life lessons.”

“It’s very sad,” said Wright ’14. “I wish I could’ve went out another way, but it was a great four years playing for South.”

With the Senior class leaving, numerous positions will have to be filled as well as leadership roles in order for South to continue to be one of the state’s top teams. The team appears to be just fine though, as Jason Sommerville ’15 assures that this years’ players will be more than willing to not only fill these roles, but also excel in them.

“We will be losing a lot of experience and talent next year without our graduating seniors, but that gives next years’ team players room to step up and lead our team to a state championship.” said Sommerville ’15.