THIRD GEAR: Hun School boys’ hockey player Reed Doerler races up the ice last week in the Mercer County Tournament. Senior defenseman Doerler chipped in an assist to help top-seeded Hun win the MCT title for a third straight year as it defeated second-seeded Notre Dame 6-2 in the final last Friday at the Mercer County Park rink. Hun wrapped up its season last Sunday by falling 5-2 to Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) in the championship game of the Mid-Atlantic Invitational Tournament at the Hill School (Pa.). The Raiders finished the winter with a final record of 17-8-2. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Reed Doerler didn’t want to leave the ice last Friday evening after the Hun School boys’ hockey team defeated Notre Dame 6-2 to win its third straight Mercer County Tournament title.

After accepting the championship trophy as one of the team’s captains, senior defenseman Doerler lingered in the rink at Mercer County Park as his teammate made their way to the locker room.

“It is everything to me, this is the tournament I look forward to the most,” said a grinning Doerler after he finally left the ice.

“We play in states, we play in all sorts of tournaments but this one means the most. My brother (former Lawrence star Ross Doerler) played in it for four years and he got a chance to win and it is awesome to get that feeling.”

Doerler and his teammates were excited to face Notre Dame and Hun didn’t waste any time getting on the board as Raider junior star Blake Brown found the back of the net 45 seconds into the contest. The Irish answered back with a goal 24 seconds later to make it 1-1.

“It is such a pleasure playing them every year; they are a great team and some of those guys are my best friends, I play with them on the travel team the Lawrence Flames,” said Doerler.

“We were nervous, that is for sure. Every year we score in the first minute so we got up and it is no different. They got right back and we thought this is going to be tough. We battled and then they battled back; it is fortunate that we came out on top.”

Hun went on top to stay when junior Jon Bendorf scored with 6:10 left in the first period to make it 2-1. In the waning moments of the period, Doerler got in the act, setting up a second tally by Bendorf as he slid a pass into the crease which led to the goal.

“Jon gave me a wobbly pass and I got it on my stick and I was just trying to throw it in front of the net,” recalled Doerler.

“At the last minute, I was able to hit his back door and he made a really nice play.”

Notre Dame scored midway through the second period to narrow the Hun lead to 3-2. Minutes later, the Raiders restored their two-goal advantage when freshman Kyle Mandleur scored a power play goal. Brown scored two goals in the third period, including a short-handed empty net tally, as the Raiders pulled away to the 6-2 triumph.

“We had issues with penalties all year; I was saying guys you got to stay out of the box,” said Doerler.

“They didn’t listen and that is OK. Luckily we got the next empty net goal by Blake Brown and it was awesome.”

The guys on the team have shown a lot of respect for Doerler, having voted him and classmate Patrick Brake as assistant captains with senior goalie Diesel Pelke being chosen as captain.

“The fact that my teammates voted me assistant captain meant the world, it really did,” said Doerler.

“I left it all out there, that was probably the biggest thing. We all left it out there and I couldn’t be prouder of my team.”

Doerler has filled a number of different roles over his Hun career. “I started off on JV freshman year and I worked my way up to varsity through injuries,” said Doerler.

“Sophomore year, I was in the mix but in the shadows, not really too effective. Junior year was my best year aside from this one because I got to play forward. No one was expecting much and I did pretty well. This year, I had to come back and step back for defense and I have done it.”

Hun came into this season with high expectations and struggled a little bit as it went 1-4-2 in its first seven games.

“We definitely didn’t start out as strong as we had hoped, last year we had an amazing season with a 22-3 record,” said Doerler.

“This year we were OK, we have got what it takes but we have to put it together. We had some trouble, we were taking penalties and we weren’t moving the puck as well. The team wasn’t bonding as well. I think our trip to D.C. (for the Purple Puck tournament) over Christmas break brought it all together. We went on a tear, a ten-game winning streak; we were just killing it.”

Hun head coach Ian McNally sensed that his team was going to have it together as it faced Notre Dame for the third straight time in the MCT final.

“This is probably the game these guys get most excited about; their buddies are here, they get very excited,” said McNally.

“The preparation was not much for me, this is one where they get excited to play.”

The rivals certainly produced an exciting start with two goals in the first 1:09 of the contest.

“Whenever it is a big game and everybody is excited about it; we always seem to score right at the start of the period and we did it tonight twice,” said McNally.

“I don’t know if you can start hockey better than that with both teams scoring in the first couple of shifts.”

Hun dominated the scoring from there as its powerful offense got into gear.

“I think we are high risk, high reward; we took a lot of risks and we got a lot of rewards,” said McNally. “They scored a couple of goals the other way, that is kind of how it works.”

McNally credited junior star Bendorf, who was named the tournament MVP, with being the team’s catalyst.

“Jon is a very offensive player, he scored two goals of the first three or four that went in and set the tempo for us,” said McNally of Bendorf, who had two goals and three assists in the win over the Irish.

“He is unbelievably calm. The rush looks dead and he still has it. He just turns around and looks for something else to happen and passes to somebody else.”

It was something special for McNally to see Doerler savor his leadership role in helping Hun to the title.

“Reed is a guy you feel good for when you win the tournament, he has got a letter on his jersey,” said McNally.

“This is the first year we let the kids vote for captain. We let kids vote because we have so many older guys and let them feel the pulse of their own team. Reed was voted in by his peers and that is a statement about how everybody feels about him right there. As a result, we wanted to start him in the game where Tanner (Preston) gets most of the starts on defense. We switched it up today because Reed deserves that. His brother has played in the tournament; his mom and dad have been coming to CVC games for eight to 10 years now. It is big for that family.”

It was big for the program to get the third straight county title, a first in the tourney’s history.

“They are a very tight group; this was a different year than last year,” said McNally, whose team ended the year by falling 5-2 to Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) in the championship game of the Mid-Atlantic Invitational Tournament at the Hill School (Pa.) last Sunday to end the winter at 17-8-2.

“Last year was on cruise control, we couldn’t do any wrong and that is not realistic so this year was more adversity where guys had to come back from being down and come back after losing and come back after getting our butts kicked. There were lessons we never had to deal with last year so I think this is a great culmination.”

Doerler, for his part, is leaving with some great memories of playing for Hun the last four years.

“I am going to look back at the best group of kids I could have asked for and probably the best experience I could have ever had,” said Doerler.