South Xtra: Carrick returns as a factor in PIHL's Open Class
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Carrick hockey is back.
After three-and-a-half years of mediocre play, Carrick has played like the PIHL Open Class power it was throughout much of the previous decade.
The team carries a five-game winning streak into a game at Keystone Oaks Friday. That followed starts of 2-5 and 5-7 to the season and three consecutive non-winning seasons from 2008-09 to 2010-11.
For basis of comparison, Carrick went a combined 66-14-1 during a four-year span from 2004-08.
"I'm real happy with how we're playing recently," team captain Ryan Maurice said. "We've pulled some huge upsets ... We're playing as a team now, whereas before it was a lot of individual players. Now, the coaches have instilled in us that we have to play together as a team and it's really paying off.
"The way we've been playing these last couple weeks, we feel like we can win out the rest of the season and hopefully get a good seed in the playoffs."
Carrick would qualify for the postseason if it began today, and it would likely be the proverbial "team nobody wants to face" if it does make it.
"Things have been going pretty well for us the past few weeks," coach Chris Chiusano said. "We've been on a good streak, and at a good time, with the bulk of our schedule completed. It was pretty important for us to perform well, and the boys have definitely responded positively.
"That's put us in the position we're in now where we're well above .500 and definitely in the thick of things for the playoffs."
Competing in the PIHL's Open Class, Carrick is a team that operates under a cooperative agreement with other schools to create a team. Players come from Carrick, Brashear, Steel Valley and Brentwood high schools, as well as some who are home-schooled or study under cyberschools in the city of Pittsburgh.
"The locker room is real tight," said Ryan Maurice, a Brashear student. "We all get along real well -- Brashear, Carrick, Brentwood, it doesn't matter. We've become a team."
As the season has progressed, that's shown offensively. After scoring 41 goals over its first 12 games (3.4 per contest), Carrick has scored 21 in the past four (5.3 per game).
"We've been able to score some pretty timely goals," said Chiusano, who is in his ninth season. "Guys have really stepped up here in the past month and contributed a lot."
None more in recent seasons than Mark Granatire. A Brashear freshman, he has scored a goal in all but one of his past nine games to give him a team-high 16 on the season.
Granatire has 22 points, one fewer than team leader Nico Aggazio, a senior from Carrick. A defenseman, Maurice is third with 20 points, including a team-high 18 assists.
Junior alternate captain Jake Shrader is another one of the team's top forwards, as are Brashear High School freshmen Vinnie Maccarone and Tony Manuel. Juniors Joe Brinton, Chris Schmidt and Gino Oliverio, sophomore Trey Niccoli and seniors Caden Mitchell and Andrew Giel fill out the forward lines.
Physical senior defenseman Bobby Bowen is the team's other alternate captain, and senior goalie Josh Brown was recently named a PIHL player of the month. He also represented Carrick at the Open Class All-Star Game last month.
"He's been doing a great job keeping the puck out of the net, and the whole defense has been solid," Chiusano said.
"Really, that's what this team is built around. It's had that defense and goaltending, and this year we added a little more firepower on offense with a couple guys with pretty good hands who can put the puck in the net.
"We're not a team that's going to run away with any game, but we can keep it close, particularly against the better teams."
That was a problem, at times, for Carrick the past three seasons, when the team's numbers got pretty small in terms of roster size. But the cycle has come back around in a positive way, and the results are showing that.
"We think we can finish pretty strong here these last three games," Chiusano said. "Then we'll see what we can do in the playoffs. Maybe we'll surprise a couple teams."
First Published February 9, 2012 12:00 am
