Scituate hockey defeated Woonsocket Villa Novans with a 9-0 victory Saturday, March 1. Many of the Spartans were pumped up because of their senior night. Leaving the team this year are, Justin Bergeron, Derek Botelho, Anthony Deroy, Corey Grange, Matt Hawkins, Jake Hopkins, and Sean Murphy, along with captains Tom Bush and Kevin Durning. This is the largest senior class to leave SHS hockey.
Prior to the game, Coach Bryant recognized the nine seniors and their parents out on the ice. Mentioning their talents and future goals left the parents very proud of their sons. “There are moments of frustration and moments of pure joy, but, overall, they are a great bunch of guys,” said Coach Bryant.
Within the first two minutes of the game, Jake Hopkins scored the first goal to rile up the crowd. The score stayed 1-0 for the rest of the period with the Spartans leading. Beginning the second period, freshman Alex Dichiaro scored a goal keeping Scituate in the lead. About a minute later, Captain Tom Bush pushed the score to 3-0.
With 1:18 left on the clock in the second period, Captain Kevin Durning, assisted by Tim Brady, had the Scituate fans cheering as the team left for intermission at 4-0.
Seconds into the third period, Jake Hopkins scored a goal. With the Spartans up 5-0, Woonsocket’s goalie, Joshua Sloan, was replaced by Jacob Lachance. Finishing out the period, goals were made by the two Scituate captains. Tom Bush scoring three that period, and Kevin, with one goal, led to the game’s final score of 9-0.
Handling 15 shots from Woonsocket, goalie Matt Hawkins kept his cool throughout the game and earned a shutout. Eighteen shots were taken by Scituate, and Woonsocket goalie Joshua Sloan let in 5. Replacing Josh, Jacob Lachance went in goal with Scituate firing 15 shots. He let in 4.
In quarterfinal playoffs, the Spartans faced North Smithfield at North Smithfield, playing a best out of three game series that started on March 5. Scituate had the first victory with a final score of 4-1.
Tom Bush, Alex Dichiaro, and two by Nick Defusco accounted for the goals. North Smithfield took 25 shots, but Matt Hawkins stymied the North Smithfield attack and allowed only one goal for the Northmen by Drew Jalette. Twenty-seven shots were taken by Scituate and goalie Trevor White let in 4.
On Friday March 7, game two was played at Smithfield Ice Rink. North Smithfield stepped up their game and took a 6-3 victory over the Spartans. Goals scored for Scituate were all by captain Tom Bush. North Smithfield’s goals were scored by Bill Nangle, Andrew Puccetti, Nick Naradowy, Chris Caouette, and two by Steve Gagne.
A do or die game was played on March 8 to determine the winner to move on to the semi-finals. An intense game was played by the Northmen and the Spartans.
In the first period Scituate scored a goal by Justin Bergeron. With 30 seconds into second period, Jake Hopkins scored on an impressive backhand shot. Also in the period, the Northmen got on the board with one goal.
In the last period, the Northmen scored to bring the ame to a close 3-2. With less than two minutes left, the Northmen pulled their goalie. With seconds approaching the buzzer, Nick Defusco scored, and the Scituate Spartans had a 4-2 victory.