The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity has a quick turnaround after its season opening shutout victory Friday night against Whitman. Less than 48 hours later, the team will host Northwest/Quince Orchard on Sunday evening, October 8th at Skate Frederick. Game time is 7:05 pm. Upper Montgomery will be looking to build off of Friday evening’s effort and show the maturity an experienced team has to not have a letdown. The junior varsity has only fourteen skaters, so conditioning is important especially with the team expected to be without 9th grade defenders Avery Evans and Miles Wendland both of whom are out of town with their external travel teams. As the team found out Friday evening, the additional length of the periods, now fifteen minutes up from twelve minutes, can affect conditioning and performance later on in the game.
Ninth grade netminder Ilan Shterenberg authored a shutout in his first career high school start stopping twenty shots against Whitman. If he plays well again on Sunday, Upper Montgomery should be able to muster enough offense to repel the Jaguars. If Upper Montgomery brings the effort and hustle displayed against Whitman, they should be able to control the game. The junior varsity team should continue to play much better this season, but that will all depend on how well the team defends. Not just the defense, but the forwards backchecking hard and coming back to help in coverage. The team has a significant amount of experience on defense. Playing to its strengths, the junior varsity games may be lower scoring than last season as the team focuses on protecting Shterenberg.
Shterenberg will handle the netminding duties for the entire season. His play in net will ultimately determine how successful the team is and how far the Lightning junior varsity advances in the junior varsity county playoffs. Friday evening was a great start, zero goals allowed. He has the talent and ability to be a difference maker. In net for the Jaguars will be junior Joseph Dean. Dean has experience playing his third season of junior varsity hockey. He was excellent in the team’s playoff matchup two seasons ago and then uneven last year during the team’s regular season 4-4 tie.
On defense the Lightning will dress several experienced defenders. Seniors Sean Levine and Jake Roth will both see extensive action. Offensive minded defender Cole Howerton will likely pair with hulking defensive defender Patrick Sell. Sell will be making his season debut versus Northwest/Quince Orchard. Behr Schickler played a nice game on Friday and will be counted on to play significant minutes once again on Sunday. Northwest/Quince Orchard has a relatively young roster with senior Matthew Mills anchoring their backend. A rotation of forwards may need to drop back and play defense for the Jaguars.
Up front the Lightning received goals from junior co-captain Josh Nadler and sophomore Jason Woodman. Senior co-captain Adam Levine had an excellent game. The team’s leaders showed out against Whitman leading by example with outstanding effort, hustle, and determination. With the team unlikely to burst out offensively, every single forward will need to contribute. Expect that AJ Marks, TJ Gottesman, Aiden Zheng, and Jackson Schickler will continue to see lots of ice time, and each will improve as the season progresses.
Northwest/Quince Orchard will be led up front by Trevor Bartolomeo. He is the team’s most explosive skater, and his conditioning is second to none. He will be flying all over the ice like the energizer bunny every time he is out there. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a lot of top end talent to play with.
Upper Montgomery will need to maintain focus throughout the entire game. If the game is competitive, the Lightning will need to be laser sharp with their defensive assignments and structure. If Upper Montgomery is able to open up a bit of a lead during the game, the team will need to be very focused on attention to details to prevent bad habits from creeping into their game moving forward. Every game is an opportunity to shine. Upper Montgomery will be looking to push their record to 2-0 on the young season.
#Our Time, #UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!