One of the perks about being the reigning state champion is that when you find yourself down by a goal early on, you know there’s no reason to panic.
On Feb. 21, Mamaroneck fell into an early hole against Clarkstown in the Division I quarterfinals, but dug itself out to score a convincing 4-1 win over the Mall Rats and move one step closer to repeating as section champs.
Clarkstown drew first blood just 3:30 into the game when Kyle Ryder scored on a wrap-around goal to punctuate a first period that was marked by the Mall Rats’ aggressiveness. But heading into the first intermission trailing 1-0, Mamaroneck center Michael Carducci said his Tigers weren’t worried.
“We’d expected them to come out hard; we’ve seen them twice, and both times we did, they outplayed us in the first,” Carducci said. “But in the locker room, we just stayed calm and talked about getting back to basics.”
And that’s exactly what the Tigers did, evening the score just two minutes into the second period on a Harrison Schreiber rebound, and taking the lead 11 minutes later when a wrister by Carducci found the back of the net.
As the Tigers began to cut down on the miscues, their time of possession improved and they were able to score two more goals in the third—one by Harrison Fried, the last coming on an empty netter by James Torre—to send the Mall Rats packing.
“It just took us a few shifts, at least for my line, to start feeling it,” Carducci said. “But every turnover was kind of a punch to the gut, especially early on.”
Tiger goalie Tommy Spero, who was flawless outside of the first two minutes of the game, said the Tigers’ slow start could be attributed to the first-round bye they received by virtue of earning the top seed.
On Feb. 19, Clarkstown earned a first-round win over Rye Town/Harrison to advance to the quarterfinals.
“I think we were at a little bit of a disadvantage because they already had a game and they had gotten into the flow of the playoffs,” the netminder said. “But I like the way we finished the hockey game.”
As the Tigers now look ahead to a semifinal round matchup with North Rockland on Feb. 24, Spero believes that the early scare against the Mall Rats will serve to get the team’s younger players ready for more playoff hockey.
“It’s huge, it gives the kids a huge boost of confidence and they’ll realize that playoffs are just like the regular season,” Spero said. “They just have to come to play hard.”
