Friday, May 4, 2018

RECAP AND PHOTOS: Shrewsbury gets Possessive against Grafton

Mason Kohn controlled possession for Shrewsbury all day, winning 18 of 19 faceoffs against Grafton.
Story by Ryan Morgera (@RyanMor_ASSCO)

Photos by Sydney LaQue (@SydneyLaque)


Ed. Note: Continue below for a photo gallery from the Colonials' big win over the Indians. Click any image to enlarge and launch a slideshow.

Mason Kohn has controlled the faceoff X for the Shrewsbury Colonials all season, and Wednesday was no different, as Kohn helped the Colonials push past Grafton, 13-6, with his dominant performance at the X.

Kohn won 18-19 faceoffs, which helped the Colonials keep possession for a very high percentage of the game. He started off the game with a faceoff win, which led to a long possession for Shrewsbury and eventual Alex Cashman goal. Cole Russo followed that up with one of his own to make the score 2-0.

“Mason on the faceoff draws is huge” said Shrewsbury senior captain Chris Campbell. “It’s make it take it for us, we know if there’s a man down and they score we will get the ball back to try and get another goal. The kid’s a stud, he’s a tremendous leader, and he’s definitely going to play at the next level somewhere. We’re really lucky to have him."

Shrewsbury Head Coach Nate Skermont feels that Kohn “is a game changer at X”. “We respect the heck out of Grafton and what their program has accomplished so we know that being able to get more possessions than them would put us in a position to be successful.”

Grafton’s Jake McCue followed with a nifty goal of his own to get within one of the Colonials, but it wasn’t long until Chris Campbell caused a turnover for the Colonials, led a fast break, then fed to Kohn for his first goal of the day. Score 3-1 Colonials at the end of the first.

Grafton started the scoring in the second when Johnny Malloy found the back of the net off a rip from the top of the box. Campbell was flagged on the play, so Grafton was on man up, but just seconds into the penalty, Shrewsbury drew a penalty and then killed the clock, and they were now on a man up.

Senior Kyle Spagnuolo (1G, 2A) took advantage for the Colonials as he found the back of the cage, followed by Cashman with his second, and two straight goals from Alec Buduo (2G 4A). This pushed the score to 7-2 Colonials.

Steve Rotatori added his first to bring the score to 7-3 Colonials. Mason Kohn added his second, and then Rotatori scored his second as time expired in the second quarter to make the score at the half 8-4 Shrewsbury.

The Colonials outscored Grafton 5-2 in the second half, with goals coming from Russo (3G, 2A), Jackson Lane (1G), Kohn (3G, 1A, and Cashman (3G).

Offensively, the Colonials were able to get on the board early and never turn back.

Kohn said “we scored a couple quick goals early”, and was “just excited to be able to put up 13 (goals) and get a big win today.”

Defensively, the Colonials held Grafton to just 15 shots today. Shrewsbury goalie Mike Fornal had 8 saves in today’s game, which gave the Colonials defense a boost when they needed it.

Senior Jack Tepper said the Colonials “stayed physical and communicated on the slides to keep them from shooting.” He also added that “also when we saw a ground ball we all went on the attack to get the ball back to our offense.” Senior Nick Perron and Junior Sean Vroman helped Tepper on the back end today, which held Grafton to just 7 goals, who’s only losses on the season came when scoring 7 or fewer goals.

Coach Skermont thought that the Colonials “played solid 6 on 6 defense and our footwork and communication was much better than it has been recently.” He also felt the Colonials “clears were nicely executed and that’s attributed to a very spirited practice yesterday.”

Shrewsbury (5-6) takes on Tantasqua tomorrow at 4PM at Tantasqua Regional High School.

Grafton (6-4) plays Nipmuc next Tuesday at 4PM at Nipmuc Regional High School.

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