Patrick Hofmann scored three goals Sunday but it wasn’t nearly enough as the 19th-seeded Toms River East High School hockey team suffered a 9-3 loss to 14th-seeded Nutley in the first round of the NJSIAA Public B Tournament.
Christian McCue scored three goals and Danny Render had two goals and two assists for Nutley. Brenden Ruiz also scored two goals and Andrew Spitalnik and Cullen McCormack scored one each. Goalie Joe Hoarle made nine saves for Nutley.
Alexander Waldron had two assists for Toms River East. Zander Taaffe and Sean Tursi had one assist each and goalie Nick Price stopped 40 of the 49 shots he faced.