LYNN — Despite getting off to a strong start on its Senior Night, the St. Mary’s boys hockey team couldn’t sustain its good play and ended up falling to Catholic Central League foe Archbishop Williams, 4-1, Wednesday evening at Connery Rink.
“It was a disappointing loss, but we got what we deserved out there,” said St. Mary’s coach Mark Lee. “We came out strong and played well to start, but after the first five minutes we got outworked and we didn’t have a lot of discipline. We played very uncharacteristic hockey, and it cost us.”
Prior to the game, the Spartans honored their group of seven seniors — Kory Ouellette, Max Giardina, Dante D’Ambrosio, Colby Magliozzi, Kyle LoNigro, Christian Moran and Terence Moynihan — for their contributions to the program over the years.
“These are unprecedented times, and the way these seniors have stepped up to lead our team this year has been incredible to see,” said Lee. “We have a great group of leaders on and off the ice, and they’ve really helped our guys get through the long list of distractions that they’ve had to deal with this year.”
LoNigro scored the lone goal for the Spartans in the loss, while Magliozzi and Moran each had one assist.
The Spartans got off to a great start, getting a goal from LoNigro just three minutes into the game to go up 1-0. The score remained there for much of the period, but a couple of sloppy sequences led to two Williams goals — one at the end of the first and one at the beginning of the second period — and put St. Mary’s in a quick hole. The rest of the period didn’t go much better for the Spartans, with Williams netting two more goals to take a 4-1 lead into the final frame.
“The first five minutes for us were perfect in terms of execution,” said Lee. “But after that, we had some breakdowns. Those breakdowns led to more breakdowns, and then we started running around and playing undisciplined hockey. You can’t just take an entire period off against a team like Williams, because they’ll take advantage and put you away.”
The Spartans pushed hard to try for a goal in the third, but Williams stood tall the whole way and St. Mary’s skated away with the loss.
St. Mary’s (4-3-2) hosts Pope Francis Saturday night (7:20) back at Connery. With three games to go until the CCL Cup, the Spartans are fighting for seeding in an incredibly competitive conference.
“We’re going up against what is probably the No. 1 team in the state Saturday and we’ve got Williams again next week, so we know we have a tough road ahead to close the regular season,” said Lee. “It’s going to be up to the guys to go out there and play three full periods of hockey. We know we’re right in the mix here, but we’re going to have to step things up if we want to finish the year on a strong note.”
