by nestarsjrhockey posted 09/05/2010
The New England Stars Junior 'A' team beat the Hackettstown Harley's of the IJHL Mid-Atlantic Division 4-3, last night at the Kasabuski Rink in Saugus, Ma. The Stars, who were led by newcomers Mike Marchionda (3 Goals) and Quinn Carroll (3 Assist), showed some flashes of potential, but really never had a consistency amongst themselves. "It was a sloppy game," mentioned Head Coach Dan Fontas. "I knew we weren't going to be perfect, but it was a tough game to get excited about."
With only a few days of training Camp under their belts the Stars came out and scored the first goal of the game off the stick of Marchionda. Assist were credited to Quinn Carroll and Pat Walsh. "These guys were obviously our best offensive line tonight," said Fontas. "Quinn has an extremely strong work ethic and Mike can finish. I think they will mix well together."
The Harley's would even the score at one before Marchionda would skate the Stars into intermission with a 2-1 lead by striking again off a nice feed from defensive veteran, Brad Cunningham.
In the second 25 minute stanza the Harley's would catch the Stars sleeping and capitalize on some mistakes by scoring the next 2 goals in a 4 minute span and take a 3-2 lead with just over 20 minutes to play. The Stars would show resilience and overcome the deficit with goals from Marchionda and the eventual game winner off the stick of Mike Didomenico. "Work ethic," said Fontas. "Those two goals were because of hard work. I am pretty confident that we will be a hard working team, but we will need to learn how to work diligently and not work stupid hard. We have a long season ahead of us. If you look at the game sheet we gave up 2 power play goals and 1 shorthanded goal. This is an area that separate teams from their opponents, at this level or any level."
The Stars are back in action Sunday afternoon as they take on the New Jersey Storm. Start time is 3:20pm at Kasabuski Rink.
