Brewer High School junior defenseman Ben Roeder stood with the puck behind the net. He backed off and waited for teammate Aaron Boone and his long, smooth strides to circle the net and pick up the puck.

Boone gathered up a head of steam and, as he hit his own blue line, he put on a little head fake and cruised around an Old Town High School penalty killer. As he hit the Old Town High School blue line, he leaned forward a tad and cut to the outside of an Indian defenseman.

As he hit the face-off circle to the left of Indian goalie Izaak Nason, Boone wasted no time releasing a dangerous snap shot labeled for the far corner. On this occasion, Nason got his stick and pad on the shot.

End-to-end rushes like this one are usually performed by small, darting forwards with explosive speed.

But Aaron Boone is 6-foot-1 and weighs a solid 190 pounds. Boone, who is only a junior, is one of the primary reasons why Brewer is off to a 5-1 start and why the Witches have been picked as the team to beat in Eastern Maine Class B this winter. Their only loss came at the hands of Class A power Waterville on Wednesday night.

“He’s the best player we’ve seen all year,” said Orono coach Charlie Carroll. “He has breakaway speed for somebody his size. If you don’t hit him early and he gets up a head of steam, you’re in trouble. He also has soft hands and real good ice vision.”

“He’s a tremendous player,” said Old Town coach Gene Fadrigon. “He has deceptive speed and a tremendous shot.”

Boone burst onto the Eastern Maine hockey scene as a 17-goal scorer his freshman year and earned an All-Eastern Maine Class A honorable mention. He also had 15 assists that year. Last season, Boone led Brewer to its first appearance in an Eastern Maine B final and finished with 30 goals and 8 assists. He was an All-Eastern Maine first-team choice.

Hockey is Boone’s passion. It has been since he began playing youth hockey. He said his parents, Ron and Peggy, have been supportive in transporting him to odd-hour practices “and dishing out all the money.

“For me and for a lot of the players on our team, we live to play hockey,” said Boone. “It’s always been fun. It’s always been my favorite sport.”

He has played travel-team hockey and has attended University of Maine hockey clinics during the summer. “Those clinics helped me a lot,” said Boone. “You learn quite a bit and they work you really hard.”

Boone said he also benefited from the fact Brewer graduated a large senior class just before his freshman season. “When we came in as freshmen, we were needed. So a lot of us got to play quite a bit,” said Boone.

Boone’s 30-goal season came as a surprise to him last year, and he said much of the credit should go to linemate Matt Enman, who was his right winger.

“Matt was a good linemate. I was really fortunate to have played on a line with him last year,” said Boone who has centered for several different wingers so far this season.

Boone has gotten off to a torrid start this season with 12 goals and 11 assists in six games.

“I felt I had to become more of a team player this year,” said Boone. “Having only eight assists last year was pretty bad. I’ve played with my head up a lot more this year, and I’m in better shape. Our team goal is to make it to the state game and, individually, I want to improve every part of my game.”

Boone lifted weights and spent a lot of time on roller blades this past summer.

“We played (roller hockey) games at Pendleton Street during the summer. Everyone would wind up bloody and scraped,” said Boone.

Boone also tried out for the Northern New England team in the Hockey Night in Boston league.

“I didn’t make the team, but I thought I played well,” said Boone, whose goal is to play college hockey. “The competition was incredible. I had the best time of my life playing with those kids. They were so talented. They made it so much fun.”

“Aaron worked real hard in the offseason,” said Brewer coach Bill Schwarz. “He really loves the game. He is seeing the ice better this year, and he has a better knowledge of the game. His skating and stick-handling have improved, too.”

Schwarz said Boone is an outstanding player defensively and called him Brewer’s go-to player.

Said the coach: “He’s the guy we want with the puck.”