On December 23rd, Colonia High School’s Ice Hockey went up against Monroe High School ice hockey team at the Woodbridge Rec Center.
Starting the first period, Colonia started off playing well with a strong defense and handling the puck well when it came into our zone. First period for Colonia had to be all defense because Monroe’s offense were coming in hard and had been taking shots from every angle. From the defense at the points to the offense men right in front of goalie tender #1, Jake Pajewski was taking shots from every direction. Even with all the shots taken by both teams, it was a quiet first period until 2:29 when Monroe player #24 Gerard Marretta scored with an assist from #88 Kyle Lange changing the score from 0-0 to 1-0 in favor of Monroe as well as having faceoff wins in Monroe’s favor with Monroe having 16 faceoff wins and Colonia having 7.
After a five minute break, the game started back up again. Noticing the current score of the game, head coach of Colonia’s hockey team, Mr. Monticollo made it evident that his team was going all offense for the second period while still focusing on defense. This strategy proved to be a good one when with 7 minutes left Colonia forward #9 Drew Galea scored while getting an assist from #11 Tim Bizub tying the game 1-1. But unfortunately, seconds after Colonia had scored, Monroe player #24, Gerard Marretta had scored from an assist from player # 97, Samuel Fishteyn. After the goal, Colonia began to become more physical, especially Colonia’s defense who became too aggressive and had given Monroe a two minute chance to score after, at 4:17, #5, Justin Dinatale had received a hooking penalty. But despite being a man down for the two minutes, Colonia managed to keep the score 2-1. Although their ability to win face offs was not showing rather well the first two periods because Monroe was holding it with a face-off total win of 32 while Colonia only had 12.
The first two minutes of the third period started off strong from both teams. At 13:35 Monroe brought the score up to 3-1 thanks to players # 88, Kyle Lange who received an assist from #97, Samuel Fishteyn. Shortly after Monroe had scored, Colonia forward #24 Matthew Haggerty scored on a breakaway, being unassisted. It had been his first goal for this season. Having the score at a one goal difference, the game became high strung, having each team focusing more on a heavy offense while trying to maintain a strong and steady defense. For a decent amount of time both teams seemed to be equal in both offense and defense. The only difference was a one goal game and the faceoff wins, which were now at 13 for Colonia and 44 for Monroe.
