Kennedy/Put Valley Ice Hockey Team Enjoys a Turnaround Season

PUTNAM VALLEY—The John F. Kennedy/Putnam Valley high ice hockey team finished dead last in a weak league last season at 2-15-1. This year the Gaels were thrown into a much tougher league along with Brewster, Carmel, Ossining, Pawling, Yorktown, Mahopac and Lakeland/Panas. It was a pretty successful season, as the Gaels finished 12-6-3 overall and 8-4-2 in league play.

Steve Santini SKIP PEARLmAN That record earned the Gaels third place in their league and gave them a bye in the first round of the playoffs. Unfortunately, JFK/PV lost to Yorktown in the second round, and the Huskers went on to lose in the section championship to Rye.

“It was a pretty solid season, we started and finished strong,” said coach Steve Santini. “Despite the playoffs and the bump we hit in the middle of the year due to injuries and some missing guys, I thought we were solid. But to climb out of the cellar and get a bye in the first round is pretty good.”

Dylan Rooney SKIP PEARLmAN Four players grabbed post-season honors. Steve Santini earned All-Section and All-League honors, Dylan Rooney was named All-League, Sam Loizeaux and Chris Considine each earned All-League Honorable Mention accolades.

“Santini had a good year, he’s an offensive defenseman and found ways to score,” said Santini. “We really let our defenseman loose this year, Santini and Rooney were able to capitalize on that. Rooney was converted from a forward to a defenseman for the good of the team and he still found ways to contribute. Considine was big for us as well, we didn’t always get a ton of production from our guys up front, but he was able to help us out. Loizeaux is a freshman and was one of our best defenseman. He’s a big strong kid with a lot of talent.

Mike Tierney and Luke Martin didn’t get awards but each had a solid year for us,” added Santini. “Tierney was out half of the season, when he got back it really energized us and that is when we started playing well again. Martin was our only goalie and he played every minute of every game and didn’t even miss a practice. He got better as the season went along and his hard work really showed.”

The Gaels only lose four seniors to graduation in Ian Reynolds, Morgan Bisceglia and starters Rooney and Considine.

“We are going to miss our seniors,” said Santini. “We will miss their leadership, they have been good for us for some years and we will miss what they brought to the team.”

Santini was happy with the success his team had this season, but made it clear that he looks to keep it all going next year and beyond.

“We look to build on this turnaround. We lose some guys but so does everybody,” said Santini. “Half of our roster was underclassmen and now we have Tierney a whole year and a strong senior goalie in Martin. Some of the younger guys will need to step up and we should be fine.”