Ocean skates to victory over Steinert

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr, Photos by SportShotsWLB

On December 22, the Ocean Township High School ice hockey team, which consists of players from both Ocean and Shore Regional, hosted and beat Steinert High School 6-4 in a nondivisional game.

During the first of the three periods both Steinert and Ocean had one goal each. The Spartans scored at 13:25 with a goal by Gavin Cherella assisted by Alexi Laughlin and Patrick Brannen. Steinert scored on a power play at 10:38.

In the second period Steinert outscored Ocean 3-2. The two Spartan goals came at 10:23 by Joe LaValle off a Dylan Haar assist. The other Ocean goal was scored unassisted by Michael Perri at 7:40.

The final period of action had Ocean shutting out Steinert 3-0 and taking the 6-4 victory.

Haar scored unassisted at 14:11, Ian Hendricksen had a goal at 7:04 off a Scott Sirianni assist. The final goal was at 48.7 by Haar.

Ocean played two goalkeepers in the victory. Sean Harrington made three saves and Brennan Mulvey had six. The Steinert goalie got a workout making 34 saves in the loss for his team.

Following that game, the Spartans lost 5-1 to Toms River North. Laughlin scored the lone goal off an assist from Brannen and Gavin Cherella. In the goal for this game was Evan LaValle, who made 20 saves. After that loss the Spartans drop to 0-2 in division action and are 5-5-1 overall.

The Spartans play in the Shore A South division of the Shore Conference. Currently the division standings are as follows; Central Regional, Freehold Township, Manalapan, Marlboro, Red Bank Regional, Manasquan, Freehold Borough, Ocean Township and Lacey.