St. Joseph’s Prep recorded two victories Thursday at the Purple Puck Tournament in Washington, D.C.
They opened Thursday morning with a 3-2 win over Loyola Academy from Chicago. Jeffrey Hammond scored two of his team’s goals, Gareth McDonald the other.
Thursday afternoon the Hawks shut out Archbishop Spaulding 3-0. Hammond, Joey Samango, and Dante Passio scored goals Rocco Bruno earned the shutout with 15 saves.
The Hawks will face O’ Connell at 8 a.m. on Friday. if they qualify for the championship game they will take the ice at 3 p.m. Friday.
Tristan Winata scored two goals and Jeffrey Hammond and Shane O’Neil scored one goal each as St. Joseph’s Prep and Gonzaga skated to a 4-4 tie on Wednesday in the opening round of the 28th Purple Puck Tournament in Washington, D.C.
Rocco Bruno made 34 saves in goal.
The Hawks (7-2-2) are scheduled to play twice on Thursday; they’ll face Loyola at 9 a.m. and Archbishop Spaulding at 4 p.m. before the tournament concludes on Friday.
A holiday tradition will be renewed this week after a two-year pandemic-induced layoff.
St. Joseph’s Prep will be one of five private schools competing for the Prep Division title when the 28th annual National Capital Hockey Tournament, popularly known as the Purple Puck Tournament, gets underway Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
The Hawks, who are 7-2-1 on the season, will face Gonzaga in their tournament opener at 1:00 Wednesday afternoon. The five-team field will also include Archbishop Spalding, O’ Connell, and Loyola. The round robin format will see each team play four games over two-and-a-half days before the championship game is played at 3:00 Friday afternoon.
St. Joseph’s Prep has been a regular participant in the tournament in years past. Senior goaltender Rocco Bruno was in uniform in 2019, the last time the tournament was played. He recalls it as a highly competitive event and is expecting more of the same this time around.
“It was really competitive bracket that we were in,” he said of his freshman-year experience. “Most of the games weren’t blowouts. They were one, two-goal games. I don’t know what a lot of those teams are about this year but I’m expecting tough competition.”
Bruno is looking forward to being on the road with his teammates, all but one of whom, other than himself, will be skating in the tournament for the first time.
“It’s just a lot of fun, being on the road with everybody at these tournaments,” he said. “We did one in Florida my freshman year too. It just is a whole bunch of fun.”
The time on the road and between games allows the players to do some strategizing.
“Everybody’s focused on the weekend,” Bruno said, “and we get to spend time together to go over some things, plan out our games together as team. Just have a greater overall awareness for our next opponent.”
The tournament schedule does allow time for players to play tourist however, and enhance the educational value of the trip. Bruno recalls doing some sightseeing on his last trip to the Purple Puck Tournament.
“Me and a couple of my buddies on the team, we went up to Capitol Hill and the White House and saw everything,” he said. It was pretty cool. “You don’t get to do sightseeing a lot when you’re on hockey trips because usually games take up most of your time, but it was definitely cool to see some of the monuments and landmarks.”
It could be argued that a hockey goaltender occupies the most demanding position in any team sport More so than a quarterback in football, or a baseball pitcher, a goaltender puts his team his shoulders every time out.
Rocco Bruno has embraced that challenge. The St. Joseph’s Prep senior and Springfield Township, Delaware County resident has achieved success on the ice and in the classroom.
Bruno prides himself on his ability to maintain his concentration in the heat of battle. He considers that attribute that one of his strengths.
“It’s definitely (about) staying focused,” he said. “Not letting anything distract you. I’ve got to make sure I’m paying attention to my D-men and I’m talking to them.
I have to keep control of a lot of things at once, but I can’t get distracted by anybody other than who’s on the ice.”
Bruno has enhanced his ability to concentrate in the classroom as well, although admittedly that ability didn’t come easily. He learned about St. Joseph’s Prep though his coach, David Giacomin.
“I did a couple of open houses and I fell in love with the school,” Bruno recalls.
Adapting to academic rigors of St. Josephs Prep proved challenging at first.
“I definitely had to learn it the hard way,” Bruno said. “Freshman year was a struggle for me, just because I really didn’t know how to manage my time the correct way, but as the year went on, I started to figure stuff out. I took a lot of bad grades on tests but I definitely got in shape the last three years.”
Over time, Bruno learned that meeting his academic responsibilities while also playing high-school and club hockey demanded that he reorder his priorities.
