Nauset Unveils Banner, Continues Winning Ways In First Game As Defending Champs

ORLEANS – With the Nauset boys hockey team’s final practice of the preseason winding down last Friday, head coach Connor Brickley gathered everyone in a huddle at center ice for some last words the night before the Warriors’ 2025-26 opener.

They’d unveil the banner at Charles Moore Arena for last season’s championship-winning team, Brickley’s message went, and then it would be time to turn the page.

The next night, nine months after winning the Division 3 state tournament and bringing a state hockey title to North Eastham for the first time, Nauset turned that page so hard it may have ripped. Against Plymouth North on Saturday, three Warriors — freshman Alex Schiffenhaus, junior Cole Jansen and sophomore Seamus Connolly — notched their first varsity career points in a 6-1 win to begin Nauset’s year as defending champs.

Schiffenhaus, starting on the first line in his debut, scored a few minutes into the game (assisted by senior Jake Eldredge and junior Sam Mayhew) to put the Warriors ahead 1-0 — the inaugural step in Nauset’s forthcoming journey to repeat as Division 3 champions. A number of new names dot the lineup making the quest to follow up on 2024-25’s undefeated team. They join 17 returning players from last year. 

That veteran group had one final well-earned moment to relish last season’s glory before puck drop when the banner for last year’s state title-winning roster was revealed inside Nauset’s buzzy home rink pregame.

“We have one at school, but to have one in the rink too is just awesome,” Eldredge said. “All our names are on there, so that's just always going to be in the rink when I come back, when my kids are playing. Should be sweet to see. Should be awesome.”

In attendance, and helping with the unveiling, were graduated members of that championship team — some of the six-strong senior core crucial to everything Nauset accomplished the previous season. This year’s team, perhaps in contrast, knows they’ll have to draw on their scoring depth to succeed. Saturday’s opening night performance proved as much.

Senior Brody Bassett found the back of the net off an assist by junior Colin Sullivan a couple minutes into the second period, then Eldredge — Nauset’s Cape and Islands League All-Star first-line captain center — scooped and scored a loose puck jarred by a hit at the boards. Junior Cole Jansen (assisted by sophomore Jaxen Meads and Sullivan), senior Oscar Escher and Bassett (assisted by senior Max Lanzetta and Connolly) scored in the third. Sophomore Patrick Shea recorded the win in goal.

“I think there's a lot of guys that are definitely energized and excited to have a bigger role within the team,” Brickley said the night before Nauset’s first game. “They've always been there. We've had some players ahead of them that have been executing on a little bit of a higher scale, but now I think they're very excited to be able to showcase themselves, because they're definitely ready. So there's definitely a lot of guys that are hungry to be able to take on a bigger role and leave their mark on the program as well.”

Nauset has also been developing, in particular, offensive upside on the back end — in defensemen like Escher, Lanzetta and senior Logan Miller — over the past couple years.

“I think they're ready to be given a little bit more responsibility to create a lot more offense, and I think that that is also going to be a nice big part of our team,” Brickley said.

The Warriors haven’t lost a game in the regular season since 2023 (as of The Chronicle’s deadline). The last time Nauset lost any game was when they fell in the Division 3 state title game two years ago. Now as defending champs, there’s an understanding that every opposing team they face will bring their best. They’ll skate a little faster and hit a little harder in seeking to be the ones to deliver that first loss. 

But Nauset still plans to take it one game, one shift even, at a time, Brickley said. The knowledge that every game will be more hard-fought than usual is being taken as an opportunity to stay sharp.

With that, the Warriors will have to hold themselves to the standard of play they demonstrated Saturday, Eldredge said — one in which the entire depth chart was clicking.

“When we get that first loss, we're going to see how we hold up as a team,” he said. “And every team is just going to be gunning to give us that first loss.”

To Brickley, the goal right now as the season starts is just to get better every single game leading into the end of the year. The good habits are building. They try to keep it simple: stay locked in, stay very present, enjoy the moment, enjoy the battle, enjoy the compete. They know too that it won’t always be perfect, but if they showcase their brand of hockey every single night, the byproduct of that — their body of work — will reflect in the win-loss column. 

It reflected to be sure — with the banner, the breezy win, the teamwide output — on opening night.