St. Mary’s girls bow in D1 state final

BOSTON – Simply put, Arlington Catholic was the better team in the Division 1 girls state final at TD Garden on Sunday.The Cougars, who had lost to opponent St. Mary’s twice in the regular season, devised a nearly-perfect game plan to keep the high-flying Spartan offense under wraps as a relentless forecheck, timely goaltending from Megan Messuri, and goals by Natalie Flynn, Adrieana Rossini and Allyson Cunningham spelled a 3-1 win on the biggest stage of the season.Click here for a photo gallery from the game.”AC was tremendous (Sunday) and they deserved to win this game,” St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca said. “I felt like we were skating in quicksand all game. We did a lot of puck-watching and AC wanted it more.”The Spartans (21-4-1) had a 29-22 shots on goal advantage but many of those shots came from the perimeter and when they did get near the goal, the Cougar defense was suffocating and blocked several shots in front of Messuri.”Words can’t describe this feeling,” second-year AC coach Maggie Taverna said. “We did all the little things it takes to win. We talked all week in practice about forechecking and the girls did a great job of coming out and doing it.”It was evident almost immediately that this was going to be a different meeting than the Spartans’ two regular-season wins as AC controlled the play immediately but neither team could score early.Late in the first, the Cougars did break the ice as their star – Flynn – escaped the shackles of the Spartan defense.Racing up ice, Flynn cut down the left wing and backhanded a shot past Lauren Skinnion for a 1-0 Cougars lead after a period.”AC was all over us in that first period,” Pagliuca said.St. Mary’s got a chance to turn the tide early in the second when Duggan Delano was called for slashing at the 21-second mark. Instead it was the Cougars who turned the momentum in a hurry.Rossini blocked a pass and took off up ice on a break, which she finished with a nifty backhander past Skinnion for a 2-0 lead at the 1:47 mark.On the next shift, things went from bad to worse for St. Mary’s when Allyson Cunningham’s dump-in broke off Skinnion’s pads and trickled across the goal line for a 3-0 Arlington Catholic lead.The Cougars continued to stymie every effort St. Mary’s made to get back in the game until sophomore Brittani Lanzilli scored one for the highlight reels.Taking the puck in her own zone, Lanzilli skated through all five Cougars before picking the top corner on Messuri’s glove side to make it 3-1 after two.”I thought that Brittani’s goal gave us a little jump there,” Pagliuca said. “Then we reverted back to puck-watching and not moving our legs.”The Cougars turned the defensive intensity in the third as they hemmed St. Mary’s in for nearly three full minutes at the start of the period.AC then began to make life difficult for itself as it took two penalties in the final 10 minutes of regulation, with Messuri making the game’s best save when she flashed the glove on Gina Beth Manganiello’s chance with 3:30 remaining.Skinnion was pulled for an extra attacker with 1:20 left and the Spartans then got a power play with 58 seconds left. But the Cougars never let St. Mary’s get set and were able to run off the final minute.”We were just sloppy all game long,” Pagliuca said. “AC created turnovers and never let us get any quality shots for the most part.”