Sleepy Hollow Ready for Hockey Playoffs

No. 4 Sleepy Hollow/Irvington (12-6-2) will look to continue its successful season when it hosts No. 13 Brewster in the opening round of the Division II hockey playoffs at Sport-O-Rama in Monsey this evening.

"We just have to take the momentum from the regular season into the playoffs," Head Coach Howie Weiner said. "We have played well the last two games in particular. We beat a real good Scarsdale team 9-3 and beat Pearl River 9-4 so now we just have to continue to do what we are doing." 

Three reasons why the Legends were able to put themselves in position to host a playoff game are the play of three players from Sleepy Hollow: junior forward John Garro, sophomore forward Kyle McGovern and junior defenseman Dennis Sullivan.

Continued attacks from Irvington's Bradlee Pesce, Brett Pesce and senior forward and co-captain Josh Kaplan have also contributed to some solid wins for the Legends, and helped them secure a high seed for the tournament.

McGovern is the Legends' shutdown forward meaning he goes against the other team's top forward and Sullivan is a defensive defenseman. He plays a lot of minutes, playing in a lot of tough defensive situations.

Garro, who has been on the varsity since eighth grade, leads all of the players from Sleepy Hollow in points with 26.

"John has been playing hockey since he was a little kid," Weiner said. "His brother (Matt, who played defense for the Legends and graduated in 2006) played on the team. He's got a lot of talent. He's always been one of the bigger players. He's tall, he's got some size so the size thing didn't really hurt him. He's been like a power forward for us the past couple of years."

Garro grew up looking up to his brother.

"He looks up to him (Matt)," Weiner said. "He never got to play with his older brother. His older brother graduated before he got on the team but he definitely looks up to him in everything he does."

McGovern is an energy player who makes whatever line he is on better. He's a player who takes up a lot of space, and is fast and smart.

"He doesn't have that many points but he's a player that wears the other team down," Weiner said. "We have some guys who are the top scorers in the league and then you throw Kyle out there and he can wear down a team another way. Then you bring the scorers back out so it gives us great balance."

Providing what the defense needed this year is Sullivan. A four-year varsity player, he actually played forward his first three years before moving to defense this year.

Sullivan is a physical player who will do whatever is asked of him. Weiner said he had a couple of candidates to play on defense but he felt Sullivan was the best fit.

"We've been pretty much putting Dennis back there and letting him learn," Weiner said. "In the first half of the year, he was struggling a little bit and then he picked it up half way through and now he is one of the better defensive defenseman in the league."

The Division II hockey playoffs will begin at 7:50 p.m. tonight at the Sports-O-Rama ice rink: 20 College Road, Monsey.