Big tuneup ‘victory’ for AP

The challenges have come from every direction this season for the Austin Prep girls hockey team.

And before AP looked ahead to the postseason, it had another immense test yesterday in the Cougar Classic championship against Notre Dame (Hingham).

Despite giving up a twogoal third-period lead, Prep put the finishing touches on the program’s first unbeaten regular season with a 3-2 shootout victory at Rockland Ice Rink.

“It was a good battle, but also a very postseasonlike matchup,” said Prep coach Stephanie Wood, whose club is now 18-0-2. “It was good for us to get that test now. Who knows if we’ll see (the shootout) once we get to the postseason, so good to practice that now.”

For MIAA purposes, the game is recorded as a tie, but Austin Prep and Notre Dame (12-6-2) decided a winner in the shootout.

Austin Prep’s Felicia Zuccola scored the only goal of the shootout in the fifth round by roofing a shot, and then goalie Hannah Aveni denied Jillian Lyons’ bid.

Notre Dame goalie Erin Murray finished with 40 saves, including two quality stops on Zuccola in the last 20 seconds of regulation. In the 3-on-3 overtime, Maeve Crehan got behind Notre Dame’s defense and went in all alone on Murray, but couldn’t beat the sophomore netminder.

After being outshot 30-4 through the first two periods and trailing 2-0, NDA charged back in the third period, and goals from Alexa Graziano and Kelsey Stewart within the first 4:16 of the frame tied it up.

AP went ahead early in the second period on rebound goals 1:15 apart from Elise Lyons and Kara Cecchini.

At the Hingham Hockey Showcase at Pilgrim Skating Arena, Lucy Williams broke a 1-1 tie with 5:27 left in regulation, and Molly Duvall added some last-minute insurance as Duxbury (16-3-2) earned a 3-1 victory over Westford Academy.

“It felt really good,” Duvall said. “Just because we’ve been working our butts off all season. And it’s finally starting to pay off.”

Jackie Hayden gave Duxbury a 1-0 lead midway through the first period, blasting one past Westford goalie Allison Kingsley.

It stayed that way into the third, when the Grey Ghosts’ Kayleigh Baker unleashed a shot that took a bounce off a skate into the net to tie it with 6:54 to play. But it didn’t take long for Duxbury to answer on Williams’ tally.

Earlier yesterday in Hingham, Nikki Norton blasted a shot from the blue line with 5:23 to play to give Braintree (15-4-1) a 2-2 tie with St. Mary’s.

“Playing a game like this, to me, a tie was a win,” said Braintree coach Kevin Burchill. “St. Mary’s has played awesome. This game proved to (Braintree) that they could play with the better teams, but I was very pleased.”

Eighth grader Aylah Cioffi scored her 25th of the season 4:12 into play to give St. Mary’s the lead. After Braintree tied the game on Abbey Holland’s tally, seventh grader Jenna Chaplain gave the Spartans the lead back a minute into the second.

For St. Mary’s (15-3-2), freshman Maddy Delano notched 26 saves. Braintree’s Ellie Foley finished with 15 saves.

Lexi Rosenbaum notched her 50th career point with a goal for Masconomet (15-3-2) in a 4-2 nonleague win over Winchester in the Newburyport Bank Classic championship.

Boys hockey

In the Buddy Ferreira Classic championship, Matt Lakus netted four goals and Joseph Kramer notched a hat trick to power BC High (15-4-1) to the title with a 9-1 win over Reading.

Matt Pasquale posted the shutout, Jack Gray scored late in the second period and Central Catholic (21-10) captured the championship of the Cardinal Hockey Classic with a 1-0 win against Malden Catholic.

In a nonleague matchup, Oliver Ames (13-8) defeated Westwood, 5-2, behind Rory Madden’s pair of goals.

Girls basketball

Behind Kenzie Matulonis’ 19 points and seven rebounds, Bridgewater-Raynham (16-4) won its 14th straight game with a nonleague victory over Bourne, 54-32.

Boys basketball

Will Zarges hit five 3-pointers for 15 points to lead Quincy (16-6) to a 70-58 nonleague win over Malden Catholic.