On Tuesday, the Hopewell Valley – Montgomery high school ice hockey team made their first appearance in the preliminary round of the State ice hockey tournament in the Public A group against Kearney. For all members of the team, this was an initial outing among the large schools that make up Public A.
Prior to the merger, Montgomery had played in Public B and Hopewell Valley in Public C. Sean Amon opened up scoring in the first period with an unassisted goal. Trent Demers followed with two goals, the first assisted by Ethan Block and Michael Boyer and the second one assisted by Harsh Grover and Dan Seamon. Dan Seamon was the next to score, assisted by Ethan Block. Michael Boyer then scored two more goals, assisted by Roman Vitolo in the first and Roman Vitolo and Harsh Grover for the second. Kearney only had four shots on goalie Aidan Schaefer, and the final result was a 7-0 shut out.
It didn’t go the same way on Thursday. The HVM team played Jackson Liberty in the quarterfinals. Roman Vitolo, assisted by Michael Boyer, started things off for the Bulldogs in the first. But Jackson Liberty’s Zach D’Andrea (with two goals), Joe Virga and Will Herrington made the score 1-4. Dan Seamon assisted by Lucas Gaissert and Roman Vitolo, brought the score to 24. A goal by Michael Boyer, assisted by Cal Fleming at the 32 second mark brought a tie within reach, but it was not to be. Hopewell Valley-Montgomery lost to Jackson Liberty 3-4 and was eliminated from the state tournament, ending their first season together. -Tracy Vogler
