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The Dedham High girls hockey team has hit the toughest stretch in its schedule, and the results have been about what you would expect from such a young team.
Faced with games last week with a combined one loss in Bay State Conference play, the Marauders dropped both, falling 6-1 to Wellesley on Saturday after a 5-2 loss to Braintree last Wednesday.
Dedham stands at 2-6-2 overall and 1-3-2 in the BSC entering Wednesday’s contest at Newton North. All three goals in the two games were scored by eighth graders as Kylie McCarthy and Kassidy Hickey tallied against the Wamps and McCarthy had the lone goal against the Raiders.
Wellesley, which has advanced to the Division 2 state final in each of the last three years, scored three minutes into the first period and had six goals by the end of two periods in improving to 4-2-2 overall and 4-0-2 in the BSC.
Freshman Emily Rourke had a goal and an assist, and classmate Mackenzie O’Neil scored two goals. Juniors Elise Coakley, and Katie Hawkinson, and senior Erin Fleming scored one goal each.
“It’s funny, because scoring early, and playing with a lead is something that we have been talking about,” Wellesley coach P.T. Donato said. “We’ve struggled in the first period this year. We’ve only scored one goal in the first period this year before today. It’s definitely something we’ve talked about internally.”
The Raiders received the message, because the offense was clicking from the moment the puck dropped, getting several opportunities early on.
Coakley took advantage on one of the offensive chances and shot the puck past Dedham goalie Isabella Gentile with 9:50 remaining to give Wellesley its first goal of the contest.
The Raiders continued attacking after the first goal. With a little under seven minutes left in the first period, Wellesley got the puck into the offensive zone and started rifling off shots.
Gentile did her best to withstand the onslaught, making several saves, but with 6:36 left in the first, Rourke found an opening and increased the Raider lead to 2-0.
Wellesley was not done scoring in the opening stanza. O’Neil found space along the right side of the ice toward the wall, and put a wrist shot past Gentile for the third goal.
Dedham scored in the first to interrupt Wellesley’s run when McCarthy put in an unassisted goal with 3:54 remaining in the period. Senior defenseman Maria McDonagh made a terrific play to stop what easily could have been another Wellesley goal, as she chased down a Raider skater who had a clear path to the net and denied the shot.
Despite some inspired play from the Marauders, Wellesley never panicked holding a 3-1 lead into the second, where it matched its first-period performance with three more goals.
Dedham did have a chance early in the period. After a Marauder shot bounced in front of Wellesley goalie Alyssa Cimino, there was a scramble in front of the goal. Cimino quickly tried to cover the puck and did so momentarily. However, she lost control of the puck and Dedham was there to shoot it in. But the referee had ruled that play was whistled dead and disallowed the goal.
Wellesley immediately went down the ice and scored its fourth goal on freshman O’Neil’s second of the game. Fleming scored an unassisted goal from the point with 1:16 left, and Hawkinson scored off a Rourke pass with 7.9 seconds on the clock for the final tally.
(Sports Editor Tom Fargo contributed to this report)
