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Photo by Mike Norris
Peabody's "Three Amigos" (from left) Matt Rodgers, Andrew Bucci and Derrik Pereira first lined up together way back in Peabody Mites. The powerhouse trio has accounted for 144 points this year while helping lead the Tanners to the NEC North title. |
by Bob Albright
PEABODY - Those hanging around the McVann-O’Keefe Rink the last two winters have been presented with one unalienable truth: whoever said that bad things come in threes never got the chance to watch Matt Rodgers, Andrew Bucci and Derrik Pereira pass the puck around.
Peabody’s historic “Three Amigos” line took to the ice in Tuesday night’s tournament opener against Danvers as the most productive, and dynamic, threesome in the program’s illustrious history. The numbers are simply eye-popping. This year alone the Tanners’ terrific trio have accounted for a whopping 144 points and well over 200 points since Tanner coach Mark Leonard came up with the hockey equivalent of combining peanut butter and jelly and decided to pair the three best friends on the ice early last year.
“I think Matty had four goals that first game and it just snowballed from there,” Leonard recalls with a smile.
Ask Leonard about any one of them and he has as hard a time not mentioning the other two. It really is a case of a three-headed monster – albeit one that puts the whole ahead of its parts and hits the books with the same zest it attacks the goal.
“The key is that are all so unselfish,” said Leonard. “They would all as soon as get the assists and have the other one score. Even more than that they are just all great kids and are all great students. I really can’t say enough about any of them.”
While it was Leonard who first put these interlocking pieces together on the varsity level, the threesome have been terrorizing goalies as a unit since they were mites nearly a dozen years ago. Scary thing is that back then the numbers were even more impressive.
“We’ve always played on the same line and we all stayed in the Peabody youth system,” Pereira, the line’s center points out. “I can remember wondering what we would be able to do in high school because we were doing so well back then.”
Best friends since before they could see over the dasher, Rodgers notes that they each demand the best out of the other.
“We have been friends forever, but it’s not always perfect,” he says. “We’ll get in each other’s face just like anyone else when things are not going right.”
That being said, those moments have been few and far between, especially the last two winters.
Rodgers in a class by himself
No one exudes both the talent and the determination of the trio more than Rodgers, who entered the tourney just seven points shy of Jim Geraghty’s (’81) once seemingly unbreakable school record of 151 points. It’s a record that will be tough to break in the tourney where the goal mouth seems to shrink and prolific lines like Peabody’s tend to attract every junk defense imaginable. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a sizeable contingent rooting for the affable winger to do it just the same.
“Growing up I idolized Jimmy Geraghty,” said Leonard. “He was one heck of a player, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Matty is every bit as good a player and I’m pulling for him to do it.”
You can add both of his linemates to that list. Both see Rodgers’ individual quest as a win-win proposition, because for him to do it the Tanners likely have to go deep into the tourney. That’s something they were not able to do last year when they were upset by L-S in the first round.
“It would be absolutely huge,” says Bucci. “To be able to say 20 or 30 years from now that I played with that kid and he was one of my best friends would be something.”
Rodgers says he’s got a bigger goal on his plate.
“Of course you think about it, but I really try not to focus on it too much,” he says. “I’m sure it will sink in one day. Right now winning the state title is the focus. If we do that, well, I would hope that I would have broken the record too.”
A three-sport star who weighs maybe 150 pounds after three trips to the buffet line at the Kowloon, Rodgers doesn’t look like the prototype 144-point scorer, but Leonard says his skills are undeniable.
“He’s got great anticipation and great hands,” said Leonard of Rodgers, who leads the North Shore in assists with 31. “He just has great feel for the game and great vision.”
You can certainly add “toughness” to that laundry list of accolades as well. Right after scoring a goal in the Tanners’ second showdown with the Falcons, Rodgers was the victim of a blatant and vicious cheap shot that ultimately left him with a 23-stitch gash on his face and a chipped tooth.
While it was the kind of stick work that would have ended the night and maybe the season for many a high scoring forward, it only sidelined Rodgers for six minutes. He returned to score the game-tying goal before heading to the hospital after the final whistle.
“That just shows you how much heart he has,” said Pereira. “A lot of people look at him as one of the skinniest kids out there and he takes a beating, but he doesn’t back down from anyone. “
Rodgers, who ranks 22nd in his class and is already into Boston College, says he’ll not pursue a college hockey career, but instead focus on a major in communications.
An explosive scorer
Ask Andrew Bucci about his monster 30-goal regular season and the high-scoring winger, who is tops on the North Shore with 53 points, shreds the praise just as quickly as he slips past the defense on the ice.
“I owe everything to Matty and D.P.,” says Bucci, who currently sits in fifth place on the all-time list with 125 points. “I’ve just been fortunate to play with them.”
A water boy for some pretty fair Peabody teams growing up, Bucci says he still can’t quite fathom having his name listed above many of the same players he idolized growing up.
“I grew up watching all of those guys and the reason I wear No. 15 is because that was Dennis Magarian’s number,” he says of the legendary forward who he recently passed for fifth place on the list. “To pass him on the list was pretty special.”
Already blessed with speed to burn, Leonard credits a summer and fall playing junior hockey for the Boston Bulldogs – along with great dedication – for taking Bucci’s game to the next level.
“It definitely helped his speed a lot and he really has breakaway speed now,” Leonard noted of Bucci, who was named to the MSHCA Senior All-Star Team. “Andrew is a very driven and intense player who really wants to play college hockey.”
Bucci has been receiving interest from several prep schools and says he ideally would like to play at the Division 1 level, but quickly adds that right now he wants to savor playing every last shift playing with his two best friends.
“We were talking about it before the (NEC all-star) game,” he said of Saturday night’s showcase in which he scored a goal from guess who? (Rodgers).
“We’ve been playing together since we were four- or five-years-old and we want it to come to an end in the best possible way with a state title. All things come to an end, but we want it to end the right way.”
Quiet determination fuels Pereira
Only on this line could a center rack up 40 points and better than 70 in his career and universally be tabbed as “underrated” by his linemates and coaches alike.
“I really don’t think D.P. gets enough credit,” says Bucci. “No one hustles more than he does on the ice and I think…that is what really jumpstarts us and gets us going.”
While both Rodgers and Bucci skated on regular lines as freshmen, Pereira instead came up through the JV ranks, a fact that he says still fuels him.
“I definitely used that as motivation,” he says, “I told myself to work harder and I use that mentality going into my junior year where those guys were already coming off a season where they had put up a lot of points.”
“He has grown a lot as a player,” Leonard adds. “He came up through the JV ranks, but he just flies around out there and has a great shot. He probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves, playing with those two guys, but he’s a very key part in the success of that line.”
Rodgers is quick to echo that sentiment.
“You look at the numbers he’s put up the last two years and it just goes to show how hard he’s worked,” said Rodgers. “You could always tell he was full of potential and when we all got reunited it just clicked.”
Just like it did better than a dozen years ago when this trio was just learning how to rush the goal and back when the Peabody high hockey record book looked an awfully lot different than it does today.
