Xaverian defeats Duxbury 2-0 at The Bog

Kingston, MA – On Monday afternoon we caught a matchup of two of the state’s best in the Xaverian Hawks and the Duxbury Dragons. Each team has played two games and Xaverian comes in 1-0-1 while Duxbury is 2-0.

The first period was dominated by Xaverian – they used their size and muscle to keep the pressure on all period long. By our count, they forced 10 Duxbury icings and limited them to four shots on net in the first 15 minutes: pretty impressive. The deciding factor in the period was Duxbury senior goaltender Steve Pisani, who made a number of brilliant saves to keep it scoreless: otherwise, this one would have been out of reach quickly. Xaverian looked ready to deliver the knockout blow as the period wound to a close.

In the second period, Xaverian continued to create quality chances but Duxbury started to push back. The physicality picked up as well with both teams delivering solid body blows. The seal was broken midway through the period as sophomore defender Nolan Dion delivered a nice sauce pass up the middle to senior attacker Ty Marchi for the breakaway goal: 1-0 Hawks. Shortly after that goal Duxbury began to own the 1-on-1 battles and amped up their physical play. There was a skirmish after a couple of pleasantries were exchanged near the end of the period but the penalties assessed were matching. The third period promised to be the decider since these two were so evenly matched.

For the third period, the hard hitting continued but the referees let the boys play and the game zipped right along. Things remained 1-0 thanks to Pisani making a number of big saves throughout the frame, but with just under three minutes to go Xaverian sophomore Brock Casey delivered a big hit which led to a turnover and senior co-captain Ryan Pomposelli picked it up and shot one home to make it 2-0 Xaverian, which represented the final score when all was said and done.

Three Stars:

  1. G Steve Pisani, Duxbury
  2. F Ryan Pomposelli, Xaverian
  3. F Jack Silva, Xaverian

NZ’s Take

This was a very physical contest – both teams rely on their strength to win games and Xaverian had the edge when it came to offensive chances. They were just a hair more opportunistic which made the difference on the scoreboard.

In terms of players, there was no denying that Xaverian sophomore Jack Silva was the best player on the ice today. He dominated for long stretches of this game as a power forward and he puts in hard work on every shift to be successful. We noted his hat trick in our last recap, so his game is already in a great place early in the season – we suspect we will be writing a lot more about him in our Mass HS Report 1. We also liked what we saw from fellow Hawks Aiden Rodriguez and Kevin Parrish, two sophomores with completely different games. Rodriguez is a big body defender who made smooth, quality plays and Parrish is the smallest player on the ice but he has grit, determination and smarts that allow him to succeed.

For Duxbury, we liked what we saw from senior co-captain and defenseman Ben Luscko as well as senior forward Zach Stewart, senior D-man Nick Demio and the aforementioned Steve Pisani in net. He has the rare ability to steal games at this level which will be a big storyline for Duxbury this season. He isn’t big by goaltending standards at the pro level but he certainly reinforces what many have forgotten: you don’t need to be 6’1 to stop pucks.