WOBURN — The St. Mary’s boys hockey team had all the necessary elements to pull away with a victory over Belmont in Saturday’s Division 1 North quarterfinal at O’Brien Rink.
The Spartans’ offense created quality chances from start to finish, the defense kept Belmont’s offense at bay and goalie Sal Caruso made crucial saves to keep his team in it.
But the goal No. 5 St. Mary’s needed was never scored, as the No. 4 Marauders snatched a 1-0 overtime victory on Ben Fici’s game-winning tally less than two minutes into the extra period.
Despite the tough end to a promising St. Mary’s season, coach Mark Lee had nothing but positive remarks.
“We probably played our best game of the season,” Lee said. “Three solid periods. I think we dominated most of that game.
“It was a great high school hockey game. It’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t come out on the right end of it.”
Undoubtedly, this one belonged to Marauders goalie Nico Carere. The Belmont netminder made 46 saves on a Spartans attack that nearly doubled the Marauders’ chances (24).
“Part of the scouting report was that (Carere) was going to be good,” Lee said. “We knew that. We talked about not getting frustrated. Just win your shift, play hard. We had a ton of quality opportunities. He just made every stop we threw at him. 46 stops in a high school hockey game is pretty incredible.”
Belmont found the back of the net three minutes into the first period but the referees waved the goal. The next 42 minutes were a save-for-save battle between Cecere and Caruso (23 saves), who rose to the occasion with highlight-reel stops on several quality looks.
Christian Moran skated to a 2-on-1 breakaway with 3:30 to go in the opening frame but his pass to Brady Bullock was a bit too late to cash in on. Caruso saved Matty Rowan’s slapshot attempt toward the close of the period.
“As good as (Cecere) was on one end, our guy made some pretty incredible stops too,” Lee said. “It was a great game to see as a fan.”
Cecere’s saves on Seamus Foley’s shot from the circle and Chris Kolodziej’s try kept the Spartans out of the net in the second period.
Caruso flexed his muscle in the third period with key save after key save. Fici sprinted his way to a one-on-one with four minutes to play, but to no avail. Justin Rocha’s deflection a minute later was no match for an outstretched Caruso. A Belmont one-timer off a faceoff with a minute remaining couldn’t find it’s way past Caruso. Neither could the Marauders’ final attempt on a breakaway with two seconds left in regulation.
“That’s why we were where we were,” Lee said. “Sal kept us in the game. They didn’t have as many shots but they had some real quality shots. He came up big for us. That’s part of why I thought we played our best game. From our goalie on out, we had guys who just left it all on the ice.”
Justin Rocha assisted Fici’s game-winner 1:52 into the overtime frame.
The Spartans finished the season at 13-8-2. St. Mary’s graduates seven seniors from this season’s roster: Caruso, Luke Sargent, William Foglietta, Austin Foglietta, Chris Kolodziej, Alex Nazarian and Owen Maguire.
“You feel bad that you won’t be able to coach them anymore but we built lifelong relationships,” Lee said. “As the ones before them, they’ll all stay in touch. It stinks that they went out this way. They played well enough to win.”
