By: Joe Cicchino - Sports Information Assistant

PHILADELPHIA -- Germantown Academy's ice hockey team found themselves in familiar territory on Thursday. The team had navigated the regular season and earned a spot in the Independence Hockey League for the third consecutive year. Unlike the previous two years, the Patriots were able to come out on top, defeating The Pennington School, 6-1.

GA had beaten Pennington twice earlier this season by a combined scored of 17-0. According to Head Coach John Fields, those games were never mentioned by the players and that is what got the team over the hump.

"They were just focused," Fields said. "I think last year they took it for granted. We beat Pennington twice this year, but nobody said a word. Not one person on the team said 'we beat them before.'"

Fields said that while he's happy the team got the win, he's even happier for the seniors who have been with the team for four years. The seniors proved to be an important factor in the win, as three of the six goals came from upperclassmen.

GA got the scoring going early with a goal from Philip Herman '20. Andrew Miao '18 and Tyler Dolan '18 each added a goal, and gave the Patriots a 3-1 lead after one period. Fields said that those early goals helped settle the team down.

"Everyone started to get a little rammy," Fields said. "They all got their emotions in check after that."

Following that first period, GA showed their dominance. The team outscored the Red Raiders 3-0 over the final two periods with goals from Moseley Schwartz '20, Dolan and Timothy Landmesser '19. 

"We stuck to our gameplan," Fields said. "We knew they didn't have a deep bench, so we wanted to keep the puck deep, wear them down, be relentless on the puck and take advantage of it as the game went on."

Despite the lead, the team was not comfortable. It was not until about eight minutes were left in the game when they started to relax. Fields mixed in other players, allowing them all to get one more run on the ice in front of the fans who made the trip to cheer them on.

"It was really a full school win," Fields said. "The support from the school means so much. The team knows who was here, they saw their friends in the stands, it means a million bucks to have everybody here."

Germantown Academy finishes the season with a 13-1 overall record and a perfect 12-0 record against league opponents.