South Brunswick Ice Hockey Dominating the Competition

According to South Brunswick High School hockey Coach Michael Slansky, there is nothing surprising about his team's 6-0 start.

Well, how about the fact South Brunswick has outscored the opposition 53-5 thus far this season?

"The 6-2 win against Old Bridge was a little surprising," Slansky said. "Old Bridge is a very good team."

According to Slansky, there is a bit of a separation between the teams in the league. St. Joe's, South Brunswick and Old Bridge are a notch above the other teams in the league. Monroe may also be in that group. Slansky just isn't sure "what Monroe has this season."

There's no question what South Brunswick has. South Brunswick won the Greater Middlesex Conference championship last year and it is set up for another great year.

One of South Brunswick's major assets is an outstanding defense.

"We were ranked in the top five in the state last season on defense and we're returning the entire defense," Slansky noted. "We're looking at that as a real positive for us."

Brian Leach, a senior, is the goalie. Matt Gorzynski (sophomore) and Tyler Harpster (freshman) are the backups.

"Obviously, we're looking at Brian as being a very solid player for us this year," Slansky said.

Also back on the defense are Sean Kacerosky (senior), Tommy Fisher (junior), Ryan Fisher (senior) and Ketul Patel (junior). Mark Fisher (freshman) is also in the mix on defense.

South Brunswick's defense already has three shutouts this year. The team has blanked JFK (10-0), JP Stevens (12-0) and Edison (5-0).

Colonia managed to avoid a shutout, but was defeated by 10 goals, 11-1. South Brunswick's other win was 9-2 over Woodbridge.

"I try not to focus on individual stats," Slansky said. "Goals against and the win/loss column are what I'm looking at for this team. Those are team stats. If we shut out a team, we're pretty much doing what we need to do that game."

Thus far this season, Joe Muha (senior), Connor VanDermak (senior) and Jeffrey Wu (freshman) are the leading scorers. Daniel Gorzynski (senior), Casey Walker (forward), William Petrone (senior), Kyle Janoczkin (senior), William Kogan (senior), Hunter Rule (freshman), David Kim (freshman), Raj Kumar (sophomore), Sam Petrone (sophomore), Steve Sooby (sophomore) and Manuel Rethage (sophomore) are the other forwards on the team.

Beacuse the games have been so one-sided, Slansky has gotten a chance to give a lot of playing time to most of the members on the team. That changed on Dec. 23, when South Brunswick faced Montgomery, a state finalist last year. Click here for results.

"This is probably the toughest game we have on the schedule for the regular season," Slansky said. "This game will give us a good indication as to where we are as a team this season."

At 6-0, South Brunswick is a very good team. Slansky knows it will take beating the likes of Montgomery to make his team great.

"We're set up to be in pretty good shape this season," Slansky said. "We should be in position to challenge to repeat as GMC champions. Certainly, we'd like to get past the first round of the states (South Brunswick was defeated in that round by Tenafly last season).

This far, South Brunswick has done everything it could to start off on the right path to achieving those goals. It's done the things expected Slansky expected.