LYNN — Look no further than Mark Lee to gauge how impressive St. Mary’s 5-3 victory over Hingham was Monday afternoon.
“It takes an entire team effort to win a game against a team like this,” said Lee. “I really think this is the best game we’ve played this year. By far.
“I looked at them and they’re a big team,” said Lee. “That’s a Super 8 team.”
Coaches generally can always find something to be down about after a game, but not Lee. Not Monday.
“I’m proud of the team today,” he said. “They stepped up in every way. A team like Hingham, they’re going to get their chances. But I thought we held the play for the entire game.”
The win was especially nice for Lee and the Spartans after Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Archbishop Williams.
“We struggled in that game,” he said. “So it was nice to come out and do this today.”
The first period was a feeling-out process as neither team scored, or had many chances. The game was played, for the most part, in the neutral zone. But St. Mary’s, 6-2-3, went on the attack in the second period and stayed on the attack for the rest of the game.
At the 5:29 mark of the period, the Spartans, on the power play, struck first. Eighth-grade defenseman Davis Kinne was standing just inside the blue line when the puck squirted out to him. He shot back toward the net, and the puck went into a maze of players from both sides. It caromed off the stick of Nick Napolitano, and radically changed direction, beating goalie Robbie Kornack.
The Spartans were just getting warmed up. Napolitano had another chance moments later, but this time, Kornack smothered his point-blank shot.
With 5:57 left in the period, St. Mary’s made the score 2-0 when freshman Jaiden Moriello scored from in close, with an assist from Damon Maribito.
The Harbormen halved the lead with 3:56 to go in the period when Joe Jacobs, with an assist from Caleb Woodin, blasted one past St. Mary’s goalie Kevin McMullen. But St. Mary’s got it back with only 1:32 left in the period when Moriello struck for his second of the afternoon. He took a wing-to-wing pass from Maribito and put it behind Kornack.
Kory Ouellette increased that lead to 4-1 halfway through the third period on a 3-on-0 play, collecting a goal-mouth pass from Anthony Bono before directing it into the net.
But Hingham was not done for the day. Before anyone could say “this game is over,” Harbormen captain Frankie Higgins scored on a 2-on-1 with 6:39 to go. Four minutes later, Jake Quilty of Hingham narrowed that lead to 4-3.
A minor penalty called on Hingham was 2:39 to go in the game made it difficult for the Harbormen to play to an advantage by pulling their goalie, but they did anyway. And while there were some tense moments once Hingham was at full strength, St. Mary’s was equal to the task. When Maribito directed an empty-netter home with just over a second to play, the Spartans could claim their victory.
