Led by senior captains Matt Lander from Glen Ridge and Chris Lapone from Verona, the 2011-2012 Verona-Glen Ridge hockey team finished out their season with 15-9-3 record and third in the conference.
“I think the season went well. I think we should have won some more games, to be honest. We lost some games we should have won and tied a few that we shouldn’t have,” said head coach Andor Kish when asked about the season. “I thought we would finish second in the division and we fell a bit short.”
VGR was edged out by Nutley who finished in second. Although they had the same amount of wins, the tie breaker was decided by the amount of goals against.
VGR beat West Orange 4-2 in the first round of the conference playoffs, but lost to Nutley in the second round. This eliminated VGR from being able to win the conference championship. However, their season did not end here. VGR participated in the state playoffs. They took on Mahwah in the first round and won 5-1. In the second round, VGR lost to Summit, who went on to be Public B State Champions, by a score of 6-3; however. A highlight of the game was Lander scoring his 100th goal of his high school hockey career.
Although VGR did not make it far in the playoffs, they had another exceptional season even with the arrival of two new coaches.
“The new coaches were great. They know the game and they really helped out when it came to game planning. I think all of the coaches do a good job of balancing each other out,” said Kish. The new coaches also clicked very well with the players.
Kish added that “the entire team had an impact one way or another” on the season and the team “did well because of senior leadership.” Other seniors on the team include Jake Facey, Patrick Sullivan, Devon McKenna, and Matt Brehne—all from Verona, and Max Linnett from Glen Ridge.
Kish was uncertain about next year with the loss of a dominant senior class, and the returning of injured players. He is also waiting to “see about the incoming class.”
