FRAMINGHAM — The Somerset Berkeley men's ice hockey players entered Thursday night's Division 3 Elite game with a heavy heart.
Before their game against No. 20 seed West Springfield, Raiders players were informed that head coach Kevin Snyder's father, George, had passed away at the age of 95 after a long illness. From there, the locker room theme became “Let's do it for the coach.”
“We can never lose this game.” [Coach]” said Nate Melo, who scored the first goal and eventual game-winner in SBR's 3-0 win over the Terriers. “This game was for him. He inspires us every game. I know every game we played we were playing for different purposes. But I knew I was playing this game for my coach and his father.”
The 12th-seeded Raiders (18-2-2) scored three goals in the third period to break a scoreless tie and advance to the Final Four for the first time in school history. They will play top-seeded Nauset on Sunday, time and location to be determined.
“This side of my family [in this locker room] My team has been excellent here.'' Asked about his team's reaction to the sad news, Snyder said, “Incredibly, I love these kids. It's unbelievable. It really is.'' .”
Senior goaltender Brandon Silva proved why he is the top goaltender in the state of Massachusetts. The Raider netminder made 33 saves, including two big stops on breakaways from Terriers leading scorer Gauvin Hall, for his second straight shutout.
After the match, Silva said with a somber expression, “We had a job to do, and we couldn't afford to lose today, the day my father passed away.''
Kane Stafford, a senior from Houston, Texas, said he was heartbroken before the game.
“I've only known Coach for a few years, but he's really become family to me,” said Stafford, who scored two goals, including an empty-netter in the third period. “I was really heartbroken and upset, but I knew we had something to do. We had to do it for him.”
Both teams had ample chances to score in the first two periods, but came up empty-handed. During the break before the third period, Snyder had a word with his team.
“We needed a push,” Snyder said. “We had to start that period with a push. I thought the first two periods were flat. The first period wasn't good at all. It wasn't our game. We could win a little bit in the second period. “I thought, 'I got a little bit better. But in the third period, I told them I need your best, and I got their best.'
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Melo's goal at 13:40 of the third period gave the Raiders the lead.
“Their defender screened the goalie a little bit, so he [goalie] It was low the whole game,” Melo said. “We tried to score it to the right of the goal. After we scored the goal, we stood up as fast as we could.”
Stafford made it 2-0 late in the game with a low shot under West Springfield netminder Troy Cashman. The Terriers pulled their goaltender at the last moment and Stafford collected the spilled puck to stop the game.
coach corner
Snyder couldn't say enough about the goaltender after another great performance between the pipes. “Brendon has been unbelievable the last two games,” he said. “He just comes to work hard every day and does his job. You saw it tonight. This is what he's been like all year. He comes to compete and puts in a lot of effort. That’s all I can ask for.”
statistics
West Springfield (14-10) outscored SBR 33-27 … Cashman found the back of the net early for the Terriers and finished with 25 saves … Adin Marcos, Dylan Messier , Jack Rothwell, Liam DeRocher, Mason Sullivan, Carter Silva and Gabriel Goncalves all contributed to the Raiders' victory.
Steven Sanchez, sports editor for the Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette, can be reached at ssanchez@heraldnews.com. You can follow him on Twitter @Chezsports.
