By Mike Gurnis
Adversity is nothing new for Morris Knolls-Hills.
The co-op went through an up-and-down season by its standards, never seeming to find the traction it needed to make a push during the regular season.
But after a 9-2 loss to Randolph in the Mennen Cup semifinals, the talented squad that it knew it had finally clicked. It rattled off six consecutive wins- including five in the state tournament, and capped it off as Morris Knolls-Hills upset two-time defending state champion Gov. Livingston-New Providence, 4-3, in the NJSIAA Public Co-op championship game at Prudential Center in Newark.
Morris Knolls-Hills trailed, 3-1 in the game, but scored three unanswered to pull off the win, with Eli Singley scoring the game-winner off a feed from Michael Simone with 38 seconds left.
It was Singley’s first goal of the season.
“More than anything I can describe,” Singley said of the feeling after scoring the game-winner. “Going this whole season and not scoring a single goal I felt like I was waiting on something and I’m glad I scored it in the state championship game. Right before that goal went in actually there was a similar play that happened and I ripped a puck towards the net, but I whiffed on it. But I was in front of the net and the same play happened and I knew that this was my shot and put it in.”
Morris Knolls-Hills coach Tim Kepler said of Singley, “What a moment of a lifetime there, huh? He works hard and finds himself in the right place a lot of the time, but just couldn’t find a way. But to see him bury that game-winner there with 30 seconds left, the elation on his face, and our team, it was just amazing.”
That moment seemed unlikely, even before it faced a two-goal deficit in the state finals. Morris Knolls-Hills entered the state tournament with a below .500 record and was coming off a difficult loss to its biggest rival in Randolph in the Mennen Cup semifinals.
It earned the sixth seed in the North, Co-op sectional tournament, and knew that if it was to get to this point, it would likely have to go through the top three seeds. After topping the Lakeland tri-op in the first round, it downed third-seeded Pascack Valley-Hills in the quarters, before stopping second-seeded KJS United in the semifinals. A dominant 6-2 win over top-seded Tenafly-Cresskill gave it the sectional title, but one last challenge awaited.
Gov. Livingston, which was the top seed in the South bracket, had won the previous two Co-op championships, and knocked off Knolls-Hills in a dramatic final two years ago.
It appeared that it wasn’t Morris Knolls-Hills’ day, when Gov. Livingston built a 3-1 lead early in the second period. But with 3:57 left in the second, Michael Simone cut it to 3-2, before Jake McCloud tied it up with 9:14 to go. Suddenly, all the momentum was on its side.
“We went in after the first and said we’re good, we’re fine here,” Kepler said. “Their two goals came off of mistakes on us, and we knew we had to button up a few things and get some more pucks on net. That’s what we did. Once we got that second one, the confidence on the bench was through the roof.”
The game-winner happened when Simone did the simplest thing a hockey player can do- throw the puck to the front of the net and hope for a bounce. Fortunately, Singley was right there, and was able to roof it for the biggest goal of his life.
“I took the puck in, shot it, and it got stuck under that kid’s skate and he didn’t know where the puck was,” Simone said. “I picked it up and just threw it to the front of the net. I was brought up on throw pucks to the net and good things happen, and it sure as (heck) did there.”
This run to the title was courtesy of a borderline heroic performance in the state tournament by Luke Dickerson. He finished with 13 goals and four assists in five state tournament games, and although his goal-scoring streak ended, he had two assists in helping his team to the title.
“It was up and down the whole season and we just caught fire at the end, and that was it,” Dickerson said.
Kepler added of Dickerson, “Luke is a is a great teammate, number one. Whatever sport he’s playing, he’s a great teammate number one. (He’s) probably one of the hardest working kids out there. We’ve got a lot of hard-working kids on this team. He’s a special, special kid, sorry, young man. He’s more of a young man than a kid anymore.”
They were able to avenge the state title loss to Gov. Livingston-New Providence in the final two years ago. That loss hasn’t left the mind of the players who were on that team, and were determined to get the payback they wanted.
“I mean, it is an amazing feeling,” Dickerson said. “They messed up our three-peat and we did it to them this year. We were coming in and we had to mess up their three-peat. That was one of our motivations. We’ve had a (heck) of a season, these boys have no quit in them.”
Nick Trento, a freshman who became Knolls-Hills starter in late December, stopped 30 of 33 shots in his first-ever state final.
SCORING SUMMARY
First period
MKH — Dylan Williams (Luke Dickerson, Jake McCloud) 14:19 PPG
GLNP — Jackson Benward (Jacob Wachtel) 11:14
GLNP — Brady Silverman (Jackson Benward) 6:54 PPG
Second period
GLNP — Anthony Labisi 11:39
MKH — Michael Simone 3:57
Third period
MKH — Jake McCloud (Luke Dickerson, Zach Florio) 9:14
MKH — Eli Singley (Michael Simone) 0:38
Shots on goal: Gov. Livingston-New Providence 33, Morris Knolls-Hills 30
Saves: Nick Trento (Knolls-Hills) 30, Scott Capan (Gov. Livingston-New Providence) 26
E-mail Mike Gurnis at michaelgurnis@gmail.com
Morris-Sussex Hockey Report 