By Emma Carr and Olivia Byrnes

Staff Writers

Despite the loss, Hockey Night was a success in the eyes of Jamesville-DeWitt High School students.The combined J-D/Christian Brothers Academy Varsity Boys Hockey team lost to John Jay High School, the team they beat last year for the state title. The final score was 2-3. The two goals were scored by J-DHS junior Braeden Doust in the last period. “It was our game to win and we tried as hard as we could,” said Doust.

Although the team was not successful in beating John Jay, both their captain, junior Ryan Durkin, and their assistant captain, sophomore Sam Mueller, agreed that they played their best game of the season. Freshman and goalie Ryan Bradford agreed, and said that the team had a good comeback in the third period. The team said that the energy and the crowd both helped to motivate them to comeback in the third period.

Even though the team lost key senior players last year, Durkin says he wants to keep things the same but be more of a leader to the younger players. That seems to be working; “the older players really help lead us to where we need to go,” said Bradford.

But what did the fans think? “I wasn’t expecting so many people and for it to be so crowded,” says freshman Lizzie Redmore. Senior Peter Crossett says that the crowd was crazier than previous years. “The energy helped and made the game more exciting,” said Bradford. “I thought it was going to be just a regular game,” said junior Haley Ripich after her first Hockey Night experience.

The Brothers may have lost this game, but as a team they expect to get better and go as far in playoffs as last year. “This game was the start of turning the season around,” said Durkin.