This is the second day of The Morris-Sussex Hockey Report’s 27 teams in 27 days, where each day (except for Thanksgiving) there will be a team preview of each area team (boys and girls) leading up to Opening Day on December 7.
MONTVILLE MUSTANGS
Head coach: Anthony Iannone, third year (16-23-3 career record)
Division: Haas (moved up from Charette)
NJSIAA Classification: North, Public
Last year: Montville was one of the great turnaround stories last season, as it went from 2-19-1 the year before to 14-4-2 in the second year of coach Anthony Iannone’s tenure. It went a perfect 8-0 in Charette Division play, earning the regular season division title, before rolling past Morris Catholic-St. Elizabeth and Newton-Lenape Valley to win the Charette Cup. It qualified for the Public B state tournament, where it lost to eventual champion Middletown North in the first round.
Key losses: Montville graduated a very talented trio of seniors in defenseman Matthew Crowell (First Team All-Charette) and forwards Aidan Engle and Joe Laino (First Team All-Charette). That trio combined for roughly a third of Montville’s goal production last year.
Top returners: While the loss of that trio will be difficult as the Mustangs move back up to the Haas Division, Montville still has plenty of solid players returning. It begins with senior forward Matt Trifari, who was the Charette Division MVP last season after posting 49 points (29 goals, 20 assists). Returning forwards also include junior Logan Engle (6 g., 3 a.), junior Nicholas Ponikowski (4 g., 5 a.), senior Michael Maly (5 g., 3 a.), and sophomore Cole Riley (5 g., 7 a.). On defense, sophomore Aidan Stepien is coming off a big freshman year in which he netted 13 goals and dished out 12 assists. Junior Marco Van De Graaf (2 g., 11 a.), and junior Connor Howard each bring experience on the back end.
In goal, Montville will count on senior Alexis Riley to handle the bulk of the starts, after posting an .873 save percentage and earning Charette Division Honorable Mention. Sophomore Dylan Hunter returns as the back-up.
Potential incoming impact players: Iannone expects freshmen Alex Ponikowski, C.J. Corrino, and Aidan Rankin to all contribute this season.
Burning question: Who will step up to join Trifari on the top line?
Losing Engle and Laino from last season will be big losses, as they mostly played on the top line with Trifari, along with defenseman Matt Crowell. They accounted for 35 of the team’s 106 goals last season. That means bigger roles for players like Logan Engle, Cole Riley, Michael Maly, and Nick Ponikowski. While Trifari certainly established himself as one of the better goal-scorers around, he proved he can set up his teammates nicely, too, with 20 assists. Whoever joins him on the top line, expect it to be a productive group.
Outlook: Any time a team jumps divisions, it’s always interesting to see how the team adapts to a level-up in competition.
This is far from the same Montville group two years ago that went 2-19-1 and finished 1-9 in the Haas Division, prompting a move down to the Charette. From the moment the Mustangs moved down, the goal was always to move back up, and it did that in just one year. This group learned how to win last season and hopes to carry that over to the Haas. A great example it can follow is Bernards-Somerville-Middlesex, which finished first in the Charette two seasons ago, and made a near-seamless transition in the Haas last season en route to finishing in first place (and moving up to the Halvorsen this year).
At the end of the day, Montville can count on one of the top scorers around in Trifari, an ever-developing group around him which includes a dynamic sophomore defenseman in Aidan Stepien, and a strong netminder in Alexis Riley. This is a team that is talented enough to not just stay in the Haas Division, but one that can finish in the top four and compete for a Haas Cup title, if everything breaks right.
Check back Saturday for a preview of Kinnelon-Jefferson-Sparta. Be sure to check out yesterday’s preview of Morristown-Beard.
E-mail Mike Gurnis at michaelgurnis@gmail.com
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