Reigning state champions blank Broncos
The Christmas break came at the perfect time for the Burrillville/ Ponaganset/Bay View co-op girls hockey team.
After winning their first three games in December, the Broncos entered their most difficult stretch of the season with games against MSC/Cumberland/Lincoln School, undefeated reigning state champion and state runner-up La Salle.
That’s why BPBV coach Cortney Lacey took her team on an adventure last week. Thursday morning, the Broncos departed Rhode Island and took a bus to Woods Hole on Cape Cod where they caught a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. The Broncos played the Vineyarders to a tie and then spent the evening on the island before returning home Friday afternoon.
“It was fun, we did it as sort of a team-bonding activity and all the girls had fun,” Lacey said. “Over there, everyone played well against them and they were a pretty good team. We played as a team, but tonight – not so much.”
The undefeated Eagles came to Levy Rink Friday night and showed why they are the favorites to retain their state title. For the second straight contest, the Broncos gave up the game’s first two goals and they never could find their way back into the contest.
Sophomore forward Katherine Barker had two goals and an assist, while junior forward Maeve Harrington delivered the game-winning goal 5:07 into the opening period to go along with two assists in a 5-0 East Bay victory.
“We need to get more physical and we need to be stronger on our sticks,” Lacey said. “We need to play our positions because we’re out of position way too much. That happened tonight. Maddie Cox, their defenseman, had a lot of shots on net. You have to be able to cover her and know where she is so she doesn’t get a wide open shot. We were out of position all night.”
BPBV (3-2 Division I) has now lost two straight league games and life doesn’t get any easier next Friday night when the Broncos make the short trip to Rhode Island Sports Center to take on talented La Salle.
The big challenge for Lacey and the Broncos is to start quicker. In last month’s defeat to Mount, Cumberland freshman Sara DeSousa scored a pair of goals in the opening minute to lead the Mounties to a 4-1 victory. Friday, Barker and Harrington snuck shots past se- nior goalie Emily Etheridge (25 saves) in the opening period.
“We tried to switch our system a little bit and play a little more conservative in the first period where we send one forward in play a 1-1-3,” Lacey. “We wanted to keep the score 0-0 going into the third period because they have three lines and we have two. We had to switch it when they scored.”
East Bay (6-0 Division I) only allowed the Broncos to put three shots on goalie Ellee Kopecky’s net in the middle period. On the other end of the ice, the Eagles scored three more times to build a five-goal advantage after two periods.
Marisa Levreault started the scoring when she took a pass from Rose Flaherty and deposited a shot past Etheridge. Barker delivered her second goal with 5:03 left in the second period when she redirected a Harrington pass from the right circle into the net. Cox grabbed a goal of her own with 24 seconds left in the period.
“We can compete,” Lacey said. “Every team we’ve seen so far has one or two girls who are really good and then average kids. There’s no reason why we can’t play with Barrington, La Salle or Mount. We have to get better at being smarter. We make a lot of freshman mistakes, but we have seniors making freshman mistakes. They have to learn to worry about their position. They want to learn and want to get better, so we can get better.”