Gallery • 4 Photos

Vera Targoff

Senior Freddie Gould takes a faceoff.

The CRLS boys varsity hockey team worked hard this season to qualify for playoffs, where they begin a quest for a state championship. Senior forward Myles Paton is close to 100 points this season, and he looks to lead the team to success as they get ready for the playoffs.

Senior goaltender Corey Burgman credited the overall chemistry of the team and coaching staff for the success they have experienced this winter.  “This year, we have a very deep team with a lot of talented players all throughout the roster,” Burgman reflected. “Our coach, Mark Marfione, is a players’ coach and we all love playing for him,”  he continued. Marfione is new to CRLS this year.

Sophomore defenseman Anthony Caterina agreed that Coach Marfione is doing a good job with the team this year. “He’s been good with us; he’s mostly letting us figure it out,” Caterina remarked of Marfione, continuing, “We’re a good group of kids, and he’s putting out who needs to be out there, and we’re figuring it out.”

Another change in boys varsity hockey from previous years is the amount of support the team is getting from the student body at games. According to Burgman, fan attendance is “through the roof” this season, with “easily twice the amount of fans” in the stands this season as opposed to previous ones.

Caterina also said that the amount of support the team is getting at the games has a big impact on the team’s energy and how they play.

“There’s been a lot [of fans], we’ve gotten a good crowd this year at most of the games,” Caterina said on the relationship between the student body support and the team’s success. “I think that has a lot to do with it.”

One activity the team did completely differently from last year? Coordinated haircuts. The members of the team buzzed three stripes into the sides of their heads as a way to stand out and come together as a team, according to Burgman.

“All of it is from the stripes,” Burgman said, smiling. “It’s gotta be the stripes.”

The MIAA playoff seeds for Division 3 Boys Hockey were released Saturday, February 24, 2018.

“Going into the playoffs, we all feel confident,” Caterina said. “We just beat Lowell—who’s a top competitor for states—7-0, so we’re all feeling confident. We all have the same goal, to win states, and we don’t think about anything else.”

Vera Targoff also contributed to this piece. This piece also appears in our February print edition.