CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — In front of hundreds of NHL and junior scouts, college coaches and agents, Mid Fairfield captured the USHL Fall Classic 14U Division championship over the weekend.
Led by Boston College commit Charlie Leddy on defense, the team defeated two talented teams in Saturday’s playoff action. Mid Fairfield downed Minnesota Blades, 3-1, in the semifinal before ousting Little Caesars, 1-0, in the final.
Perhaps most impressively, Mid Fairfield played without three of its top forwards. In addition to Leddy, the team’s most notable players were goaltender Brendan Holohan, defenseman Christian Wood and forwards Beanie Richter and Nicholas Capasso.
Their full roster can be found at the bottom of this story.
USHL news and notes
The leading scorer in the USHL after two games is UMass Lowell commit Matt Brown, a forward with the Des Moines Buccaneers. The Woodridge, N.J., native had a hat trick and three assists in a lopsided 10-5 win over the Chicago Steel on Friday night. He had an assist in the team’s 5-2 win over the Madison Capitols on Thursday. For his efforts, he was named the USHL Player of the Week.
Brown’s linemate, Shrewsbury, Mass., native T.J. Walsh, is also off to a hot start with two goals and two assists. The Boston College commit battled injuries the past couple of seasons with Cushing and the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.
U.S. NTDP U18 left wing Matthew Boldy continues to impress scouts. After a huge performance in the USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game, the Millis, Mass., native had a goal and an assist in the team’s 5-4 shootout win over Sioux Falls Stampede on Saturday. Boldy, whose feet were questioned while he was playing with Dexter, has improved that part of his game and his hockey sense is as good as it gets in this draft class. Talk among NHL scouts is the Boston College commit will likely be picked somewhere between Nos. 5 and 8 come the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver.
Marblehead, Mass., native Matt Koopman had two goals over the weekend with the Waterloo Black Hawks. He and Kyle Koopman, his brother and teammate, are both committed to Providence.
Former BC High and Dexter star Ian Murphy picked up his first USHL goal in Tri-City Storm’s 2-1 win over Madison on Friday night. Originally committed to Williams for this season, Murphy reopened his recruiting process and to give Division 1 another shot.
Defenseman Ryan Carmichael logged a lot of ice time for the Fargo Force, the defending the Clark Cup champions. The former Brunswick standout from Greenwich, Conn. was slated to play for Middlebury College this winter, but decided on junior hockey instead. After an impressive camp, he’s now committed to Notre Dame for 2019-20.
Mid Fairfield 14U Roster
- 2 – Nicholas Capasso F
- 7 – Colin Eschricht D
- 9 – Connor Welsh F
- 10 – James Shannon F
- 11 – Beanie Richter F
- 12 – Connor Colucci D
- 13 – Nikolas Cadoret D
- 14 – Anthony Protomastro F
- 16 – Frankie D’Ancona F *
- 17 – Andon Cerbone F *
- 19 – William Richards D
- 21 – Charlie Leddy D
- 22 – Jake Manfre F
- 27 – Ivan Kovalev F *
- 30 – Brendan Holohan G
- 33 – Gavin Moffatt G
- 40 – Christian Wood D
*Indicates didn’t play at USHL Fall Classic due to injury
