Tuesday night, November 28th,  was the first game of the season for the Patriots Ice Hockey team going up against Paramus Catholic. Earlier that day, the Patriot Press had the opportunity to have a quick chat with sophomore defenseman Jacob Liebross about what he looked forward to the most about this upcoming season.

Q: What do you look forward to leading up to the beginning of a new season?

A: “Well, I look forward to having fun with my team, and working hard, and trying to get victories.”

Q: What do you look forward to the most for tonight’s game against Paramus Catholic?

A: “Tonight I’m looking forward to working hard with the team, working together, and trying to pull off a win against Paramus Catholic

 The game started off slow as the Patriots were not able to exploit a power play. However, it still turned out to be a well-played first period by both teams. With under a minute left to play in the period, the Patriots were able to pressure Paramus and keep it in their zone. This lead to a pass from the corner back to the point setting up Kyle Nestepny for a slap shot attempt that fell just short of the goaltender. This bounced off the ice and went in just low on the blocker side of the goalie to give the Patriots a 1-0 lead.

In the second period, Township decided to take a more physical approach to the game while holding Paramus scoreless. But, they weren’t able to capitalize on any of the scoring opportunities, as the score to remained 1-0 Patriots at the end of the second period. One thing that the Patriots did well in this period was constantly pushing the puck into Paramus’ zone which helped to cause pressure, and added to their physical gameplay.

In the third and final period of the game, both teams came out strong. The Patriots went back to their normal approach as Paramus played more of a “hurry-up” game based on the fact that they were down at this point in the game. With around 10 minutes left in the game, the Patriots began to slow down. They kept struggling to keep Paramus out of their end and had a hard time putting the puck in Paramus’ zone. Paramus decided to take advantage of this, causing a turnover, which was recovered by a Paramus player who came out of their zone with speed and into the Patriots zone. A mishandled puck was sent into the corner which Paramus was able to recover and pass out to the middle of the zone which was backhanded into the back of the net to even up the score at 1-1. Luckily, Township began to get their second wind with around five minutes left in the game skating faster than ever, getting the puck out of their zone, and constantly putting it back in Paramus’ zone and putting shots on goal. Sadly, they weren’t able to do anything as the clock would read zeros for the final time as Township settled for a tie with Paramus Catholic in the first game of the season.

After the game, the Patriot Press was lucky to talk to junior defenseman Kyle Nestepny about his goal that night.

Q: You got the goal scoring for the Patriots this season with that slap shot from the point, what were your thoughts going through that?

A: “Well I just saw the puck and just shot it, and it went in, but I mean, we have to keep putting pucks on net and eventually they’ll go in.”

Be sure to come watch Township work towards a win at the next game on Tuesday, December 5th, at 8:15 against Manalapan at Jersey Shore Arena!