LYNN — The St. Mary’s girls hockey team got off to a fast start and never looked back, cruising to a 10-0 victory in a Central Catholic League matchup against Arlington Catholic Saturday at William P. Connery Rink.
In a game full of offense for the Spartans, Codi Butt and Kate Gray each had three goals. Jenna Chaplain added two goals and Makayla McGrath and Zoe Solomons each had one.
“I thought Codi was very strong,” St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca said. “That whole line was strong tonight. “Samantha Porazinski and Codi have been very effective in our first two games moving the puck. They are doing a great job getting in on the forecheck and causing some turnovers. Defensively they are doing a great job getting the puck out. Overall it was good performance by that line.
“It was a good team effort,” Pagliuca said. “Felicia D’Alessandro, Marina DiBiasio and Jillian Kirby played well too. Jenna Purtell, Makayla and Zoe as well. If we can play three lines it’s a benefit for us. We were able to get some good looks and opportunities. I would like to see us finish a little bit more on odd man rushes but I’m not going to complain with the effort.”
The Spartans got pucks to the net early, but didn’t have much to show for it in the first period with Arlington Catholic goaltender Quinn Mustone making several key stops. St. Mary’s finally capitalized midway through the first when a wrist shot by Butt slipped by Mustone to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.
“Arlington Catholic’s a much improved team,” Pagliuca said. “I thought they came out with a lot of energy and effort and we did as well. It was a pretty up and down period. We were able to capitalize there with a goal which was nice, but it was a pretty even period.”
In the second period St. Mary’s started to pile it on. Solomons and Gray started things off, scoring within a minute of each other at the beginning of the period to put the Spartans ahead 3-0. Butt added her second goal cleaning up a rebound out front a few minutes later and scored again with less than four minutes remaining in the period to put St. Mary’s ahead 5-0 after two.
“In the second period we started to get our legs going and wear them down a little bit,” Pagliuca said. “I don’t think the score was indicative of how competitive the game was, we were just able to finish more of our opportunities.”
The Spartans weren’t done yet. Gray finished off the hat trick with a pair of goals and Chaplain also found the back of the net twice. McGrath finished a rebound out front for her only goal and starting goaltender Lauren Vaccaro was pulled for Angelo Catino for the final 12 minutes as the Spartans coasted to their second victory of the young season.
“I thought overall our defense was strong tonight,” Pagliuca said. “We had a couple turnovers but other than that they were really strong. We made some good decisions with the puck coming up the ice and made some good decisions on the blue line about when to pinch and when not to.
“Overall a pretty solid game defensively,” Pagliuca added. “We did a better job tonight than we did against Peabody (last) Wednesday so it’s encouraging. I thought both goalies did a good job. They didn’t see a lot of shots but made some saves when they needed to.”
The Spartans (2-0) travel to Endicott College Wednesday afternoon (4) when they’ll visit Beverly in a non-conference clash.
