Third-year ice hockey player Eric Pawlick earned his 100th point as a Cougar Monday as Cranford High School defeated visiting Scotch-Plains Fanwood 10-1 at Warinanco Rink in Roselle.
The win puts the Cougars to 9-7 on the season.
"It feels good," said Pawlick, who scored and offered an assist for the home team. "I worked three years for this. This was one of my goals. We're looking good. We're jelling as a team. It's been going good so far. Everything's been clicking."
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"Eric's played great all three years that I've played with him," said senior forward Patrick Hartnett. "Eric's one of the best players I've ever played with,"
"Eric's an elite player," said Cranford head coach Rich Hurley. "He's one of the best players around. He's one of the fastest players there is. He's incredible in the corners. He makes a lot of good things happen on offense for us."
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Cranford received two goals apiece from Sean Feeney, Pijanowski and Pat Hartnett. Jake Zimmerman, Rogan, Pawlick and Russ Harvey each added a goal in the win.
The Cougars sped off to a 4-0 start after one, and led 8-0 through two periods.
"We played well tonight," said Hurley. "We were able to go out there and play our game and put the puck in the back of the net. We scored seven goals against Princeton in our last game, and a lot of different guys have been scoring. It's starting to come together a little bit and we're starting to see success on the scoreboard."
"Everybody's improving, the team's really coming together" said Hartnett. "It's been a lot of fun this year."
The team credits Pawlick, Hartnett, Harvey, Gary Merwede, Pijanowski, Zimmerman, Alex Plick, and Matt Leonelli for assists.
Cranford still has its sights set on a league title. The Cougars will next face-off against Johnson on Wednesday night in a key matchup at 6 p.m. at Warinanco. They will look to turn the tables on their neighbor after losing earlier in the season.
"We have to play a lot better defense than we played last time," Hurley said. "We were terrible defensively, we had a lot of breakdowns, we gave up nine goals. Nick Villaverde's one of the best players around. We'll have to tighten up defensively."
