The New Jersey public high school North State Sectional Final saw No. 2 seeded Northern Highlands defeat No. 1 seeded Randolph by a score of 8-3 last Thursday night, Feb. 29, at Mennen Arena in Morristown.
“They were better than us tonight,” Head Coach Rich Mclaughlin said. “We couldn’t get going and they took advantage.”
The 22-0-1 Randolph Rams entered the matchup as the favorite as they had not given up a loss in over a calendar year. The Rams jumped on the attack early, pinning the Highlanders in their own zone. It took just over a minute to get going when sophomore Shane Melly spun and fired a shot from the slot which slid in past the right pad of the Highlands netminder to give them the lead.
“We really took it to them the first five minutes,” junior captain Brian Cislo said. “After that, they took control, and we couldn’t get it back.”
After the Rams took a 1-0 lead, the Highlanders flipped the script on Randolph, firing every shot they could on senior netminder John Krynicki, who kept the Rams up by 1 in the early going. However, once the Highlanders found sustained pressure in the Rams zone, they capitalized on a blistering wrist shot from Vincenzo Capano, deadlocking the score at 1-1.
The Highlanders took advantage of a defensive breakdown in the neutral zone by the Rams, causing an odd-man opportunity again for Capano who scored his second goal to give Northern Highlands the lead. Another initial shot from the Highlanders’ Brent Beswick was denied by Krynicki, but a loose rebound was poked home by Matt Gershengorn, putting the Rams in a 3-1 deficit.
“We were definitely disappointed, but we couldn’t hang our heads,” Cislo said. “We knew we needed more heart and more discipline if we wanted to turn the tides.”
Unfortunately for the Rams the ice remained tilted in one direction, toward their defensive zone. A bad pinch near the red line saw Beswick break free again on a partial breakaway where he went around Krynicki to deposit his first goal of the evening. Just over a minute later, another odd-man rush for Highlands saw Beswick score again, this time making it 5-1
A flurry of chances came for Randolph over the next few minutes, but they couldn’t solve Highlanders goalie Reade Adams. Another break came for the Highlanders’ Capano, who on a partial breakaway backhanded a shot high into the corner of the net to make it 6-1. Late in the period a powerplay was awarded to Randolph and saw junior Andrew George get Randolph back on the board at 6-2. But just 21 seconds later with 30 seconds left in the middle period, Beswick was left all alone in the high slot and received a great feed from behind the net and rifled his third goal of the night past Krynicki, completing the hat trick and effectively ending the period, 7-2 Highlands.
“They just outplayed us,” Krynicki said. “They wanted to win and took advantage of every break we gave.”
Just over two minutes into the final period, Capano found twine again for his fourth goal of the game to make it 8-2. A quick response came off the stick of George once again, making it an 8-3 game. The Highlanders locked down in their defensive end, giving Randolph no space to create any high danger scoring opportunities. Despite all the pushback there was just no luck for the Rams who were finally handed their first loss of the season, 8-3, and were eliminated from the state playoffs.
“It really hurts, to lose the way we did,” senior captain Ashton Feinberg said. “I am very proud of what we did this season, and we should hold our heads high.”
The Rams closed out their 2023-2024 campaign with a staggering final record of 22-1-1.
