Louis Marobella is a stout shutdown defenseman for Belmont Hill. (Brian Kelly/NEHJ)
When I compiled my Next 15 rankings (teams 11-25) before the season, I put Belmont Hill at No. 12.
“Had David Bosco (Winchester, Mass.), Jake Tavares (Belmont, Mass.) and Brady Sloper (North Andover, Mass.) stuck around, Belmont Hill would be a top-five team,” I wrote at the time. “But all three opted for the USHL, leaving Belmont Hill to be young and unproven — at least to start.”
The Sextants have been inconsistent at times — see: two straight losses to St. Sebastian’s and Thayer roughly two weeks ago — but they’ve also taken care of business. And they’ve done so with a younger lineup.
Seniors Patrick Woods (Charlestown, Mass.), Matthew Carolan (Stow, Mass.) and Evan Jones (Arlington, Mass.) have supplied quite a bit of scoring, but so, too, have sophomores Nick Ware (Weymouth, Mass.), Robert DeKleine, Jackson Burns (Wellesley, Mass.) and Alex Guo (Weston, Mass.). Freshman Sam Lee (Woburn, Mass.) is tied for the most goals (11) and points (21) on the team, and continues to look like a U.S. National Team Development Program candidate.
In net, junior Ethan Bauer (Belmont, Mass.) and senior JJ Thibodeau (Waltham, Mass.) are splitting. Thibodeau has been strong with a 2.45 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage, while Bauer has completely broken out with a 1.69 GAA and a .946 save percentage.
I’m not shocked that it’s finally happened, but as of Jan. 26, Belmont Hill is a top-five team.
Let’s dive into my latest rankings.