Mass. HS Boys: Southeast Conference Team Previews – New 3-Team Loop Makes Debut

The new Southeast Conference will consist of three programs who have past ties to the defunct Old Colony League or Big 3. The new league features Dartmouth, Bridgewater-Raynham and Durfee.

DARTMOUTH (13-7-3)

Home Rink: Hetland Memorial Arena, New Bedford

The Indians graduated seven seniors off last year’s team that reached the Division 3 South quarterfinals, but coach Michael Cappello still welcomes back a strong group from that team.

“Last year’s freshman and sophomore classes played key minutes and that experience should pay off,” Cappello said.

Speed and skill should be the key for the Indians across all three lines. Seniors Angelo Nicolosi (33 points) and Payton Allen (25 points) lead the returnees along with sophomores Damien Medeiros (18 points) and Reid Martin (16 points).

Defensively the Indians will look to senior Luke Sylvia, and juniors Kyle Charbonneau and Sam Canniff.

Sophomore Nick Howarth transfers into the program, and junior J.P. Kerney could step into the starting spot in net after playing a handful of games for the Indians last season.

Owen McCoy
Bridgewater-Raynham

BRIDGEWATER-RAYNHAM (3-12-5)

Home Rink: Bridgewater Ice Arena

The Trojans will play as an Independent quad this season  and sixth-year coach Dave Patrick is taking a “wait and see” approach as to how things shake out.

Ryan Concannon
Bridgewater-Raynham

Juniors Ryan Concannon, Eddie Perry and Kyle Wilcox return at forward. The defense will be formed around the quartet of seniors Owen McCoy and Pat Rennie and juniors Ben Kmito and Brian Dale.  Newcomer Richie Popson will challenge for the goaltender’s job.

DURFEE (0-18-2)

Home Rink: Driscoll Arena, Fall River

The Hilltoppers remain low on numbers, but coach Kevin Robinson says his team “plans to work hard and maintain a consistent compete level” as it jumps into a new league this season.

Robinson will lean on a pair of goalies – junior Xavier Arpa and freshman newcomer Cheyanne Dutcher — saying the duo will need to continue to come up with big saves to keep the Hilltoppers in games.

In front of them, Durfee will have good leadership in the defense with senior captains Andrew Saunders and Maddie Collins – the latter of whom comes from Westport as part of a co-op. Junior assistant captain Noah Currin is another reliable veteran blueliner.

Offensively the Hilltoppers will look to senior assistant captain Jacob Martins, as well as juniors Ethan Beaulieu and Ethan Neto. Newcomers to the program along with Dutcher are freshman forwards Alex Gurley and Andrew Medeiros.

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Jim Clark

Jim Clark has covered Massachusetts high school hockey for three decades, and joins Hockey Night in Boston for the 2019-20 season. Previously he was the lead high school hockey writer for 19 years for the Boston Herald, where he also worked full-time on the copy desk in the sports department and served as the paper's high schools editor from 2000-06. Clark was honored by the Mass. State Hockey Coaches Association with its William Stewart Award for contributions to the sport in May 2019, and also received the Joel Perlmutter Award for media coverage in 2006. A graduate of UMass, he also spent eight years as sports editor and reporter for the Sentinel & Enterprise in Fitchburg, Mass.

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