Roundup: St. Mary’s girls hockey starts off with scoreless tie

The unbeaten streak (76-0-2) remains intact, but it was an otherwise frustrating season opener for three-time defending Division 1 state champion St. Mary’s in Braintree. The Spartans and Braintree finished with a scoreless tie, 0-0.The Spartans piled up 39 shots on net, including three breakaways and a penalty shot, but were thwarted at every turn by Braintree netminder Nikki O’Brien. Sophomore goalie Sarah Foss (13 saves) notched the shutout for St. Mary’s and senior defenseman Angela Dandreo turned in a strong performance.”Braintree did a good job – their goalie played well and they blocked more than 20 shots. They’re big and physical and they take away a lot of space in the center of the ice. But, we had our chances and have to do a better job of converting,” said St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca.The Spartans face another stiff early-season test Wednesday night at home against Duxbury.Shrewsbury 2, English/Winthrop 1At Shrewsbury, English suffered a tough-luck loss as the hosts’ Carly Radovich scored the game-winner with 1:46 to play on a shot that deflected off an English player and past goalie Katie Burt (24 saves), an 8th-grader now in her third varsity campaign. Both Shrewsbury goals came in the third.English grabbed a 1-0 lead on the game’s first shift with Courtney McTeague converting after slick combination passing by Mackenzie Clark and Hannah LoPresti. Clark, a junior, now has 98 career points. Coach Anthony Martucci also cited the strong play of senior captain and defenseman Taylor Brown.In the final minute, with an extra attacker on, English was penalized after applying pressure on the Shrewsbury cage.”The refs didn’t know who the penalty was on and told our captain to pick somebody. When we asked for an explanation, they wouldn’t give us one. Still, we had our chances to put it away before the third period,” Martucci said.BOYS BASKETBALLSt. John’s 78, Saugus 44At Danvers, St. John’s opened some breathing room with a run to end the first half, then outscored Saugus by 21 points in the second half of the season opener.Six-foot, four-inch senior forward Pat Connaughton registered a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the way. Steve Haladyna (19 points) and Mike Carbone (15 points) combined to knock down five three-pointers for the Eagles, who led 18-12 after one period and 37-24 at the half.”We had a little push at the end of the half, then played much better defense in the third quarter and had an easier time scoring against their zone,” said Eagles coach Sean Connolly. “We still have a lot of areas to improve upon to become a good basketball team. Saugus competed and played us very tough in the first half.”Omar Benabicha topped the Sachems with 16 points and was the lone Saugus player in double figures. St. John’s is off until next Sunday when it hosts Lynn Classical.BOYS HOCKEYBishop Fenwick 3, Dracut 0At McVann-O’Keefe Rink, senior goalie Brad Rocheville amassed 20 saves for the shutout as the Crusaders got off to a strong start. Fenwick dominated after a tentative start, more than doubling the Middies in shots (47-20).”All in all, we played well. We controlled the play from about the middle of the first period on. All three lines were solid,” said coach Dan Lynch.Drew Thibodeau notched the only goal the Crusaders required on the power play at 9:25 of the first period, assisted by Mike Napolitano and Bobby Liberge. Following a scoreless third period, Fenwick put the game away on goals by Andrew Young and Jake Brennan.Fenwick faces off against St. Clement Thursday night in East Boston.WRESTLINGLynnfield sweepsThe Pioneers, who graduated 10 seniors from last year’s 16-7 squad, swept Wilmington (52-28), Ludlow (39-31) and Weston (43-32) in a quad-match.Junior Mack Foss won three matches via pin at 112 pounds while junior Rich Falcione recorded three decisions (12-0, 14-0 and 9-5) at 135 pounds. Double winners were Eric Kerr (103 pounds), Paolo Settipane (119), Jeff Conron (130), Wes Sullivan (145)