Third time’s a charm for BHS
Senior goalie Bassett leads BPBV to victory over La Salle/MB
The Burrillville High boys’ and girls’ ice hockey teams both needed a decisive Game 3 in their respective playoff series Monday, and both delivered to advance.
BURRILLVILLE – It's been a while since the La Salle girls hockey team missed the state final. It's been even longer since Burrillville played for a state title.
After a superb regular season where the No. 1 Broncos didn't drop a game on the ice, they were pushed to a third game in their state semi- final series against No. 5 La Salle/Moses Brown.
Behind the inspired played of senior goalie Abby Bassett and goals from Kayla Gravel, Meg Buxton and Gianna DeFusco, Burrillville/Ponaganset/Bay View earned a 3-2 victory Monday night at Levy Rink to advance to this weekend's state final.
“I just told them, I am so unbelievably happy,” BPBV coach Cortney Lacey said. “I told them that I love every single one of them. They work so hard – and I know every coach says the same thing. This year, we knew from Day 1 that this is a special group of kids and we knew how bad they wanted it. There's no quit in these girls. I hope we can do the same thing this week.”
“This is great. We had three schools come together and form a great team,” said Bassett,
who is playing in her second final in five months after leading the Bronco girls soccer team to the D-II final. “No one outside of that locker room thought we would get this far, but we knew how hard we worked to get here.”
While Bay View last played for the state title in 2011 when the Bengals lost to Mount St. Charles, the Broncos haven't appeared in the state final since the inaugural season of girls hockey in 2003. On the other side, La Salle will be sitting out the title series for the first time since 2011.
Of course, the Rams didn't make it easy on the Broncos in the final five minutes after Ponaganset's DeFusco slotted a shot from the left circle past Moses Brown freshman Asia Porter.
With 1:59 left, the Rams finally took advantage of a delayed penalty opportunity when Alex Morra slid a shot past Bassett's right pad to close the gap to just one. The Broncos were called for six penalties and the Rams made them pay twice.
“I can't tell you how many times we've told them to stay out of the penalty box,” Lacey said. “We can't be playing from behind. It's tough, because we're a physical team, but they have to be able to control their bodies. We don't want to be dirty because that's not what we do, but this is a physical game and we are a physical team.”
Bassett made a superb blocker save in the final minute – one of her many superb blocker saves – to preserve the victory and sen the Broncos the final against No. 2 South County at Brown's Meehan Auditorium.
“I'm very proud of this team,” Gravel said. “They gave it everything they had and we didn't want to have any regrets. This was a lot tougher now because in the regular season they didn't know what we really had. They really wanted this, but we wanted it even more.”
The Rams forced Monday's game by securing a 2-1 victory over the Broncos Saturday night in North Smithfield. Lacey made it a point to let her team know how important the first goal of the game was to set the tempo.
Burrillville's opener came from its most like source, as just 4:01 into the contest Madison McCutcheon created a chance for Gravel and the senior defenseman slotted a shot past Porter.
“It was good that we scored first,” Gravel said. “It was a good redirect of a center. That set the tone of the game for us. It told them that we want this and showed how easy it was for us to score that goal.”
The Broncos doubled their lead with 1:37 left in the period when Ponaganset's Katie Paparelli fed Buxton for a goal. Moments before the tally, La Salle forward Jen Rickard missed an open net with a shot that would've tied the game.
The second period simply belonged to Bassett, who made a number of close-range blocker and pad saves to keep the Broncos ahead by two goals.
“I love when I have to make a lot of saves because it keeps me in the game,” Bassett said.
“Abby did an absolutely amazing job,” Gravel said. “Abby is just an amazing goalie. She just does Abby things. That's what she does.”
The Rams cut their deficit in half with 7:19 left in the game when Ariana DeSousa connected with Jill Egan for a goal. DeFusco rebuilt her team's two-goal lead at 9:26, but Morra made the Broncos sweat with her delayed-penalty goal with 1:59 left in the game.
“At the end of the game I wasn't nervous because we had the right kids on the ice,” Lacey said. “I really wasn't nervous. La Salle gave everything they had and Abby was just on fire. She's been on fire all season.”