Marblehead breezes through tourney opener

SALEM – The stage is now set for a second straight state tournament showdown between the Marblehead and Swampscott hockey teams on Sunday (2) at Rockett Arena.The Headers assured North Shore hockey fans of that Thursday by disposing of No. 10 seed Rockport, 10-1, in the opening round of the Division 3 North tourney at Salem State.The two arch rivals will meet for the third time this season on Sunday and the sixth in the past two years when you add in the Headers overtime win in the states last season.”I’m pretty sure that Swampscott is going to be ready for us,” Marblehead coach Bob Jackson said. “I don’t think that anything will have to be said by the coaches on either team before the game. The motivation will be there.”Marblehead (12-6-4) never was really in jeopardy on Thursday against a Viking team making its first postseason appearance in nearly a decade.The Headers owned a 42-10 shots on goal advantage and received goals from seven different players in the contest.”We told the kids that we needed to get off to a quick start, something we really haven’t done this season,” Jackson said.The players evidently got the message that Jackson preached before the game, holding Rockport without a shot on net until there was 1:11 left in the opening period while pelting Nile Halvorson with 14 shots at the other end.Just over five minutes in, Marblehead got its night of scoring started as defenseman Ben Koopman snapped an Anders Gundersen pass through a screened Halvorson to make it 1-0.Less than a minute later, Mike Cohn picked up an Alex Whitmore pass behind the net and was able to fire a shot under the cross bar from in close to give Marblehead a 2-0 lead after one.It stayed 2-0 until the midpoint of the second when Marblehead finally put the pedal down.Alex Whitmore intercepted a Rockport pass with the Headers shorthanded and beat Halvorson short side to increase the gap to 3-0. Two minutes later, Ellery Smith scored on a goal mouth scramble following an Austin Coen shot to make it 4-0.Whitmore officially doomed the Vikings in the final seconds of the period when he shoveled a Chris McLeod rebound under the crossbar to stake Marblehead to a 5-0 lead after two.Coen and Mike Bernato upped the lead to 7-0 in the first 2:16 of the third. Rockport finally got on the board at 3:39 when Mike Petrino scored off a Jake LeBlanc pass.But Koopman, Chris Donahue and Tyler Gelineau tacked on goals in the final 5:07 to polish off the efficient win.”There should be a standing room only crowd on Sunday,” Jackson said about the upcoming meeting with Swampscott. “It’s just too bad that we have to play them now instead of in the finals.”