Boro Hockey opened up the season against Watchung Hills on Friday night at Protec Ponds in Somerset. 

The team knew this would be a battle, but they prepared greatly for their opening game and were excited to finally get on the ice.

“I was happy to get back on the ice with the boys, nine months was a long time and we were anxious to get back,” senior Dom Mazzafero said. “We were also very nervous considering we were going to have a huge crowd. We went in with a winning mentality.”

Boro Puck, as the team is commonly referred to, is led by captain Sean Ely and assistant captains Mazzafero, Mike Lumbra, and Matt Palmer. In their first game, it was a true team effort.

In the first period, the game was extremely close with many impressive saves by senior goalie Dan Volonino. Mazzaferro electrified the team and crowd with a goal to start the game off. At the end of the period, it was all tied at 1-1.

In the second period, the closeness continued. With a goal from senior Frank Bason and more strong play by the team’s defense, it was 2-1.

In the third period, Boro Puck finally blew the game open and showed their dominance as a team. Sophomore Jude Kurtas netted a magician-like goal that made the Watchung Hills goalie and defensemen look foolish. Immediately after Kurtas’s goal, sophomore Jason Wolff fired a slapshot to increase Boro’s lead to 4-2. Another goal made the game 5-2, and then another open net score for Boro made it 6-2. Watchung Hills then scored a meaningless goal to make the final score 6-3. Nevertheless, the game was all Hillsborough.

Boro puck has some positive takeaways from this game. Goalie Volonino finished with an outstanding 31 save performance and the offense was often on the attack which is always a good sign.

The team followed its win with a loss to Pingry, but will look to continue their winning ways against Ridge on Friday.

“It’s a learning process and you never want to get too high or too low,” Mazafero said. “I know we are going to get the job done this year because we have a strong group. We are a team that can contend this year.”