Patriots surge past Red Raiders
against Fitchburg/monty Tech and held on late to top the Red Raiders, 4-3, at the Wallace Civic Center.
Jimmy O’keefe had a natural hat trick for the guests, Matthew Lynch netted the eventual gamewinner and netminder Aaron Scarelli turned aside 26 shots to give head coach Steve Trundle his first victory at the helm of the North Middlesex program.
“I’m pretty happy with the effort we had today,” Trundle said. “We’ve only had one game before this, but the kids responded tonight and did what we asked them to do. We want to get pucks in, get rebounds, get it down low.”
Lynch corralled a shot that went wide of the Fitchburg (51-1) cage with 10 minutes to go to put the Patriots up 4-2, but it was the performance of O’keefe that gave North Middlesex all the momentum early in the second half of the game.
The forward potted a pair of goals in the first 1:49 of the second half after netting the Patriots’ opening goal in the first stanza.
“Jimmy’s a pretty talented kid and he’s only a sophomore, so he’s only going to get better,” Trundle said. “He can play the game.”
O’keefe gave North Middlesex a 2-1 edge 1:34 into the second, taking control of a rebound and poking it past Fitchburg goalie Deavin Mcgivern (17 saves). Off the ensuing faceoff, O’keefe took the puck down the right side, streaking past a defender and sneaking a shot through Mc