CANTON – Xaverian hockey delivered a statement in its home opener, scoring seven different times in the first period to defeat Duxbury 9-0 on Wednesday evening at Canton Ice House.
“It was a good [game], fast start. We put pucks to the net, said Xaverian coach David Spinale. “We were fortunate that the puck was bouncing our way, and it doesn’t always go that way, and worked hard to create those bounces. So we’re happy about that.”
Senior forward captain Joe Von Handorf scored four goals in this game after returning from an injury that kept him out for the past five to six months.
“Obviously I’ve got to give props to my teammates. They helped with the puck and coming off an injury,” Von Handorf said. “I’ve been out for five, six months with a knee injury so it’s good to be back.”
In the early minutes of the game the Hawks struck first when senior defender Burke McEwen was on the right side below the blue line when he delivered a rocket into the left side of the net to give Xaverian a 1-0 lead.
The goal was assisted by junior forwards Ben Pernicano and Jake Mulkern. Time of the goal was 14:29 in the first period.
Pressure on Duxbury goalie Markwell William from Xaverian kept the team’s offense rolling, eventually doubling the lead with 11:54 to go in the first period after a goal from Max Larosa. It was assisted by senior forward Daniel Gentile.
Fifth-nine seconds later, Xaverian got another. Von Handorf scored and was assisted by junior defender Justin Mosher and forward Lochlan Horsman at the 10:55 mark of the period.
After the Hawks scored the third goal of the game Graveve Patrick came in on net to replace Williams and it forced Duxbury to call a timeout.
With a three-goal cushion, Xaverian continued to add pressure attacking the zone. Senior forward Braden Pinkham was on the left side of the net when he scored top shelf to extend the lead to 4-0.
Senior forward Ryan Guevremont made it a 5-0 game when he was in between the left and right circle when he shot the puck and scored, which was assisted by senior forward Jack Scullin and senior forwards Braden Pinkham. Time of the game was 5:33 in the period.
A minute and 15 seconds later they scored their sixth goal of the period when sophomore forward Charlie Comerford scored, which was unassisted. Late into the period, with just 23.5 seconds in regulation, Von Handorf netted his second goal of the game when he shot a rocket that beat Graeve into the net, which was assisted by senior defense Buckett Soule and sophomore forward Charlie Comerford.
“Yeah, I think it’s our depth,” said Spinale on his team’s strong first period. “We were able to roll all four lines and just to be fresh and ready to go and I think it was just contagious. Our guys really enjoyed the moment, and they were feeding from each other and the fact that we could get everybody out there rolling speaks to our depth.”
With a 7-0 cushion heading into the second period of the game, all of the momentum was in Xaverian’s favor. Von Handorf got his hat trick when he scored his third goal of the game to make it 8-0, assisted by senior forward Jack Scullin and sophomore defense Colin Dunlap at the 9:45 mark.
Throughout the period Xaverian was attacking the zone putting pressure in Duxbury zone but they couldn’t cash in as they had an 8-0 lead heading into the final period of regulation.
Von Handorf made it a 9-0 game at the 9:45 mark of the period to ice the game.
A fight broke through between Xaverian’s Michael McCormack and Duxbury’s Sebastian Cho which forced McCormack to be ejected from the game and Hawks captain Von Handorf served the five minutes power play major.
“It looks like there was a little bit of a mix up, and it’s just unfortunate, because we don’t want,” Spinale said. “We don’t want to lose discipline, and we did.”
The Hawks will remain at Canton Ice House when they will take on Arlington Catholic this upcoming Saturday at 3:15 p.m.
