This is the 16th entry of The Morris-Sussex Hockey Report’s 27 teams in 27 days, where each day there will be a team preview of each area team (boys and girls) leading up to Opening Day on December 7.
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MOUNT OLIVE-HOPATCONG-HACKETTSTOWN (MO-HO-HA)
Head coach: Ryan Tatarka, third season (27-16-4 career record)
Division: Halvorsen
NJSIAA Classification: North, Co-Op
Last year: Mo-Ho-Ha finished 10-11-1, with a 5-3 record in the Halvorsen division. It won the Halvorsen Cup, as it took down Kinnelon-Jefferson-Sparta, 5-1 in the final. It fell, 2-0 to Toms River South-East in the preliminary round of the Public C state tournament.
Key losses: Mo-Ho-Ha graduated an extremely strong and deep 13-player senior class, which was highlighted by First Team All-Halvorsen picks in forward Frank Diloreto (8 g., 19 a.) and defenseman Ryan Twist (3 g., 5 a.). Forward Christian Hertzig (13 g., 9 a.) and goalie Nick Gargiulo (.911 sv%) were Second Team All-Halvorsen selections. Forwards Liam Murphy (9 g., 12 a.), J.L. O’Toole (10 g., 8 a.), A.J. Twist (10 g., 17 a.) all were key cogs up front. Defensively, it will have to replace Tyler Dean (5 g., 7 a.) and Braden Ensinger.
Top returners: With heavy graduation losses, Mo-Ho-Ha will have to rely on junior Liam Parr (6 g., 7 a.) to lead the forwards, which also include junior Daniel McGarry (4 g., 1 a.), senior Sebastian Slawinski (2 g., 2 a.), and sophomore Anthony Walsh (1 a.).
Defensively, it will count on junior Tyler Muscolino (3 g., 3 a.), sophomore Ryan Puco (4 a.), and junior Jack Luciani (2 a.) who all return from the blue line last year. Junior Talon Muscolino, who put up a very strong .918 save percentage in limited action last year, will be counted on to handle the bulk of the work in net this year.
Potential impact newcomers: Sophomores Keegan Ciborski and Alex Polichko both figure to see time this year. Freshmen Dominic Landolfi, Kyle Ensinger, and Ryan Juckett should all have roles as well.
Burning question: How will this team replace such a strong senior class?
This Mo-Ho-Ha team graduated 63 of the 78 goals it scored last season with the departure of a 13-player senior class. That’s going to leave major roles to fill, especially up front, so that will make this an interesting year in terms of seeing who will step up for this team to find the back of the net.
Outlook: After falling in the Haas Cup final in back-to-back seasons in 2020-21 and 2021-22, Mo-Ho-Ha made the jump to the Halvorsen last season. Sure enough, it more than held its own in the division, and came away with the cup title that had eluded the team for the previous two seasons.
This year’s team though, figures to be a completely different-looking one than the one that lifted the Halvorsen Cup last winter. It should be able to rely on a solid netminder in Muscolino, who played well in the four games he saw last year, and good goaltending will certainly be a nice first step for this team if it’s going to find its way back to the Halvorsen Cup final. It may take some time for the new pieces to all come together, but expect this to be a team that gets stronger and stronger as the season goes along.
Check back Sunday for a preview of Mountain Lakes-Boonton
E-mail Mike Gurnis at michaelgurnis@gmail.com
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