The Team to Beat

by Matthew Ondesko, Associate Editor

They say they don’t feel like the hunted, but let’s be honest, here, they are.

Canisius High School came into the Western New York Varsity Federation season as the defending Catholic Federation and Catholic state champs.

And, while Canisius coach Terry Miller says his team is not the hunted, every Catholic school knows that to get to the Catholic state title game in Long Island they have to go through the Crusaders.

“I think there is so much turnover and parity in the league,” said Miller, “that I don’t think anybody has a bulls eye on their back. The league is pretty balanced. I don’t feel that way.

Even with the graduation of nearly its entire roster, the Crusaders still return eight seniors. But, Miller is right about one thing, the league has a lot of turnover. And the Crusaders were a part of that turnover as well.

And, a month into the season, Miller can see that the mixture of youth and the older guys finally coming together.

“They are coming along,” said Miller. “We have a lot of new faces. We have all new defensemen. We have a lot of new forwards up from, but they are starting to come together.”

One of the new faces in an old one as senior goaltender Dylan Arnold takes over for the graduated Eric Terapacki. But, Arnold isn’t doing it alone as fellow senior Nick Pagano is splitting time.

While it is hard to replace a goalie like Terapacki, both are trying to do their best to make people forget about him.

“They have been steady,” stated Miller. “Nothing to brilliant. They haven’t been terrible either. I think we have been playing well in front of them and they have been making the save when they have to.”

And when it comes to scoring the Crusaders will do it by committee. Last year, this team relied on mostly a few players to out the puck in the net. This year, however, they will rely more on a team effort and team speed to get the job done.

“We have a lot of speed up front,” explained Miller. Sorrento is back from last and he does a great job on the penalty kill. Paul Steinig leads us up front. Sean McHugh has been a good addition as a senior on the backline.”

While Miller has a done a good telling his players that they are not the hunted as the season goes a long. One thing is for sure; to win the Catholic title you have to go through the Crusaders.

And that won’t be an easy task.