As many Williston students packed their bags and headed for home on Friday, December 16, the Williston Boys’ Hockey Team loaded up the busses and headed to the St. Sebastian’s Holiday Tournament to take on host, the St. Sebastians Arrows in Needham, MA.\u00a0 Xander Rogers was named the starter of the game thanks to his performance against Gunnery less than a week before as the Wildcats took the ice against a riotous student section and with families, friends, coaches and scouts looking on.<\/p>\n
Williston opened the scoring 1:11 into the first period when a hard-forecheck by JoJo Carbone led to a takeover in front of the St. Sebastian net; Carbone corralled the puck and took a quick shot beating senior goaltender Alex Zafonte over his glove giving the Williston faithful reason to cheer.\u00a0 The rest of the period would be back and forth with Rogers and Zafonte trading saves.<\/p>\n
The second period began with weak defensive play by the Wildcats leading to the Arrows first and only goal.\u00a0 With St. Sebastian\u2019s hemming Williston into their own zone, freshman forward Liam Connors came out of the corner untouched and backhanded a nifty goal over Rogers shoulder to tie the game 1-1.\u00a0 The period would remain dead-locked as the two clubs would head to overtime.<\/p>\n
The overtime frame began with St. Sebastians coming out the gate with vengeance entering the zone and getting a great shot on net from the right point, through a screen, that Rogers was able to waffle-board away.\u00a0 Play went back and forth for a short time until senior Owen Sylvia broke into the St. Sebs end and let a shot go that was blocked by Zafonte only to have the puck bounce fortuitously onto senior Steven Gower\u2019s stick who let a quick snap shot go over the outstretched glove of Zafonte.\u00a0 It was a gutsy win and the first overtime victory for Williston in more than a year.\u00a0 The player of the game for the Wildcats was Gower.\u00a0 Rogers stopped 24\/25 shots on the day.\u00a0 The win would put Williston into the winner\u2019s bracket of the tournament where they would play Thayer the next day at 3pm.<\/p>\n
A win against Thayer would put the Wildcats into the championship game for the first time in many years but sadly, it was not to be on this day as the Wildcats could only muster one goal and give up five to a strong Thayer club.\u00a0 The first line of Thayer, Jay O\u2019Brien (Providence), Casey Carreau (Boston College), and Aiden McDonough (Undecided) proved to be too much for the Wildcats figuring in three of Thayer\u2019s five goals.\u00a0 The lone goal for Williston came as JoJo Carbone beat junior goalie, Jimmy Scannell cutting the Thayer lead to 2-1 midway through the second half.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Williston, this would be as close as they would get as Thayer would answer right back and then add two late goals.\u00a0 Rogers saved 37\/42 shots for the loss.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the Wildcats played Rivers School at 1pm losing 3-0.\u00a0 Down 1-0 heading into the second half, a five-minute major against Williston proved to be too much for the squad as they allowed two goals in that span.\u00a0 Williston could never get any offense going as they were thwarted time and time again by a strong Rivers team.\u00a0 Donnie Battimelli made 30\/33 for the loss.<\/p>\n
Williston is off until December 30 when the travel back to Boston and take on St. Sebastians in Needham, MA.\u00a0 This writer would like to wish all a Happy Holidays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As many Williston students packed their bags and headed for home on Friday, December 16, the Williston Boys’ Hockey Team loaded up the busses and headed to the St. Sebastian’s Holiday Tournament to take on host, the St. Sebastians Arrows in Needham, MA.\u00a0 Xander Rogers was named the starter of the game thanks to his … Continue reading Williston Beats Number 10 Ranked St. Sebs; Loses to Rivers and Thayer<\/span>