Caruccio scores four times as English girls hockey defeats Marblehead

SALEM – After defeating the Marblehead girls hockey squad on Friday evening at Connery Rink, Lynn English skated over to Rockett Arena on Saturday for the back end of the home-and-home series. The Bulldogs received a personal-best four-goal performance from forward Vanessa Caruccio in a 4-1 victory.”I may have finished them (the goals) off, but it was a team effort,” said the senior, who comes from Winthrop to play for the co-op club. “Katie (Burt) made the saves in net, and everyone played great.”Her coach was the proud recipient of Caruccio’s goal-scoring.”She’s a great leader, and a good voice in the locker room,” said Bulldogs coach Anthony Martucci. “My wife coaches girls soccer (at Winthrop High), and as soon as I saw how Vanessa played soccer, I knew she would playing hockey the same way.”Right from the opening faceoff, English (7-1) attacked the Marblehead end, only to be thwarted by goalie Moe Bradley. Defenseman Madison Molea fired off a wrist shot from the left point that was kicked aside in the early moments.Caruccio put English on the board soon after, picking up a loose puck around center ice. She skated into the Marblehead zone, around the net from the left side, then back out near the Headers’ blue line. As players set themselves into position, she fired a short slap that beat Bradley to the far left side for the game’s first goal.”I’ve been trying to teach the kids how to walk out from in back of the net with the puck,” said Martucci. “Though it wasn’t exactly the way I drew it up, Vanessa did it well, resulting in the goal.”The Bulldogs continued to plague the Marblehead zone, adding more opportunities to their game. Winger Rachel Mailhot fired a slap that was gloved by Bradley. Burt was just as strong, making back-to-back rapid-fire saves off forwards Lauren Turner and Keelin Fallon to keep the English lead intact.The Headers ended the period with a last-minute flurry upon the English net, yet Burt proved true to the test, stonewalling Marblehead and keeping the club off the board.The Bulldogs came out the same way as they had done to begin the game. However, Bradley was just as solid, stopping a MacKenzie Clark blast after she had skated in, held the puck, and fired from 15 feet away.Marblehead had its chances moments later to tie the game, but defenseman Kathryn Homan and forward Ally Healy were denied by Burt, who made stick saves on both shots to keep the 1-0 score intact.That would soon change midway through the stanza, courtesy of Caruccio. She took a feed from teammate Adriana Russell on a 2-on-1, skated in, and eluded the Marblehead defender. Caruccio then shifted to her backhand, sliding the puck past Bradley to increase the score to 2-0.”She’s obviously a huge threat,” Marblehead coach Emily Hudak said. “She had two of the goals against us on Friday (in a 3-1 English victory), and you have to be aware of her at all times.”Marblehead’s Taylor Maag brought the Headers (3-3-1) to within 2-1 with less than two minutes remaining in the period, as she skated into the Bulldogs end, and flicked off a wrist shot from 15 feet away that found its way past Burt for the score.With 40 seconds left, Marblehead went on the power play advantage, which it carried into the beginning of the final stanza. Burt held the Headers at bay, though with seven seconds left in the initial penalty, English was whistled for another infraction, creating another power play opportunity for Marblehead. The Headers couldn’t do anything with that chance, either. Minutes later, English was called for penalties only 21 seconds apart, and Marblehead had another opportunity to tie the game. The best chance that the Headers had was when forward Britani Dunbar ricocheted a shot off the far post late in the power play that bounced wide.”What would have been most frustrating is if we didn’t have any opportunities at all on them,” said Hudak. “We were hitting them off posts, and there were loose pucks in the crease that we either couldn’t get t