Greeley Hockey Team Had Its Ups and Downs This Year
By Cutler Klein – The second part of our local hockey season recap looks at the Horace Greeley Quakers, who finished the 2014-15 campaign with nine wins in 20 games and ended up as the 10th seed in the postseason.
Greeley’s season finished in a rather disappointing fashion, with a triple-overtime loss to the Mount Pleasant IceCats. According to head coach Zach Dargaty, that playoff defeat ranked among the most disappointing in program history.
“That’s probably one of the toughest losses we’ve had as an organization,” he said. “I really thought we had gotten back in that game, and we had taken over the momentum. The game-winner was a great play, not a fluke, but it was definitely one of the toughest defeats we’ve had.”
The Quakers’ season was marred with inconsistencies. Great victories would be followed up by soul-crushing defeats. From one period to the next, Dargaty was never quite sure which Greeley team would show up — the one that crushed Lakeland/Panas 17-3, or the one that lost 5-3 to the 12th-ranked Somers/North Salem Sabers.
“Some of that was just a function of some of our players being in and out of the lineup,” Dargaty said about the inconsistencies of his team. “We never could really find our rhythm. We had some injuries at the beginning, and we had some players missing games due to other commitments. That’s what did us in at the end. Our highs were very high, but we couldn’t be consistent enough.”
Perhaps the highlight victory of the Quakers’ season was their December 21 victory over rival Fox Lane. Trailing 3-1 midway through the second period, the Quakers roared back, with captain Calder Fontaine eventually scoring the tying and winning goals in the third period. In the waning moments of the game, the Foxes picked up their physical play, leading to skirmishes and game misconducts, mostly to Fox Lane.
Despite the stirring comeback victory in front of a raucous Greeley crowd, Dargaty said that he did not enjoy the third-period fireworks so much.
“That was kind of crazy,” he said. “I was glad that we showed a little toughness but, as a coach, I’m always looking for more good hockey up and down the ice, not the after-the-whistle stuff.”
Dargaty said that his team didn’t really have much expectation going into the season, but as it turned out did not live up to its potential.
“I knew we were going to struggle a bit, because we lost a lot of leadership and defense from last year,” he said. “I didn’t know how good we could be and, ultimately, we were probably a little short of our goal.”
Going into the 2015-16 season, the Quakers will be losing many of their top scorers and leaders. All three captains, Sam Mishkind, Scott Jakubowicz and Calder Fontaine will be graduating in June. However, they should be returning some good talent, including Ed Girardi and Sam Whitehouse on defense, and Ryan Katchis and Ryan Rusiecki at forward.
“Not that the other seniors weren’t integral to our success, but Mishkind and Jakubowicz were our top two scorers, and Fontaine was a jack-of-all-trades,” Dargaty said of his captains. “It’s going to be tough losing those three guys. We’ll just have to see. There have been other years when we’ve lost some really high-level players and followed it up with some unexpectedly good seasons.”
For next season, much like Byram Hills coach A.J. Cloherty, Dargaty will be looking for a bigger buy-in from his players.
“I would like our players to be a little more committed to the program, but I think a lot of other coaches are like that,” he said. “It’s tough, because we don’t have our own rink and we don’t practice every day. Life gets in the way, especially in high school. If we could be a little more focused and be together as a group a little more, I think we’ll be able to find more consistency.”
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