MARLBORO – With the hockey regular season just four days away, the New England Sports Center was once again the place to be for a preseason stop.

The MSHCA’s 16th Annual Garrett Reagan Summit brought 50 boys’ teams and 12 girls’ teams together Sunday for a combined 31 scrimmages, pitting some of the state’s top programs from the last several years against one another in a light atmosphere loaded with competitive play.

“It’s great,” said Hingham head coach Tony Messina. “It’s the reason we play in this. It obviously memorializes Garrett Reagan, so we’ll always play in this. But the benefits of it – it’s a dress rehearsal, you treat it like a game.”

The late Reagan’s Harbormen were one of the headliners in a busy day of action across seven rinks, as the reigning Div. 1 state quarterfinalists again took on Catholic Conference power Xaverian. The two groups battled in a back-and-forth manner fitting for two teams that figure to make a deep bid in the Div. 1 state tournament, which Hingham edged out, 2-0.

Juniors Mike Karo and James Whitmore impressed in net, and the Harbormen killed off six minutes of penalty in a one-goal game before an empty-netter capped it. Xaverian generated plenty of chances and performed well defensively on its own for positive takeaways.

“I love the energy in the building and the guys all love seeing each other,” said Hawks head coach Dave Spinale. “I think it’s a great starting point for everybody to kind of play live hockey. Penalties and whistles, and you get out of the scrimmage mentality. … Situationally, I love it. It’s great to always play Hingham, they’re always tough.”

A strong field of teams awarded plenty of other hopeful contenders quality competition before Thursday’s season openers.

Marshfield and St. John’s of Shrewsbury played to a 1-1 tie. St. Mary’s of Lynn beat perennial Div. 2 power Duxbury 3-0. Norwood got the best of Gloucester 4-1, and Waltham played Burlington to a 2-2 tie.

Westford Academy’s large group of returners, who were upset by Braintree in the Div. 1 first round last year, set a positive tone with a 5-0 win over Framingham.

“I think we’re starting to get the fall hockey out of us today, which is really good,” said Grey Ghosts head coach Chris Carpenter. “We started to do a lot of the little things right. … They just had a higher compete level today and I thought they did really well.”

Much like Xaverian and Hingham, Reading reloads this year around some talented returners to spearhead another potentially big season. Former backup Owen Holland steps into a starting role and posted a shutout period, pairing with Reading’s defense to edge out a 1-0 win over an experienced Braintree.

The Rockets graduated a wealth of talent, but the deep program looks to be in good hands.

“I loved it … it was beautifully clean both ways,” said Rockets head coach Mark Doherty. “(Braintree is) going to be pretty good, so I enjoyed it. Plenty of chances each way.”

The Wamps, with 16 returners from that upset over Westford, were happy too.

“We’re pretty pleased with that, it was basically an even game,” said head coach Dave Fasano. “We made a few mistakes today, but overall, it was a really good effort against a really good team. … We have a lot to build on coming off of that and we were able to get some of our newer guys experience against a really good opponent.”

An ultra-strong two years for Shrewsbury was eventually going to cycle out a lot of its premier talent to graduation and transfers, and Frank Panarelli’s group is ripe with 10 freshmen as a result – more than half of whom will take on big roles.

The value of the summit for them, which ended with a 4-1 win over Hanover, is significant.

“What I love about this whole Garrett Reagan Summit is, it’s great for the freshmen,” Panarelli said. “Just to put on a uniform for the first time, play in front of their family and everything for their first varsity game. … I just love this atmosphere.”

Much of the same goes for Pope Francis, which replaces many of its top players from last year’s Div. 1 contender. It tied Natick 1-1 on Sunday.

“Nothing but positives,” said Cardinals head coach Chris Connors. “We brought a whole team out here of 23 girls. They’re all pretty much auditioning for roles throughout the course of the season. … Loved what I saw in terms of the team’s energy and the compete level.”