Rocco Bruno (photo by. R. Woelfel)
“(Make) sacrifices honestly,” said. “A lot of late nights studying, a lot of early getting to school and finishing up things that I didn’t get done the night before. At school, in my free periods, getting work done, trying to stay ahead of the game so I don’t fall behind and just time management. Managing my time was the biggest part in making sure everything was done.”
Bruno has enjoyed his time at St. Joseph’s Prep and bonding with his teammates and classmates. “I’ve met a lot of great people there,” he said. “It’s something you have to be a part of to understand, honestly.”
Bruno sees the college application process as a reward for all the hours he’s spent pursuing better grades.
“The most satisfying thing has been just getting into the colleges,” he said. “It’s really weird right now for me because I’m going through the who college application process. Getting into colleges, and then acknowledging my hard word that I put into high school. It’s really, really refreshing.”
BRISTOL—A hockey fan couldn’t have wished for more. Tristan Winata’s goal 60 seconds into three-on-three overtime gave St. Joseph’s Prep a dramatic 3-2 win over Holy Ghost Prep Wednesday afternoon in an Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference game at Grundy Arena.
Winata’s game-winner, his second goal of the afternoon, came when he collected a feed from goaltender Rocco Bruno and put a backhander past Firebird netminder Colin Mudrick just moments after the Firebirds had a chance of their own.
The result squared the Hawks’ record at 1-1 in the APAC and 4-1 overall and came five days after a loss to Malvern Prep in their conference opener.
“It’s amazing to be part of that experience,” Bruno said. “The game was real tight, real close, the adrenaline was pumping, and it’s a great overall feeling to come out with a win.”
Bruno had as much to do with his team’s success as anyone in the building. The Firebirds (1-1 overall and in the the APAC) outshot the Hawks 46-25; Bruno finished his day’s work with 44 saves. He spoke to the importance of staying focused.
“Not letting yourself being distracted,” he said. “I’ve got to make sure I’m paying attention to my D-men and talking to them. I have to keep control of a lot of things at once, but I can’t get distracted by anybody other than who’s on the ice.”
St. Joseph’s Prep assistant coach Van Stefanou said Bruno’s play gave his teammates an energy boost but stressed the senior netminder had plenty of help.
“I think it gives our team a lot of momentum going forward,” he said. “Rocco played out of his mind, but our whole defensive corps, and even the forwards coming back and helping defensively out really turned it around especially from the last game. Our focus this game was to protect the house and our guys did just that.”
The Hawks took a 1-0 lead when Shane O’Neill scored from the high slot just inside the Holy Ghost Prep blue line 11:32 into the first period. Winata made it a 2-0 game during a power play at the 12:12 mark of the second frame.
But the Firebirds didn’t buckle. Kieran Mulholland and Brady Baehser scored goals five minutes apart and with 10:48 left in regulation it was a 2-2 game.
And as time marched on the level of play at both ends of the ice picked up, something even Gump Whiteside, the losing coach, could appreciate.
“That’s a great game,” he said. “Win, lose, or tie, two good teams playing.”
Whiteside was pleased with the way his troops recovered from the two-goal deficit.”
“I really liked the way our guts responded in the third period,” he said. “We did everything we wanted to do. I told the guys after the game, when you get to overtime, anything can happen. We had that opportunity early and it didn’t go our way.”
St. Joseph’s Prep 1 1 0 0 1—3
Holy Ghost Prep 0 0 2 0—2
Frost-period goal: Shane O’Neill (SJP) from Jeffrey Hammond and Tristan Winata, 11:32
Second-period goal: Winata (SJP) from Jake Schulz and Patrick Sweeney, 12:12 (pp)
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For more information about Holy Ghost Prep CLICK HERE
Elsewhere: Hun School 4 Father Judge 0—Four different players scored goals as the Raiders won their season opener from the host Crusaders on Wednesday. Ryan Levesque, Justin Laplante, Charles-Etienne Jette, and Ethan Estulin were the goal scorers.
Stephen Chen (21 saves) and Julian Arsenault (10) combined on the shutout.
Hun School 1 2 1—4
Father Judge 0 0 0—0
First-period goal: Ryan Levesque from Tyler James, Mark Gall, 16:38
Second-period goals: Justin Laplante, 9:33 (SH)
Third-period goal: Elian Estulin from Laplante, Marino
Hockey Happenings 