Senior captain Ian Maag was determined that Saturday would not be the last game of the season for his Marblehead hockey team.
Maag gave his mates a pep talk after the first period with Rockport up 1-0 on a goal by Ipswich High student Josh Guertin.
Maag then scored three goals over the final 30 minutes, including an empty-netter with under a minute to go, and the Vikings fell 4-2 in the quarterfinals of the Division 3 North hockey tournament.
?Maag?s tough, the entire first line is tough for Marblehead [Maag, Ty Bates and Tom Koopman]. We tried to match them line for line with our first line. They were the home team and had last change, so we couldn?t,? Rockport coach Derek Papalegis said.
?It was 1-0 for us after the first period, five minutes in, [Josh] Guertin put one home and we led after one, then Marblehead really stepped up their game. They?re a good team, they just keep coming and coming, they?re tough,? Papalegis said.
?We had some pressure they had some pressure, they were up 3-1 and Tucker Reedy, who fought injuries all year, scored for us and pulled us within one. We just fell short,? Papalegis added. ?Colby [Foster] played great in the net, he seems to have some of his best games against Marblehead.
?We never stopped battling, we played hard until the end. We cut it to one goal, we just couldn?t put the third one in,? Papalegis said.
Maag scored his third goal with just 38 seconds left, after Foster was pulled for a sixth skater.
Alex Rollins and Mike Tupper picked up the assists on Guertin?s goal in the first period. Kyle Nelson and John Tucker set up Reedy in the third period.
Marblehead came into the tournament as the second seed, the Vikings (9-9-2) the tenth seed. Rockport beat Wayland 4-1 in the first round to earn a date with the Headers.
Rockport beat Marblehead in last year?s playoff?s before falling to Bedford, the Vikings captured the league title for the first time during the regular season.
Foster came up big in the opening game against Wayland, making several solid stops before his mates could get him some goals.
Rockport was clinging to a 2-1 lead late and scored twice into the empty net. Mike Tupper scored twice in the win over the Warriors to go with singles from Jake O?Maley and Guertin.
?We started of kind of sluggish against Wayland, but we did pick it up,? Papalegis said. ?We finished .500 this season, won our league, and we scheduled a lot of good Division 2 teams during the season to get us ready for the post-season.
?We seem to keep seeing Marblehead in the playoffs, they?re a very good team,? he added. ?I?ve been here five years, and to see the progress of [these players], some of whom have been here since the eighth grade, has been impressive.?
Eleven Viking seniors finished up their careers Saturday night in Stoneham, but Papalegis is confident he?ll have good players and good numbers when hockey practice begins next November.
underworld awakening haywire dog the bounty hunter tacoma narrows bridge open marriage department of justice doj
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.