Duxbury, McGinty shut out Hingham
HINGHAM — In a wellplayed contest between two of the top teams in the Patriot League, Duxbury used its speed and defense to blank Hingham on Wednesday afternoon.
Three different goal scorers and a second straight shutout for freshman Anna McGinty was more than enough to lift the Dragons over Hingham, 4-0, at Pilgrim Arena.
“I thought the forecheck was fantastic,” said Duxbury coach Dan Najarian. “I thought our positioning in the D-zone was great and that was evident with the few shots that (Hingham) got that were quality shots.”
Duxbury (2-0) held the momentum early as Lily Sparrow scored just 5:50 into the first to put the Dragons up 1-0. Just over two minutes later, a shot in between the faceoff circles for sophomore Carson Cerow found the back of the net to make it 2-0 about midway through the first.
“We try to make it a habit of being ready to go from puck drop,” Najarian said. “When you can get ahead on a team and get another team chasing from behind, it makes it hard for them to play you. We sort of set the tone and we can play our game and run our lines that we want to run.”
After a scoreless second period, sophomore Ayla Abban scored just 31 seconds into the third to make it 3-0. She added another goal later in the period to bury Hingham (1-1).
“It helps to have a player that you can count on to score a goal when you need it,” said Najarian about the sophomore who has scored four times in two games for Duxbury.
“She scored one in the beginning of the third that sort of iced the game for us.”
A strong defensive effort aided McGinty’s shutout as she notched 15 saves for her second straight win and clean stat sheet.
“(McGinty) is comfortable (in net),” Najarian said. “There is no stress in her game. That filters it way out. If she is relaxed, then our defense can relax because they know she isn’t going to panic.
“Then our forwards can relax. You can see it in our game. There was a nice flow in our game tonight.”