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Daniels, Williams spark Central to shutout win over Andover

Saturday, January, 16 By David Willis
Staff writer

TEWKSBURY — After 10 minutes of back and forth play, Central Catholic’s Johnny Daniels delivered a game-turning play against his hometown team.

The Andover resident picked off a pass at the Golden Warrior blue line, deked a defender and flipped the puck past the goalie for a shorthanded goal. That sparked the Raiders in a 3-0 victory over archrival Andover.

“I’ve played with a bunch of the (Andover) kids on select teams and we are pretty good friends,” said Daniels, who leads the team with six goals for the year. “So it feels great to play against your old teammates and beat them.

“Tommy (Evangelista) made a nice play pressuring the puck. I jumped on it, made a nice deke and shorthanders are tough, whenever you can make a play then it really takes the momentum away.”

This marked the second straight win for Central — the No. 6 team in Eastern Mass. — over the Golden Warriors, downing them in their first meeting on Dec. 28. The Raiders are 3-0-3 against Andover since the Warriors moved to Division 1 before the 2007-08 season.

“When we play these guys there’s a lot of emotion,” said Central coach Mike Jankowski. “There were a few too many penalties (13 combined). But when managed to stay even mentally. Johnny is coming along wonderfully, and that goal was big.

Daniels then set up the second goal of the day. He gathered in a loose puck and fired a perfect centering pass to Nick Leonard, who had to only slide the puck under Kyle Berthiaume’s pad 4:29 into the second period. Mike Bryant also had an assist on the goal.

Central continued to pressure and dictate the pace in the third period through physical play. Nick Pelerine then finished off the scoring with 6:26 left in the game, taking a pass from Evangelista and flipping it into the goal for his first career varsity tally.

Raiders sophomore Kyle Williams continued his emergence as one of the top goalies in the region, making 25 saves for his area-best third shutout of the season. That despite suffering an apparent knee injury after being knocked down hard during a skirmish in front of the net. He did not leave the game, and made his best save late when he flashed his glove to stop a hard slap shot.

“He’s unbelievable,” said Jankowski. “We tend to play in spurts, and he made some huge plays. He is always coming up big, and keeps the momentum in our favor. We are getting better and better.”

Despite allowing the three goals, Berthiaume was once again impressive, keeping the Golden Warriors (4-4-2) in the contest with 26 stops. He halted one breakaway with a stop with his right pad, and knocked away a point-blank blast with his left pad.