By Mike Gurnis
Delbarton just had one of the best weeks you can possibly expect.
The Green Wave knocked off Don Bosco, 3-1, before taking down Christian Brothers in overtime, 5-4. CBA was ranked No. 1 in the NJ.com Top 20 (No. 2 by Big State Sports), Don Bosco was No. 2 (No. 1 by Big State Sports). I think it’s pretty fair to say that on Monday morning, Delbarton’s going to land in the top spot in every poll. They’ve been nothing short of terrific.
Aside from an opening day 1-1 tie with Princeton Day, this team has beaten every opponent its faced as it now stands with a 7-0-1 record. It has an extraordinarily deep group of forwards, including Egor Andreev, Jack Gerne, Aidan Pasic, Dante Rodriguez, and Jack Ross, among others. George Cote has been awesome in net with a .936 save percentage as well.
The Green Wave last won the Non-Public state title in 2018. That’s the longest Bruce Shatel’s program has gone without a state title, but this year’s team certainly has the look- at least now, in mid-January- of one that can get over the hump.
— Randolph continued its dominance over Morris Knolls-Hills in recent years this week with an 11-3 win on Tuesday. Randolph has now won the last six meetings between these teams dating back to the 2022-23 season, and in the four games over the last two seasons, the margin of victory for Randolph has been stunning. The scores: 9-4, 10-4, 9-2, and 11-3- an aggregate of 39-13.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that in the long, storied history between those two rivals, that there has never been a stretch of dominance by either team quite like that over four games. The teams meet again to close out the Mennen regular season on Feb. 1.
— Speaking of Randolph and Morris Knolls-Hills, huge shoutout goes out to the players who hit milestones in that game. Jake McCloud of Knolls-Hills reached 150 career points, while Andrew George eclipsed 100 career points.
— One team that really caught my eye this week was Mount Olive-Hopatcong-Hackettstown. I watched the broadcast of their 1-0 win over Montville and was at Mennen Arena for the 0-0 tie with division-leading Mendham.
I’ll tell you what, this team has serious Halvorsen Cup dark horse vibes. Their style of play could be a nightmare for any opponent in the Halvorsen Cup or state tournament. They were absolutely stifling against Montville, holding them to 16 shots, and then played to a scoreless tie with Mendham. It also played to a 1-1 tie with a high-powered offense in Park Regional recently. When you combine their defensive play with the strong goaltending they’ve gotten from Talon Muscolino, that is not a team that I would want to see in a win-or-go home situation.
— Another potential dark horse- Morristown in the Mennen Division. Quietly, despite its 3-8-1 record, it has been very competitive in most of its losses. It owns a win over Kinnelon-Jefferson-Sparta, and also was five minutes away from a stunning upset over Randolph on Saturday before the Rams scored five unanswered in the final minutes.
Some notable results this season: a 1-0 loss to a strong Passaic Tech team, a 3-2 overtime loss to Morristown-Beard, which has played like a top-5 team in New Jersey, and a 4-1 win over Colonia-Woodbridge-Iselin Kennedy.
It has had some lopsided losses, but when it is on its game, it can be a major problem for the opposition. I’m interested to see if it can turn some of those close losses into wins down the stretch.
— Congratulations to High Point-Wallkill Valley-Kittatinny on winning the program’s second Sussex Cup in three years. It swept the round-robin with Vernon and Newton-Lenape Valley by a combined score of 17-1, with the clincher over NLV coming this past Tuesday.
One day, it would be great if another team popped up in Sussex County so it could go back to the traditional four-team bracket with the final on New Year’s Eve at Skylands Ice World. It was always one of my favorite games to cover- it would usually be the only game in the state that day, and it would draw a HUGE crowd to Skylands. It put a spotlight on an often overlooked part of the state in terms of hockey.
Nonetheless, I’m glad that the trophy is still awarded and hope it continues for years to come.
— Big thank you goes out to local sportswriting/broadcasting legend Dan Cleary for having me on his podcast this week on Big State Sports. We spent nearly an hour just talking about high school hockey. It was a really fun time- you can listen here.
E-mail Mike Gurnis at michaelgurnis@gmail.com
Morris-Sussex Hockey Report 