CCA Hockey Player Named Athlete of the Week

by Eric Adler

ORLEANS – There are many people Cape Tech/Cape Cod Academy hockey coach Jay Dalterio can thank for helping him get his first win at the varsity level, and the top of the list is his son, Caleb.

The junior and first-line center scored two goals – the equalizer and an insurance score late in the third period – as CT/CCA rallied for a 3-1 victory over Monomoy in their season-opener at Charles Moore Arena last Wednesday night.

“Winning always feels good, and to have Caleb help us out makes it that much better,” said the older Dalterio, an assistant coach for the unified team the previous three years. “Tonight, I’m a proud father and a proud coach.”

Defenseman Mike Hinckley netted the game-winner and goalie Billy Carleton turned in a top notch performance for CT/CCA, which out-shot the Sharks 47-19, controlled most of the play and killed off seven penalties.

The win not only got CT/CCA off on the right foot, but gave them a measure of revenge having lost the previous four games against Harwich/Chatham (now Monomoy Regional), including a devastating defeat in February’s regular season finale that prevented the Crusaders from making the state tournament.

“We missed the playoffs by one game last year, it was a game we felt we should have won and they pulled it from us,” said Dalterio. “We want to get back [to the tournament] and this was a good way to start.”

Although it wasn’t the outcome Monomoy was hoping for, it was vast improvement over their 8-1 loss to Pope John Paul II four days earlier.

“The kids had a way better effort, they were pumped up for a home game and I saw an energy through the whole entire game that I didn’t see anywhere during our second and third periods the last game,” Monomoy coach Bill Hadfield said.

Maybe the main thing Monomoy needed after the PJP letdown was a surge of confidence, and they created it midway through the opening period with a big 5-on-3 penalty kill. The Sharks used that momentum to take the lead as Samantha Mayo scored her first career goal when she tipped in Pat Kempesal’s shot from the point at the 6:35 mark.

Monomoy took its 1-0 advantage into the locker room but it wouldn’t hold up for very long as CT/CCA scored two goals in the first two minutes of the second period to take the lead for good.

Dalterio took a feed from David Carty and broke into the Sharks’ zone where he fired a shot into the lower left corner 21 seconds in to tie the game 1-1. The go-ahead goal came 91 seconds later when Hinckley carried the puck over the red line and unleashed a big blast that blurred past Monomoy goalie Dalton Smith.

“We looked at the shots on goal during the period break and saw we had out-shot them 17-5, and yet we were losing,” said Dalterio. “I just said, we need to bury the puck. It has to happen.”

Monomoy had a golden opportunity to even things up with a pair of power plays over the final 3:46 of the period, but couldn’t capitalize. Hinckley and fellow defender Eric Dumont stood tall and Carleton came up with a clutch glove save to stop a big drive by Zach Simkins with four seconds to go.

The Sharks stayed alive and nearly killed a four-minute major penalty on Jake Schemenova for fighting, but Dalterio used a screen by Carty to slip in a wrist shot from the blue line that gave CT/CCA a 3-1 lead with 6:51 remaining, effectively sealing the victory.

Dalterio’s insurance goal came with 14 seconds left in the power play and was also big because the Sharks were about to go on a power play of their own.

“To go up by two goals was enormous because if you get one bad bounce, it’s a tied game, so Caleb’s goal was a game-changer,” said Dalterio. “I also thought freshman Matt Hinckley stepped into his first varsity game and played outstanding. We’ve got a lot of young players, a lot of first-year players who are stepping into the line up and seeing significant playing time. We’re looking for them to make progress and tonight some of them did. I saw some good things in terms of us moving the puck, setting up some back-door plays and moving through the middle.”

Monomoy, which had just 10 skaters on the ice, also took away a number of positives. Compared to their first game, the Sharks did a better job managing their shifts, and they killed off five of six penalties.

“The kids burned themselves out in the Pope John Paul game, so in practice this week, we went over dump-and-change and they did a better job of not getting caught out there for too long,” said Hadfield. “We had a couple of defensive breakdowns in the second period and sometimes that’s all it takes. That was the difference in the game. But the kids knew they were in a game. They couldn’t say that last Saturday.”

One reason Monomoy was able to go toe-to-toe with CT/CCA was the outstanding effort of Simkins.

“Zach played a hell of game,” said Hadfield. “He was at both ends of the ice, fore-checking, backchecking, and he blocked the open net a couple of times. He was everywhere tonight. And during the skirmish, he got in between and broke it up. He showed a lot of leadership.”

Zimkins and James Hinesley scored their first goals of the season Saturday, but it wasn’t enough as Monomoy (0-3) dropped a 6-2 decision to Hull.

Kevin Perry scored a pair of goals for the Pirates, who jumped out to a 4-0 lead midway through the second period.

Meanwhile, CT/CCA raised its record to 2-0 following a 6-1 win over O’Bryant School of Math and Science Sunday at Northeastern University. Dalterio scored twice in the opening period, and newcomers Griffin O’Brien, Ian Fromhein, Teagan Twomey and Tyler Aalto all recorded their first varsity goals.