Hockey Sweeps the Weekend, Moves into First Place

After its first two games of the season - admittedly, way too early to make any kind of realistic assessment of any team in any sport - the 2014-'15 hockey Hawks looked like they might be a somewhat enigmatic bunch. After dominating the Smithfield High School Sentinels by a score of 6-1 on opening night, the Hawks followed that one up with what might be termed an egg of a performance, allowing themselves to be outhustled and outhit by archrival LaSalle in a 4-1 loss, a game that wasn't even as close as that final score.

Since then - and after having no doubt heard Coach Creamer's thoughts on their performance against LaSalle - the Hawks have gone 3-0 and vaulted into first place in the Cimini Division, downing Cranston West 7-0 last weekend before sweeping both of their games this past weekend, Friday night over defending state champion Mt. St. Charles, 5-3, before defeating Smithfield on Saturday night for the second time, 5-1.

As noted in the previous piece here on The Network site, Saturday night's game was notable for another reason, as it was the opening game of our first double broadcast of the season, the basketball team's game against Corner Canyon having been simultaneously broadcast on our site shortly afterwords.

The Friday night game against the Mounties was significant in that the defending champs are always a measuring stick for any high school hockey team in Rhode Island, and as a championship-driven program, that's especially true for us. Couple that with the general thought coming into this season that our guys might be a bit young to be ready to take the title back this season, and it's easy to see that many in Hawk Nation were anticipating this early-season matchup.

The Hawks put the issue to rest fairly early, however, getting out to a 3-1 lead after one period before putting the Mounties away by a final score of 5-3, indicating that this might just be an interesting season when all is said and done. Five Hawks tallied two points each in contributing to the win: Andrew Hopgood (goal, assist), Brandon Mitchell (goal assist), Alexander Leite (two assists), Eric Edwards (goal, assist), and Brandon Waterman (goal, assist).

The Hawks followed that one up with their second win over Smithfield this season, taking this one 5-1. The win moved the Hawks to 4-1 and into first place. Reilly Miller (goal, two assists) and Brandon Waterman (two goals, two assists) led the way for the Hawks.

The Hawks will next be in action in the Mt. St. Charles Christmas Tournament on Friday and Saturday of this week.