By Bill Alden

Having lost a stellar group of nine seniors to graduation from last year’s squad, the Hun School boys’ hockey team will have a different look this winter.

“We have a lot of new faces but at the same time we still have a lot of guys who are familiar with the program and have been around for a few years,” said second-year Hun head coach Eric Szeker, who guided the Raiders to a 5-12 record last season. “One of the things I try to build is a good culture and that starts with the guys inside the locker room. They have done a really good job of making everybody feel welcome, whether it is the JV guys, the varsity guys, or new transfers, whatever it might be. There was a lot of excitement coming into the season.”

Hun started the season with two exciting games, falling 4-3 to Devon Prep (Pa.) last Thursday in its season opener and then skating to a 3-3 tie with Father Judge (Pa.) a day later.

“We got four to five older transfers into the school and we got some kids into the school who are young but very high skilled with a lot of room for growth,” said Szeker. “With that mixture, it might take us a game or two to find out who goes where. I think we are going to be a deeper team than we were last year.”

The Raiders boast depth at forward with the return of such veterans as junior Jack Beck, junior Anders Van Raalte, senior Luke Rassier, junior Justin Tong, junior Nate Trawinski, and senior Jake O’Connell.

“Jake is back, he looks just as good as he left off last season,” said Szeker, who got a goal from Van Raalte in the loss to Devon with O’Connell scoring two goals and Trawinski adding one in the tie with Father Judge. “He was awesome against Devon over all 200 feet, his game is solid in all zones. We have more returners like Luke and Justin. Jake has been part of the program for four years, he has been a mainstay here. It is great because experience is something you can only can get with time.”

The addition of a trio of transfers — junior Evan Koserowski, junior Luca Jean, and sophomore Justin Bibeau — should help give Hun more offensive firepower. Jean and Bibeau both scored goals against Devon.

“We brought in some older forwards as well,” said Szeker. “Evan is a great player along with Luca and Justin.”

A pair of freshmen — Devin Espana and Connor Mulligan — figure to bolster the Raider defensive unit.

“Devin played lights out last night against Devon for a freshman,” said Szeker. “Connor is a Princeton guy, he is playing defense right now. As things go along, we can shift him to forward, He is one of those kids who plays fearless and bigger than he is. He has got tremendous speed and hockey IQ.”

Junior Andrew Darst, junior Chase Preston, sophomore Andre Cline, and junior Ezra Broomer will also be seeing time on the blue line.

“We are lucky to have Andrew Darst back again, he scored some big goals for us last year as a sophomore,” said Szeker. “He played some major minutes and handled it really well. Chase unfortunately got injured early in the year last year but was playing great hockey for us. He is back and had an awesome game against Devon. We have some younger guys who have stepped up as well. Andrew Cline played some minutes last night and looked really good in the spots he was put in at. Ezra practiced with varsity a lot last year. He is playing 18 AA this year which was really good prep for him to get ready for the level that we play.”

At goalie, postgraduate Elliott Wong and senior Patrick Donoghue provide leadership and skill.

“Elliott is a tremendous goalie and a tremendous human, he is mature beyond his years,” said Szeker. “He is a great leader, he has an amazing work ethic. He is somebody I couldn’t be more thrilled to have in our program. Patrick is phenomenal skill-wise, there is no question there, but he has become more vocal in the room and in practices. He is on guys to communicate a bit more. He does it in the right way and guys are receptive to him. The maturity and the leadership I have seen in him is really stepped up.”

With Hun returning from the Thanksgiving break to play at LaSalle College High School (Pa.) on December 4, at the Haverford School (Pa.) on December 6, and at the Pingry School on December 9, the Raiders will be focusing on tightening up things defensively.

“We are going to have to take care of the defensive zone, that is going to be our biggest area,” said Szeker. “We play some really good teams and they are going to have high flying forwards. The bright side about this team is that we also have a lot of forwards that are good. We are going to get our opportunities to score goals. It is making sure that we don’t cheat on the defensive side trying to get more goals. If we do that, we are going to leave our goalies in some tough spots.”

In Szeker’s view, his players are developing the tough mentality needed to compete with that gauntlet of foes.

“The results are going to be what they are, we want to win a lot of games obviously, like any athlete or competitor,” said Szeker. “The way you approach things is you come to practice every day, mentally prepared and physically prepared, all of those things. If you are checking those boxes, the results are going to come. It may not come when you want but if you stick to it you will get to where you want to be. We are heading in that direction and I would definitely say we are a couple of steps ahead of where we were last year.”