Stoughton High Hockey Team Looks to Overcome Obstacles This Season

It has been a tough seven years for the hockey team. There have been no postseason berths or winning records since 2004 (including a near miss in 2009).

The Black Knights are coming off a , but for this upcoming year, long-time coach Dan Mark will return some experienced players, but will be forced to fill some valuable holes left by seven graduated seniors and the loss of would be junior .

Falkof had 19 goals and 37 points, a year ago, as a sophomore, and is one of the top high school players in the area, but has opted to play Junior hockey with the Empire South Shore Kings (based out of Foxboro), leaving Stoughton a huge scoring void to fill.

But, Stoughton will still return a strong group that will include seven seniors and a supporting cast of underclassmen that got much needed experience last season.

Returning players include senior captains forward Larry Hixon (seven goals and 14 points) and defensive standout Josh Potter. Senior forwards Dan Swartz, Dave Campbell (five goals and ten points), Josh Rubenstein, Connor Heffernan and Cam Colson also return.

The top line looks to be Campbell centering Hixon and Swartz and the second line should be Rubenstein between Heffernan and Colson, but also look for the emergence of junior Jacob Rohrer and sophomore Brandon Lima, who both played on the varsity, a year ago.

The defense will be anchored by Potter, but will need to replace last year’s captain , who was on the ice most of the time. Corey Greenblatt and Nick Bruttaniti both juniors will return after getting plenty of playing time last season.

Coach Mark is also looking for help from a trio of promising freshman, including John Catrone, Drew DiStefano and Ryan McSweeney.

In goal, Tim Hanson has graduated, but P.J. Sheehan moves up to handle the net minding chores. A year ago, as a freshman, Sheehan stepped in, playing five games, and had some great moments and now should be more than ready to take over full-time net minding.

Team depth looks to be provided by a quartet of forwards that include senior Jamie Connors, juniors Imani Pina and Cody Buckman and freshman Zack Swartz. The backup goaltenders will be junior Shawn McDonald and freshman Ethan Rawl.

“Our record didn’t show it, but [last season] we were in a lot of games that we lost that we were in a position to win and let the game get away from us,” Mark said.

“We played a lot of the top teams very close and this year we know that we can compete with any team, but we have to play mistake-free and with a lot of determination and intensity from the very start to the very end of each game.”

A tough schedule, the loss of the top scorer and inexperience on defense and in goal are just a few obstacles that confront the Stoughton High School hockey team for the upcoming 2011-2012 season.

“We have a good mix of experience and new players,” Mark said. “We have to be really on top of our game in the defensive zone, especially until we can find where we will get our scoring to make up for the loss of Falkof.”

Last season, Stoughton played 13 of its 20 games against teams that went on to play in the postseason.

This year, the Black Knights will have two games each with the other three teams in the Hockomock League Davenport (small schools) Division. Those teams include perennial power Canton (2010 State Champion), a very strong Oliver Ames team and a much-improved Foxboro squad.

Stoughton will then play the other five teams in the Kelley-Rex (large schools) Division once each, including powerhouse teams from Franklin (2011 State Finalist) and Mansfield along with improved teams from King Philip, Attleboro and North Attleboro.

The non-league part of the schedule will include two tough tournaments with two games each. The first is the Christmas Week Tournament in Dedham and then there will be the regular season-ending tournament in Bourne (Bourne, Dartmouth and Westfield).

Home and home against Middleboro, including the season-opener at 3 p.m., at home, on Saturday, Dec. 17, a home contest against Bishop Feehan, a non-league contest in a second matchup against North Attleboro and a Crossover Game against a Kelley-Rex opponent that ends the regular season in the same position as Stoughton, will also be on the schedule.

“The schedule and the (Hockomock) league are very strong and we’ll need to play very well and not do anything that will beat ourselves,” Mark said.

“We have to play great hockey in our defensive zone, stay away from turnovers and penalties and back check and fore check the entire contest.”

The Black Knights will hope to continue to improve with every game. Then make a return trip to the post-season and playing hockey in March for the first time since 2004.

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