SHERMAN’S MARCH: Princeton Day School boys’ hockey player David Sherman heads up the ice in a game earlier this season. Last Wednesday, senior star Sherman wrapped up his PDS career as the Panthers fell 3-1 to LaSalle College High (Pa.) in their season finale. PDS ended the winter with a 7-11-1 record. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

David Sherman was disappointed that the Princeton Day School boys’ hockey team lost 3-1 to LaSalle College High (Pa.) last Wednesday to wrap up its season but that isn’t what will come to his mind when he looks back on his final high school game.

“It hit me in waves, I have been done with club so it was my last hockey game,” said Sherman.

“I don’t know any other way I would want it to go. Obviously a win would have been good but that is not what I am going to remember about this game. I will remember having fun with my team and playing for the school.”

Trailing 2-1 entering the third period, the Panthers pressed forward repeatedly but couldn’t get the tying goal and LaSalle tallied on an empty net goal in the last minute of the contest to seal the win.

“We have had trouble scoring all year,” said Sherman. “We put in a lot of effort, we really wanted it. It didn’t go our way. It is going to happen.”

Even though PDS ended with a 7-11-1 record, a lot of good things happened over the course of the season.

“The Lawrenceville game was a highlight, winning that was awesome, it was awesome for the school in my last year,” said Sherman, referring to the team’s 3-2 overtime win against the Big Red on January 23.

“Scoring that goal against Hun felt good too (an overtime tally in a 4-3 victory on December 18) and beating Delbarton (2-1 on January 9). Our coach [Scott Bertoli] was saying even though our record wasn’t the best this year, it was one of the first years that we beat Delbarton and Lawrenceville in the same year. I am happy we can achieve something like that for the year.”

As a four-year member of the program, Sherman was happy to assume more leadership responsibility this winter.

“I got assistant captain a few weeks into the season and stepped into that role,” said Sherman, whose fellow seniors included his twin bother Justin, Chris Cecila and Stephan Gorelenkov. “We had a lot of younger guys so we had to show them the ropes. It was a great team.”

Sherman had a great experience playing with his twin brother. “I am going to miss it, we are going to different schools,” said Sherman. “I am going to Columbia, he is going to Princeton. We have been playing together for 12 years, it is awesome having a twin. We were d-partners, we obviously had pretty good chemistry. I could send him a telepathic message, I am going to miss that a lot.”

PDS head coach Scott Bertoli is going to miss his senior group. “They were great, unfortunately Justin missed a majority of January due to a couple of injuries,” said Bertoli.

“We delayed on selecting captains because I wanted to see these guys work through training camp and preseason. It was a tremendous group.”

Bertoli credited David Sherman with having a tremendous final campaign.

“He was outstanding, he is such a versatile kid,” said Bertoli.  “Last year he played a little bit on defense, which was encouraging. He had some unbelievable games. Unfortunately because of injuries and Luke [Antonacci] not always being available we didn’t always get to see him up at forward. He would have really complemented [Michael] Sullo nicely.”

The tough loss to LaSalle in the finale exemplified a season which saw PDS come up just short in a number of tight contests.

“We have had 12 one-goal games, today was a microcosm of our season,” said Bertoli.

“When we got into these one-goal games earlier in the year, we were finding ways to get it done. We had some really good results. We beat Lawrenceville which is probably the best team on our schedule. I can’t put a finger on it, we just didn’t score goals this year.”

On the flip side, PDS tightened up defensively. “In a lot of ways we grew, defensively we were unbelievable,” asserted Bertoli.

“Coming into the Holy Ghost game ( a 3-2 loss on February 10), I think we had given up 2.2 goals a game over the last 10 against the best stretch of our schedule but we only scored two goals a game.”

The paucity of goals led the Panthers to be less freewheeling. “It gives you no margin for error and that was hard,” said Bertoli.

“It almost forced us to play a style that isn’t what we encouraged because four of our better players are older defensemen and they are encouraged to hang on to the puck and push the play more because we had some younger kids up front.”

Looking ahead, Bertoli is encouraged by what his younger players bring to the table.

“There are a lot of kids who grew this year,” said Bertoli. “In the second half of the year, Timmy [Miller] was outstanding in net. We have a lot of young kids who really made some strides. I think the one kid that has come further than anyone is Oliver Hall. There are a lot of things to look forward to. We have a bunch of kids interested in coming here next year. I had a lot of fun. We got back to teaching the fundamentals and teaching the basics.”

Sherman, for his part, had a lot of fun this winter. “Coach Bert is a smart guy, he knows how to push us,” said Sherman.

“All of our coaches, Tommy [Davis], Perry [Roscioli], and Adam [Shemansky], and the kids were great. We weren’t sure how it was going to go this year with such a young team and it went awesome.”