MARLBOROUGH — Logan Herguth never played hockey before.

He barely knew how to skate.

Yet, with most of his friends playing the sport and with a goalie shortage in the Lincoln-Sudbury boys hockey program pipeline, Herguth decided to give goaltending a try.

So in the summer of 2019 – before his first year of high school – Herguth hit the ice for the first time.

“He fell in love with it ever since then,” said Kellen Austermann, a 2021 L-S grad who played goalie for the Warriors.

Fast forward a few years and Herguth is the starting varsity goaltender for L-S. The junior captain has found a new home in between the pipes.

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“Two years ago, if you told me he’d be the starting goalie and captain at L-S, I’d tell you that you’d be out of your mind,” said Brian Robinson, who helps train Herguth and is the goaltending coach for the Harvard University men’s hockey team.    

“He got the itch, he liked it,” L-S boys hockey coach Matt Carlin said. “He got the bug. ... He’s really never looked back.”

When Herguth was in eighth grade, he heard rumblings that L-S was looking for future goaltenders.

But busy with AAU baseball that spring, Herguth didn’t make it to any of the goalie clinics that were offered at the time. Still, a seed was planted in the back of his mind.

By June of 2019, however, Herguth brokered a deal with his parents: if he could find goalie equipment and hitch his own ride to the rink, he could give this whole hockey thing a try.

“That’s when we realized you should never underestimate the determination of your child,” said his mother, Sunny.

Herguth then reached out to his childhood friend Colin Winn, now a goalie with the Boston Junior Bruins. The two used to live near each other in Sudbury before Winn moved to Westford. Herguth asked Winn if he could borrow some old goalie equipment.

The former received gloves, a chest protector and a helmet from the latter. Still, Herguth needed more. So he reached out to Austermann’s father, Dave, who had goalie gear lying around his garage. Once Herguth collected hand-me-down skates and pads, he was good to go.

“I think that is kind of the hook,” Dave said, “when people put on equipment.”

“It was cool to get him started,” Winn said.

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On June 24, 2019, Herguth went to Valley Sports Arena in Concord with Winn to try skating and stopping shots for the first time in goalie equipment.  

“He was kind of like Bambi out there getting used to it,” Winn said.

“He basically couldn’t stand up on the ice,” said Frankie Detraglia, a junior on the L-S hockey team. “He was awful, couldn’t even stop a puck. He was just falling over in net.”

Herguth worked on his skills all summer and into the fall. He even played in a 3-on-3 hockey league with friends from Framingham and would fill in for some men’s league games around the area.

He then linked up with Robinson, who is a director and video coordinator with Stop It Goaltending – a company that offers year-round training.

“When he first started with me, he could barely skate but I could tell something was there,” Robinson said. “I knew the day that I met that kid that there was something there.”

After starting as the JV goalie as a freshman, Herguth split time at varsity last season. Now, the 16-year-old is the starting goalie as a junior for the reigning Division 2 co-state champions.

And through three games this season, Herguth is 3-0 with a .935 save percentage and 1.60 goals against average. The 6-foot, 165-pound goalie has stopped 72 of 77 shots he’s faced.

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“He’s progressed so much to be one of the best players on our team and one of the best goalies in the DCL,” Detraglia said.  

“He stands out as prepared, organized and ready to go every day,” Carlin said. “Overall, he’s just a winner as a kid.”

On Dec. 18, Herguth helped his team defeat Concord-Carlisle, 5-1, in the 10th annual Warriors 4 Warriors - Patriots 4 Patriots Benefit Hockey Game.  

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The game, which is played in honor of former L-S boys hockey captain Scott Milley, who died in Afghanistan in 2010 while serving as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, holds special meaning to Herguth.

“It means a lot more than just the hockey game,” said Herguth, who wants to play hockey at Air Force or West Point after graduating from L-S. “It’s a great way to recognize someone who loved the game of hockey and L-S.”

And a special way for Herguth to honor Milley is by featuring him on his hockey helmet.

On the front of his helmet, Herguth has “RANGERS LEAD THE WAY” in bold, white lettering. On the back, Herguth has three stickers that acknowledge Yoshitaka Ando, AJ Quetta and Stop It Goaltending to go along with a white silhouette of Milley raising his hands and a hockey stick in celebration.

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“I thought that if I was going to do my helmet, most kids do the back plate as a tribute, I was going to tribute it to Scott Milley and Ando,” Herguth said. “I thought the American flag was a great backdrop to it.”

Not bad for a kid who used to wear a borrowed Catholic Memorial helmet when he was a freshman.

It’s been quite the hockey journey for Logan Herguth over the past few years.

“He’s always on the ice and such a hard-working person,” Detraglia said. “He hasn’t stopped working since he started playing goalie.”

Said Carlin: “He’s a leader in the room, leader on the ice and literally he’s getting better each day.”

“I’m just so proud of him for getting to this spot in his career and I can’t wait to see what happens with him moving forward,” Winn said.

Tommy Cassell is a senior multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tcassell@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @tommycassell44.