Spartans win, Winters reaches milestone

The St. Mary’s High girls hockey team had plenty to celebrate Thursday. The Spartans defeated Fontbonne Academy, the defending Division 2 state champ, 4-0, and senior forward Courtney Winters rung up her 200th career point.St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca knew Fontbonne would be a challenge given its success in Division 2, but the Spartans seized the momentum right off the bat by scoring two goals in the first 1:07 of the game. Allison Butler put St. Mary’s on the board 28 seconds in with Angela Dandreo and Sabrina Ianetti getting the assists. Marisa Maccario upped the lead to 2-0 39 seconds later with Michelle Macchione assisting.”They’re right up there in Division 2,” Pagliuca said. “They’re one of the better teams we’ve played this year.”Winters, who only needed two points to hit the 200 career-point mark, scored an unassisted goal with 6:39 left in the second period and then hit the magic number with a third-period goal that Mikaela Donovan and Genevieve Benoit assisted on (Pagliuca went back over Winters’ stats prior to the game and realized she only needed two, not four as was reported earlier this week). Christen Hart, who graduated last year, also has 200 career points and Abby Gauthier, who graduated two years ago, has 358 points.Pagliuca was pleased with his team’s performance and was particularly happy to see his players stay out of the penalty box for the most part (they took one penalty).”The key against a team like Fontbonne is to limit their opportunities,” he said.Although she was only called on to make nine saves, goalie Sarah Foss had a couple of big ones, including a stop on a breakaway and on a 2-on-1 when the score was still 2-0.Winters, who will play hockey at St. Anselm next year, is one of a talented group of seniors that also includes Courtney White, Erin McAndrews, Michelle Macchione and Liz Giacchino.St. Mary’s is 12-0.