by Team Reporter Nate Gordon ’16

In New England prep school hockey, a win is a win. The Wildcats’ trip to Saxtons River, VT to defeat Vermont Academy 6-2 on Wednesday, January 21 was certainly a success.  But this was by no means a flawless performance.

In many of Williston’s games this year, the Wildcats have played very well for much of each game with occasional lackluster moments.  Against Vermont, though, the Wildcats played sloppily, particularly in the defensive zone. One of the team’s biggest issues was that it often left the front of the net unguarded while the puck was in the corners. This allowed Vermont players to get open shots off passes from their teammates who had the puck behind the net.  Luckily for the Wildcats, Vermont didn’t handle many of these passes and capitalized on few of its other scoring opportunities.

After the game, Williston Head Coach Derek Cunha told his team, “We came up here, we got the [win]. I’ll say it wasn’t one of our better efforts, but good teams find ways to win some of these games. Even though we were off today, I thought we were the better team.”

Williston did well in that it took advantage of many of its scoring chances. The Wildcats scored two goals in each period while Vermont scored its two goals within the final fourteen minutes.

In the second period, senior forward Jack Gethings scored his eighth and ninth goals of the year to put the Wildcats up 4-0.

With sophomore forward Nick Schofield out for his second game with a knee injury, the team switched up its lines. Gethings played alongside senior Jared Karas and junior Tiger Lindsay. After the game, Gethings said, “Even when we’re not our best, we’re still getting shots. We just got lucky bounces. It’s a good feeling to get away with one.”

Sophomore forward JoJo Carbone scored the team’s fifth goal against Vermont for his third goal of the season. About the team’s play, Carbone said, “We were very creative in the offensive zone, our offesnive game was there.” He added, “A win’s good any time. It helps going forward, getting a little jump on Gunnery [for Saturday’s game].”