Published in the December 14, 2016 edition
CAPTAIN Cooper Marengi (left) and assistant captain Joey Mack will be leading the hockey team on the ice this season. Marengi and Mack are both juniors. (Dan Tomasello Photo)
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The hockey team is back on the ice and has set its sights on making the Division 2 state tournament for the second straight year.
The Pioneers concluded the 2015-2016 season with a 9-8-4 overall record. The locals qualified for the Division 2 North state tournament for the first time in four years last year, but the 12th seeded Pioneers suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to fifth seed Boston Latin in the first round.
Lynnfield lost 10 seniors from last year’s squad in addition to defenseman Jagger Benson, who transferred to Malden Catholic. Despite losing a number of key players, Pioneers head coach Jon Gardner has high hopes for the season.
“We are expecting big things this year,” said Gardner. “We had to fill out our roster with kids from the JV team and a lot of freshmen. We are pretty optimistic about our young guys.”
Junior Cooper Marengi will serve as the Pioneers’ captain this year.
“Cooper is the first junior we have had who has been named a captain,” said Gardner. “He is a great leader. He received a unanimous vote from the team to be named a captain, which says a lot about his leadership. He is a rugged winger who is physical and has great skills. He is tough to handle.”
Junior Joey Mack has been named an assistant captain. Mack will be playing a key role on defense this season.
“Joey is a dynamic skating defenseman,” said Gardner. “He is physical and he will be logging a lot of ice time.”
Senior David Langone will be starting in net for the Pioneers once again.
“Dave played very well against Boston Latin in our last game last year,” said Gardner. “He stepped up big for us. Our system is from the goalie out and it starts with him.”
Junior Tyler Murphy will be playing a key role on the wing for the Pioneers this winter.
“(Murphy) has had a great first two weeks,” said Gardner. “He had a great preseason and first game.”
The Pioneers are looking for sophomore George DeRoche to build on a successful freshman year.
“Scoring goals is our Achilles’ heel and George had 20 points as a freshman,” said Gardner. “He does a great job distributing the puck and he will be key to our power play.”
Gardner said the Pioneers’ depth will be the locals’ biggest strength this season but said the team needs to work on putting the puck in the net.
“We are deep at every position,” said Gardner. “We have a good mix of young and veteran players. We just need to get some more offense generated.”
Gardner is optimistic the Pioneers will qualify for the Division 2 North state tournament once again this year.
“We have improved our win total every year since we have been here,” said Gardner. “We are not going to let losing 10 seniors and Jagger stop us from making the tournament.”
Defeats Cambridge
The Pioneers opened the 2016-2017 season defeating Cambridge, Rindge and Latin 1-0 Dec. 10.
Marengi scored the Pioneers’ only goal of the contest with 10 minutes remaining in the third period. Freshman Wil Rinaldi and sophomore Mike Caruso had the assists.
“Cooper was extremely physical,” said Gardner. “He was a one man wrecking crew for the entire game.”
Langone tallied 25 saves in net for the Pioneers.
“Dave made some big and timely saves, including a couple of breakaways,” said Gardner.
Gardner said Murphy played very well against Cambridge.
“Tyler played well in all three zones,” said Gardner. “He was all over the ice.”
Gardner said he was pleased with Mack’s performance as well.
“Joey played a strong game,” said Gardner. “He was all over the ice.”
Gardner said he was pleased the Pioneers started the season with a win after a slow start in the game.
“We had a real good preseason but I think our nerves got to us early,” said Gardner. “We were squeezing the stick too tight and we had three penalties in the first period. We couldn’t get our offense going because we were killing penalties for a third of the period.”
