ORLEANS — The Charles Moore Arena is always packed when Nauset plays, and Wednesday, Feb. 5 was no exception. The fans who arrived early enough to find seats drummed on the walls whenever the Warriors scored and erupted in a chorus of boos when their opponents did the same.
The enthusiasm is deserved: the boys hockey team is undefeated this season, with 15 wins and 1 tie as of Tuesday, Feb. 11. That places them at the top of the MIAA Division 3 rankings and on track to land the number-1 seed in the postseason tournament for the second year in a row. After suffering a 1-0 loss to Marblehead in last year’s State Championship, the Warriors hit the ground running in a shot at redemption.
Nauset bested Martha’s Vineyard (8-7-2) 7-1 on Feb. 5, marking its second win of the season against the Division 4 team. The previous win, 3-0 on Jan. 16, was one of seven games so far this season in which the Warriors didn’t allow a single goal by their opponents. The others were against Triton, Sandwich, Weymouth, Hopkinton, Norwell, and last Saturday in an away contest at Malden Catholic.
Wednesday’s win was also the ninth in a now 10-game winning streak since the team’s 2-2 tie against Milton (7-3-7) on Jan. 8. The team played aggressively, never letting up the pressure on Martha’s Vineyard even as the Warriors pulled too far ahead for their opponents to have a realistic shot at a comeback. By the third period, a few rude Nauset fans in the stands were shouting that the Vineyarders should just give up because they might miss their boat home.
But Martha’s Vineyard didn’t give up. Goalie Henry Wansiewicz stood firm until the end as the Warriors launched an all-out assault made more dizzying by a series of fake-out passes. Meanwhile, Nauset’s goalie, senior Zach Coelho, crouched comfortably on his side of the rink, easily corralling the rare shot that made its way to him before returning it to his relentless forwards.
Three of the Warriors’ seven goals on Feb. 5 were scored by team captain and center forward Logan Poulin, a senior who has played with the Warriors since the 2022-23 season. That accounts for a tenth of the 30 goals he’s scored this season, with 17 additional points for assists, making Poulin the Warriors’ top scorer. Alternate captain Colin Ward has scored 14 goals and 7 assists so far this season.
“It feels awesome,” Poulin said of his team’s performance. “I’m not a big stats guy looking at records, but it’s definitely good keeping that undefeated record — something we want to keep going.”
Poulin said he likes to take things one game at a time and one practice at a time, relying on his coach, Connor Brickley, to give the team the guidance they need to succeed.
“He doesn’t overlook any member of the team,” Poulin said. “and that’s what keeps us strong.”
Brickley started coaching Nauset’s boys hockey team during the 2022-23 season, the same year Poulin joined. Before that, he coached the girls. That year, Brickley said, he started a push to “change the culture” around high school hockey on Cape Cod — taking advantage of a powerful team to build the enthusiastic community present at Warriors games this year.
“The community down here is great,” Brickley said. “They love hockey, so we put on a pretty good show.”
Brickley said word of mouth is the Warriors’ best advertisement. As the team saw more success last season, the number of spectators began to snowball, with fans posting on social media and inviting their friends to come to games.
And the team is clearly exceptional. “We have a strong nucleus of kids that are willing to work really hard to go after the state tournament again,” said Brickley.
Poulin stands at the center of that nucleus. He “leads on the ice,” said the coach, setting the pace of the game for everyone else: he moves fast and chases the puck relentlessly, rarely letting his opponents get out of their defensive zone. When they do, Brickley said, the Warriors just attack again.
Poulin is humble about his ability and credits his wingmen, junior Jacob Eldredge on his right and sophomore Samuel Mayhew on the left. The three are a nearly unstoppable force on the ice, with Eldredge in particular staying open for breakout passes to control the puck in the offensive zone.
“We want to score as many goals as we can,” Eldredge said. “We want to keep dominating.”
That hunger to score, Eldredge added, is what drove him to become a forward. When he started playing hockey at age five with friends from his kindergarten class, he was the goalie, but as he grew he wanted to be up front and ended up as the Warriors’ right wing when he joined the team in 2022. He says that hearing the crowd cheer when he scores a goal is “the best feeling in the world.”
Those cheers have only grown louder since Eldredge joined the team. “It’s the culture we’ve built,” he said.
With the postseason fast approaching, Eldredge said the Warriors’ biggest rivals are the Scituate Sailors (13-3-2). Nauset won both times the teams faced off this year, but Scituate put up a tougher fight than any other opponent, with the Warriors winning 5-4 on Dec. 26 and 2-1 on Feb. 1. Those close matches stand out in a season otherwise marked by lopsided victories — the only other time Nauset won by a margin of less than 3 points was a 4-2 victory against Falmouth (7-10-1) on Jan. 29.
The Sailors are currently ranked fourth in the division, just below Marblehead (15-2-1) in third place and Medfield (17-0-1) in second. All three teams made it to the quarterfinals last year.
Nauset will play its last game of the regular season on Wednesday, Feb. 19 against 35th-ranked Pembroke (5-10-2). The top 32 teams in Division 3 will qualify for postseason, with the highest seeds playing the lowest-ranked teams in each round.
Preparations for the upcoming matches, Poulin said, won’t look any different than usual. “We’ll put our heads down and work as hard as we can,” he said. “We’re going to get the job done, regardless of where we’re playing.”
