WAYNE – In one of the most physical games of the season, between two of the State’s top programs, Don Bosco prevailed 2-1 to win their 4th straight Bergen County Tournament, becoming the only champion that the tournament has ever seen. Billed as a battle of Ramsey, before a standing room only crowd, the game did not disappoint. Evenly matched up and down the lineups, Ramsey outshot Bosco 33-32, but could only muster a single goal on DBP Goalie Alexei Masanko.
Bosco entered the game having defeated Mahwah 7-0 and rival Bergen Catholic 3-2, while Ramsey’s road to the final included an 8-0 win over Indian Hills and an overtime victory over Glen Rock, 2-1.
Bosco senior, Joe Verboys, whose 2 goal performance against Bergen Catholic, propelled the Ironmen into their fourth straight finals appearance, was again the hero. Up 1-0 but facing an onslaught from the Ramsey power play, senior, Michael Jordan’s clearing attempt came right off the boards to Verboys, who got behind the Ramsey defenders and buried what turned out to be the game winner.
Don Bosco (6-5-2) enters the Bergen County Tournament as the top seed and three time defending champion, looking to right the ship after a rough start to 2015, as the Ironmen have gone 1-3-1. They’ll go up against #10 Mahwah (8-6-1), who defeated #7 Pascack Valley (9-3-4), 2-1 Wednesday night at the Ice Vault.
Looking to build momentum off the slow start to the new year, Bosco’s physical play and goaltending has kept them in tight games of late. After its 1-0 loss to #1 ranked Delbarton, Head Coach, Greg Toskos spoke to JJ Conrad of the Bergen Record about the Ironmen’s physical play,
“We talked about being physical with them, it was a point of emphasis for us” Toskos said. We knew they are a big, physical team but I thought we matched them well. [Marcus] Gurega, [Ryan] McLinsky, [Joe] Verboys … those guys were throwing awesome, good, clean body checks out there. It was definitely something we stressed coming in.”
Even while the offense has struggled to find its identity against NJ’s top ranked teams, senior forward, Joe Verboys talked about a simpler approach with JC Hageny of NJ.com,
“We have a great goalie. We just need to start getting some shots on net,” Don Bosco senior forward Joe Verboys said. “Alexei is outstanding game-in and game-out. We need to start helping him out. We’re trying to be too cute out there. We need to get pucks to the net.”
The first ever meeting of the two schools in the Bergen County Tournament takes place Friday 8:00 pm at the Ice Vault in Wayne, NJ.
While its not the bright lights and big stage that Yankee Stadium produced for these two teams last year, DBP will travel to CBA to play outdoors at Navesink CC tomorrow. CBA, the defending Co-Champs and state ranked #2 team, will look to avenge last season’s Gordon Conference Tournament defeat, after the two teams skated to a tie in their two regular season matchups.
For Don Bosco Prep, the opportunity at another chance to play the game in its natural surroundings was too good to pass up.
“Anytime we can give our guys a new experience, you have to jump at it,” Toskos, 110-63-17 in his eighth season at his Ramsey school, said. “Coach Bogan gave me a call at the beginning of the year and said we may be able to repeat last year in a different venue. It worked out that Navesink was available.”
You can read the rest of JC Hageny’s article from NJ.com here
Always a pivotal game and a great measuring stick against a tough opponent, Bosco will look to end their recent two game skid suffered at the hands of Morristown-Beard (3-1) and St. Augustine (2-1). The game will start at 5:45pm, dress warm as temperatures will be approaching single digits!
For the fourth year in a row, the Bosco Hockey team will enter the Bergen County Hockey Tournament as the #1 seed. The three time defending champions will look to continue their run as the top team in Bergen county once again, starting on January 16 at 8:00 pm.
The rest of the tournament seedings and game schedule can be found here
Connor Healey rips a shot on net vs Bergen Catholic
WAYNE – The Bosco Hockey team continued their strong start to the season, beating Bergen Catholic, 6-2 in front of a packed house at the Ice Vault Friday night. After taking an early one goal lead, Bosco surrendered the next two. But that would be all for the visitors on this night as Alexei Masanko shut the door stooping 19 of 21 shots. The game turned for the Ironmen in the second period, trailing 2-1 and on a penalty kill, Seniors Eddie Leitgeb and Michael Scott battled for nearly the entire two minute penalty kill blocking shots and keeping the Crusaders from mounting anything significant.
“Blocking shots is just something that’s always been in my game,” Leitgeb said. “It was a penalty kill, and you just have to sacrifice your body sometimes and play through pain. MJ gave me a beautiful look and I ended up going 5-hole with it.
“I just knew we couldn’t lose to Bergen. That just can’t happen.” Read more of JJ Conrad’s & The Record coverage here.
On his next shift, the senior turned the momentum of the game with his first goal of the season and the team responded with four more unanswered goals. The Ironmen got contributions from six different players in all. Team leading goal scorer Chris Mazzella started the scoring in the first period notching his 9th goal of the season and also added an assist. Brendan Hansen scored his first varsity goal, Connor Healey, Seiho Jin and Ryan McLinksey also tallied goals in the win, as Bosco improved to 5-1-1. Next up the Ironmen face off with #3 ranked Morristown Beard, Monday Dec. 22, 6:15 pm at the Ice Vault.
The Ironmen also were proud to unveil their new 3rd jersey, a camouflage design, in honor of TK, fallen Don Bosco alum, Major Thomas Kennedy.
PRINCETON – Chris Mazzella had been held scoreless for five straight periods, following his hat trick a week ago at Gloucester Catholic, but with 14 seconds left on the clock, the Junior forward wasn’t going to let it get to six. Coming out of a timeout and down 2-1, Senior Captain Hunter Garlasco, who had an uneven day in the faceoff dot, won a draw clean, right to Mazzella, who ripped a shot past Princeton Day Goalie Logan Kramsky (43 saves) to tie the game with 12 seconds left.
“Hunter did a great job with that faceoff to win it back and put it right in my wheelhouse,” Mazzella, who scored his team-leading eighth goal, said. “I just tried to get it in on net and lucky enough, it went in.” Rich Greco covered the game for NJ.com.
Watch Chris Mazzella talk about the game tying goal
Sophomore forward Matt Brown kicked off the scoring in the first period with his second goal of the season and Alexei Masanko made 13 saves on 15 shots as the Ironmen earned a hard fought tie. Bosco dominated the latter half of the second period and the entire third, putting 45 shots on net and dominating play in the PDS end before finally breaking through to tie the game. Next up, North Jersey’s best rivalry continues, as the #2 ranked Ironmen take on Bergen Catholic, Friday night 7 pm at the Ice Vault. All those in attendance are encouraged to bring an unwrapped teddy bear to throw on the ice, for the first annual Teddy Bear Toss to be held between the second and third period intermission.
Alexei Masanko discusses how his role has changed from last year to this year
