A Big Weekend Brings the Quakers a Little More Respect
The Horace Greeley hockey team has been waiting a long time, much like fictional movie character Norma Desmond, for its close-up.
It finally arrived this past weekend, and the Quakers sure made the most of it.
“We weren’t letting the moment get too much of us,” said Quaker coach Zach Dargaty on Sunday night, shortly after his team had concluded a statement-making, three-games-in-48-hours test, all of it at Brewster Ice Arena. “We played within ourselves. I just love our character, the toughness of our team.”
Dargaty had just watched his unbeaten Quakers put the finishing touch on a memorable three days with a 6-1 romp over the Brewster Bears. Sophomore forward Scott Jakubowicz wound up with a hat trick and the Quakers scored twice in each period to win convincingly. But it was the 2-2 tie against highly regarded Rye 24 hours earlier that validated the belief this young Greeley team can make big noise come playoff time.
“One of our things we’ve been talking about is, ‘Alright, we’ve been up and coming enough now,'” said Dargaty. “‘The last couple of years we were up and coming. Let’s see if we’ve arrived.’ I think last night was the kids’ chance to say, ‘Hey, you know what, we’re a good team.'”
Jakubowicz and Blake Davis each scored for the Quakers, while goalie Neil Hershman turned aside 25 shots in a contest that earned Greeley far more respect than its nine previous wins combined. The Quakers held a 2-1 lead until the game’s final minute when the Garnets managed to draw even with a disputed goal.
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” said Dargaty. “I’ve played a lot of years. I mean, sometimes the calls go your way, sometimes they don’t. I’m glad we didn’t go on to lose the game (in overtime), let’s put it that way. I can live with a tie. It would’ve been tough if we lost last night.”
Dargaty wasn’t sure what to expect from his players, who tied a Connecticut combo team from Brookfield, Bethel and Danbury 4-4 on Friday night, when they arrived at the rink for Saturday’s showdown with the Garnets.
“Sometimes, it’s tough with kids,” he said. “I’ll come in the locker room, they’ll be goofing off. I’m like, ‘Geez, should we be a little more serious here?’ Last night, we were very serious. I don’t think we were tight. I think we were just ready to go.”
They were certainly ready to go when they faced Brewster in the finale of their busy weekend. The Quakers got on the scoreboard less than two minutes after the opening faceoff on a goal by Cooper Swenson, assisted by Davis. With just 57 seconds left in the period, Davis made it 2-0 when he got free along the right wing and wristed a shot into the net from the point.
Jakubowicz scored the first of his three goals 74 seconds into the second period. Brewster, which actually outshot the Quakers 16-15 over the first two periods, finally got on the board midway through the period as Brian DeGaray slipped the puck past first-time Quaker starter, freshman Nicholas Bright.
Just 13 seconds later, though, the Quakers answered with their fourth goal as Sam Mishkind pounced on a rebound in front of the net and quickly backhanded the puck past Bears goalie Luc Genovesi. Jakubowicz added two more goals in the final period, scoring them just eight seconds apart. Greeley outshot the Bears by a 16-8 margin over the final 15 minutes.
“Overall, just a great team effort,” said Dargaty. “We’re playing really well as a team right now. It’s been a lot of really good team play and that’s the one thing I really like.”
Asked what he learned about his team after the challenging 48 hours it had just gone through, Dargaty answered, “That we’re pretty mentally tough. Just the mental makeup of our team, that’s been the best thing about it this year.”
The Quakers will now have to make do without sophomore defenseman Henry Girardi, who just broke his arm in a game with his club team, but Dargaty is confident they can adjust. “We’ll see,” he said. “He’s hoping to be back by the playoffs. If he comes back, great. If not, we’ve got six weeks to figure it out, what we’re gonna do. That’s part of the game.”
By then, the Quakers, 10-0-2 this season, might have earned even more respect. They face John Jay in less than two weeks, and Dargaty is looking forward to another big challenge for his players and seeing how much momentum they now have.
“I think last night, although we were confident going into the game, I just think the result has given us that much more confidence and it showed tonight,” he said. “It’ll help carry us through the rest of the season. John Jay game coming up and, again, if we wanna be one of the teams in Division 2 who have a chance, that’s gonna be a great test for us.”
Andy is a sports editor at Examiner Media, covering seven high schools in the mid-Westchester region with a notebook and camera. He began there in the fall of 2007 following 15 years as a candid photographer for the largest school picture company in the tri-state area.
Read more of Andy’s full bio here.
Read Andy’s archived work here.