Submitted by Liz Cowles
While the Bedford 7th/8th grade Middle School hockey team has a record of 4-1-1, not many people expected the team to win last Sunday night against Littleton. The team had already tied and lost to Littleton in previous contests this year. But even more daunting for the Bedford Junior Bucs team was that they, due to injuries and other commitments only had 7 skaters and a goalie. Most hockey teams typically have at least 13 skaters for a game.
Instead of the typical “line change” seen in most hockey games, the Bedford team would be subbing 1-2 players each time while the other team would be sending out multiple fresh lines of players. During one 10 minute stretch, Bedford even went down to only 6 skaters due to one of the players receiving a misconduct penalty. But on Sunday night while the rest of the town was watching the Patriots game, the Junior Bucs kept skating, never letting their tired legs slow them down, and ended up winning the game 4-1.
Goals were scored by AJ Folds, Spencer Guenthe, (both from Hanscom) and Joe Hegarty. Outstanding defense and goal tending was provided by Zack Chase, Chris Cowles, Will Hegarty, Robbie Meehan and Michael Vaughan. Not present at the game on Sunday night but contributing to the team’s success during the season were players Ryan Flynn, Matt Barr, Chris Walsh, Billy Helms, Joe Lyons and Noah Parenti.
The Bedford Junior Bucs Hockey program was started 8 years ago with the intent of allowing the Bedford hockey players to play together in their years leading up to high school. This program has contributed to the continued success of the BHS varsity hockey program over the past three years. Normally the players are on teams with mostly Lexington players in the Lexington Bedford Youth Hockey program. The Junior Bucs program gives Bedford skaters a chance to play on teams that are composed of all local players in addition to their LBYH teams.
This year the team was very happy to include Hanscom 8th graders who will be joining the Bedford players at Bedford High School next year. With growing numbers of younger hockey players in Bedford, for the first time the Junior Bucs program has two teams , with the 5th/6th grade team also having had much success this season.
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