Wakefield Boys Set for First Round Action

After missing out on the MIAA tournament last season, the Wakefield High boys hockey team will make its triumphant return to the post season tonight at 7:30 p.m. when the Warriors travel to Salem State University to take on Middlesex League foe Belmont in the first round of the Div. 1 North sectional. 

Wakefield bounced back after a disappointing 2009-2010 campaign to finish 10-6-4 overall this season to take the seventh seed in the sectional while 10th-seeded Belmont went 10-7-3. 

“We’re feeling pretty good,” said Wakefield coach Derek Edgerly. “We feel confident about tonight. I have a lot of respect for Belmont. I know their coaching staff over there since I played at Stoneham High back in the 80’s. We’re just hoping we can get out of here with a ‘W.’ It’s do or die for both teams but at least we know them and they know us so it should be a fun game up there.”

The Warriors will face a familiar foe in Belmont, a team Wakefield lost to, 2-1, in the second game of the year and tied, 2-2, in a midseason rematch.

“They scored both their goals in the first period and the second time we played them they scored both goals in the first period. By the second and third we outshot them... and we started building up our confidence.”

Edgerly will be relying on the steady play of his senior captains John Sartell, Pat McCarthy, Adam Giancola and Nakia Brown, a solid corps of leaders that helped push the relatively young Warrior squad into the tournament. 

“It’s tough playing a team that has 12 or 13 seniors when you only have 11 or 12 sophomores,” said Edgerly. “But you know, it’s been a fun year, I didn’t think we were going to get this far so I’m just enjoying every minute of it.”

Goalie Joseph Cerulo will be manning the net and has allowed just 35 goals this season, the fewest in the Middlesex League. 

Tonight’s game will be a big one for Wakefield, but the Warriors are no strangers to big games and have beaten several top-tier teams this season, including first-placed Woburn (18-3-1) and second-placed Reading (15-6-1).

But while the Warriors have yet to beat Belmont this season, Edgerly said his team will stick with what they’ve been doing all year long: winning. 

“We stick with our own game plan,” said Edgerly. “I don’t change anything for anybody. I think if you stick to a game plan things work better. It’s do or die so I just tell these kids to go out and give it 100 percent.”