Preseason game a chance for staff to evaluate prospective Jacks

There were plenty of new faces on the bench as the Wellesley Applejacks played their first preseason game at the St. Clements arena on Sunday. And while the young group – largely absent veteran Jacks who have already signed on for the year – fell 4-1 to the Mitchell Hawks, head coach Brad Gerber was

There were plenty of new faces on the bench as the Wellesley Applejacks played their first preseason game at the St. Clements arena on Sunday.

Brett Coverdale brings the puck through the neutral zone during the Applejacks’ 4-1 preseason loss to the Mitchell Hawks Aug. 30 at the St. Clements arena.[Scott Barber / The Observer] — Brett Coverdale brings the puck through the neutral zone during the Applejacks’ 4-1 preseason loss to the Mitchell Hawks Aug. 30 at the St. Clements arena. [Scott Barber / The Observer]

And while the young group – largely absent veteran Jacks who have already signed on for the year – fell 4-1 to the Mitchell Hawks, head coach Brad Gerber was pleased with the effort level he saw on the ice.

“I was quite impressed; they all worked hard,” he said, noting that of the 14 players that are already officially on the roster, just two were in the lineup on Sunday.

That was by design, Gerber added, since the club’s coaching staff and management are still looking to pare down the list in camp from 28 to 22.

“There were a lot of rookies playing,” Gerber said. “For a lot of the guys, it was their first Junior hockey game and the nerves definitely showed at times, but overall, we were quite impressed with what we saw.”

The Hawks opened the scoring 4:51 into the first period on an unassisted goal by Will Marcy.

In the second, they added three more, including a pair by Haden Favacho and one by Joe McCarthy.

Brady Gerber got the Jacks on the board 13:24 into the final frame, but that was as close as they’d get. Spencer Brick and Colton Bates picked up the assists.

While they came up short on the scoreboard, the coaching staff was encouraged by the size of the players vying for spots on the team.

“We were quite impressed with the size of the guys,” Gerber said. “That’s one thing that we thought about last year, was that the team was a little small. I wasn’t around last year to see that, although I did watch some of their games, but the talk was that we were a smaller team last year. … But we will be bigger, and while we’re still fairly young we do have some size.”

Camp resumed Wednesday evening with the Jacks skating in St. Clements at 9 p.m. With a couple more weeks remaining before the regular season begins in Woodstock September 18, Gerber and Jacks general manager Bill Grebinski will be busy taking an even closer look at the guys still in camp, while also looking to see if there are any players cut from Junior B clubs that are interested in joining the fray.

“We’ve got our numbers down to about 28 now but there still are some late Junior B cuts that are being done now,” Gerber said. “We are still kind of waiting on that and again, being affiliated with Elmira, they have been really good sending players our way when they release them. So there are still players out there that might be looking for a place to play and our door is always open. We’ve got some tough decisions, but they’re good decisions that we have to make.”