Maccario’s hat trick powers Lady Spartans past Arlington

LYNN – It was the type of complete game that St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca has been looking for all season and his Lady Spartans picked the right time to do it at Connery Rink on Monday.Facing one of the state’s elite teams in Arlington, St. Mary’s dominated for all 45 minutes against the Spy Ponders as freshman Marisa Maccario had a hat trick to power her club to a commanding 6-1 win.”We played three complete periods (Monday) and that’s something that we haven’t done all season,” Pagliuca said. “From the goaltender out, everybody was outstanding.”After playing a couple of lackluster games in wins over Hingham and Ursuline Academy, the Lady Spartans were on their game from the outset, finishing with a 22-6 shots on goal advantage against the No. 3-ranked team in Division 1.”We had such a great team effort (Monday),” Pagliuca said. “I like how we competed and I was impressed with how we took advantage of situations.”The Lady Spartans held Arlington without a shot in the first period and took a 1-0 lead at 5:24 when Courtney White fired home a Sabrina Iannetti centering pass.Early in the second, Maccario got her stellar game started when she scored on the rebound of a Courtney Winters deflected shot to make it 2-0.”(Marisa) is really coming along nicely. She’s only a freshman but she’s starting to play with consistency every time she’s out there,” Pagliuca said.Just under three minutes later, Maccario took an Angela Dandreo pass and whistled a wrist shot past Casey Schabje to make it 3-0, St. Mary’s.Despite being thoroughly dominated for almost half the game, the Spy Ponders crept back in at 8:25 of the second when Kylee Sullivan steamed through the neutral zone and beat Sarah Foss to make it 3-1 with plenty of time to go.Any momentum Arlington might have gained with Sullivan’s goal ended 42 seconds later when Hanna Wright was called for tripping. The Lady Spartans made them pay as Erin McAndrews converted off a Winters feed 40 seconds later.Two minutes later, White got her second goal of the game off a nifty centering pass from Allison Butler to make it 5-1.Maccario completed her hat trick late in the second when she got another power play goal, assisted by White and McAndrews, to make it 6-1 after two.”Our special teams were very effective (Monday),” Pagliuca said.In the third, the Spartan penalty killers got a chance to show their moxie as that unit killed off a pair of Arlington power plays to lock down the win.