Spartans defeat Medford to reach North semis

NORTH BILLERICA – Don’t look now, but the team that needed a win in one of its final two regular-season games to even qualify for the postseason is now 45 minutes away from reaching the Division 1 North finals.No. 11 seed St. Mary’s, which had to beat Newburyport in its next-to-last game to make the tournament, continued an improbable run of upsets in the sectional as Nick Rogers’ first goal of the season proved to be the game-winner in a 3-1 win over No. 14 Medford at the Chelmsford Forum on Saturday night.The Spartans will play Wakefield on Wednesday (6) in North Billerica in the semifinals. The No. 10 Warriors upended No. 2 Waltham, 5-1, to put three double-digit seeds in the semis.No. 12 St. John’s Prep knocked off No. 4 Andover, 1-0, in Woburn earlier on Saturday and will play top seed Arlington Catholic in the second game on Wednesday (8) at the Forum.”That was what the state tournament is all about,” St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee said. “We kind of won ugly. We had plenty of chances to put it away early and it turned into a heck of a hockey game.”There was a scare in the third period as Medford’s Nick Borges was taken off on a stretcher following a hit by George Carey early on. Borges was down on the ice for nearly 30 minutes, but Mustangs coach Chuck Allen said Borges had movement in all his extremities.In terms of the game, the score wasn’t quite indicative of how dominant the Spartans were for long stretches. Only the outstanding play of Medford goalie Mike Gendreau kept the Mustangs in the game.”Their goalie really made some huge saves,” Lee said. “But the guys kept working and never quit and never gave up.”Medford delivered a quick blow to the Spartans’ confidence early in the first period, when Steve Mearn’s knuckleball shot slipped through the pads of Donald Hesse to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead at 2:38.Gendreau came up with a pair of stellar stops on Corey Bartlett, and a third on Andrew Bates, to preserve his team’s 1-0 lead exiting the first period.St. Mary’s resumed its attack in the second, keeping the puck in the Mustangs’ end for nearly two minutes to begin the period. Medford momentarily stopped the pressure with an icing, but the Spartans charged back and tied the game.Jon Baldwin sent linemates George Carey and Bates in on a 2-on-1. Carey slid a nifty pass across to Bates, who snapped a quick shot inside the left post at 3:07 to make it 1-1.”It was good to see this young team of ours, down a goal, keep fighting and keep the pressure on,” Lee said.Gendreau was able to keep the game tied until the final moments of the second. Rogers took a Cam Kennedy pass and beat the sophomore goalie between the legs with 39.2 seconds left to put the Spartans ahead.”Nicky works hard every shift and deserves to get what he did (Saturday),” Lee said.Borges was injured early in the third and on the ensuing power play following the lengthy delay, Servideo nearly got the Mustangs even, but Hesse made a pair of clutch saves to preserve the lead.Carey and Bates then had glorious opportunities to give St. Mary’s some breathing room midway through the third, but Gendreau sprawled to make two amazing stops.With the crowd on its feet nearly the entire final 15 minutes, the Spartans put the game away with 38 seconds left as Baldwin scored into an empty net from center ice to make it 3-1.