Stoughton High Hockey Unable to Keep Pace with NA

Before the season began Stoughton High hockey coach Dan Mark knew he would be in desperate need of offense and after two games he couldn’t have been more right. The traveled to Foxboro Sports Center, Monday afternoon, for a road game against a much-improved North Attleboro team in a Hockomock League contest, and were defeated, 6-1.

Stoughton now falls to 0-2 overall (0-1 in the Hockomock League) Stoughton to Middleboro, 2-0, this past Saturday.

Stoughton has only scored one goal in two games and has a combined 24 shots on net. The Black Knights were outshot by North Attleboro, 43-9, and if not for sophomore goaltender Paul Sheehan (37 saves) it could have been worse.

“We were able to get a lot of players a lot of ice time using three lines and five defensemen and many players are improving,” Mark said. “We need to develop some offense and we’re not going to win games with only nine shots on net.”

North Attleboro is now 2-1 overall after opening the season with three league contests, including a shutout at Oliver Ames and a hard fought, 7-5 defeat against high-powered Mansfield.

As in the season-opener, the Black Knights gave up two goals in the first six minutes of the contest. North Attleboro opened the scoring only 11 seconds into the game on a goal by junior Billy McAuliffe, who had two goals and two assists. His younger brother, Matthew, a sophomore, added the next goal to give the Red Rocketeers a 2-0 advantage.

Stoughton cut the deficit to 2-1, midway through the second period on a goal by senior Dan Swartz with an assist from junior defenseman Nick Bruttaniti.

The all-senior line of Swartz, Dave Campbell and Larry Hixon will be looked upon to generate offense for Stoughton this season.

The one-goal deficit lasted less than two minutes as North Attleboro answered with another Billy McAuliffe goal. The backbreaking tally then came with only 19 seconds left in the second period on a goal by freshman Sean Young. North Attleboro added two more goals in the third period.

“We had years of having a young and inexperienced team and took our beatings, but our players have stuck with it and have worked real hard and now are experienced and more talented and it’s beginning to pay off,” said North Attleboro assistant coach Bill Dietzel, who was filling in for head coach Steve Snizek who was ill.

“We have a lot of depth and we were able to skate four balanced lines and have very strong defense and goaltending and we now know that we can play with the best teams in the league.”

Stoughton had opportunities, but was unable to score on three power plays (0 for 9 in two games). The Black Knights were outshot in each period: 13-1, 18-4 and 12-4.

There were some highlights for Stoughton including defenseman and senior captain Josh Potter who logged an incredible amount of ice time; the up and coming play of all the freshmen including defensemen Ryan McSweeney and Drew DiStefano; and the great penalty-killing which hasn’t allowed a power play goal in ten shorthanded situations (five in each of the first two games).

Stoughton will next play Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in a non-league contest against at home (Asiaf Rink in Brockton). The improved Red Rocketeers will play their fourth consecutive league game, this time at Franklin, also on Wednesday night.

Scoring Summary:

1st period

• 0:11 - NA - Billy McAuliffe from Cameron Gray
• 5:10 - NA - Matthew McAuliffe from Marshall Blackman

2nd period

• 6:26 - S - Dan Swartz from Nick Brttaniti
• 8:05 - NA - Billy McAuliffe from Ryan Geehan and CameronGray
• 14:41- NA - Sean Young from Timothy Joyce and Ryan Burns

3rd Period

• 2:25 - NA - Marshall Blackman from Billy McAuliffe and David Joyce
• 11:39 - NA - Jordan Picini from Billy McAuliffe and Brendan Burns