WHS Sports Roundup

WHS Girls Hockey Team Edges Newburyport

The Winthrop High girls hockey team improved to 2-0 on the season with a hang-onto-your-seat, 1-0 victory over Northeastern Hockey League (NHL) rival Newburyport Saturday afternoon at Larsen Rink.

“What a game!” said WHS head coach Anthony Martucci afterwards. “Newburyport was a hard-skating team. Their goalie was fantastic and they were relentless.”

Sophomore Sami DiMento, assisted by her linemates, sophomore Hannah Parker and junior Lily Tallent, notched the lone lamp-lighter of the contest, which came near the end of the first period

“It was a beautiful, highlight-reel goal,” said WHS head coach Anthony Martucci. “Our ‘grind line’ of Hannah, Lily, and Sami went to work. Hannah drove the net hard and took the puck behind the net. She sent a quick pass out to Lily, who corralled it and slid it over to Sami, right to the side of the net. Sami then took the puck and deposited it into the upper portion of the net, bar-down, for the game-winner.

“It was just a perfect play by that line,” Martucci continued. “They are very good together. They are so strong positionally and they work so hard. It was nice to see it pay off.”  

Despite the closeness of the final score, the Lady Vikings dominated their Lady Clipper opponents (who entered the contest with an undefeated record of 2-0-1), outshooting the visitors by a wide margin of 35-13.

“We were just too deep for them,” noted Martucci. “They did not have an answer for the three lines that we sent out, one after-another-after-another.

“We had a ton of great scoring chances from the line of Julia Holmes, Emma Holmes, and Talia Martucci, as well as from the line of Mia Norris, Mia Martucci, and Kendall Brant,” the coach added. “Those two lines were flying and both were very close to scoring multiple times.”

However, aside from DiMento’s lone goal, Newburyport goalie Teagan Wilson proved unbeatable.

Fortunately for Winthrop, WHS star goalie Summer Tallent was more than up to the task of stopping the 13 Newburyport shots to record her 18th career shutout (three away from the program record held by her immediate predecessor, Gretchen Howard) and 44th career win (thereby eclipsing Howard’s previous mark). 

“If there was a major turning point in this game, it would have been from a defense perspective,” said Martucci. “Their forwards just could not generate the offense they needed because our entire defensive corps was incredible,” Martucci added. “Abby Holmes, Elle English, Adrianna Rizzotto, Avalina Coffey, Tegan Pereira, and Izi Hain all contributed to the win with blocked shots, great breakout passes, holding the blue line, and thwarting any real scoring chances for the Newburyport offense. It was an awesome team win and we are happy to be 2-0.” 

Martucci and his crew will face a pair of perennially-strong NHL rivals in the coming week. They were scheduled to trek to Salem State College to meet Marblehead last night (Wednesday) and then will have a showdown with defending NHL champion Peabody next Wednesday at the McVann/O’Keefe Rink at 5:15.

Peabody stands at 3-1 thus far on the season and has outscored its opponents by a margin of 23-7. The Lady Tanners’ lone loss came at the hands of St. Mary’s of Lynn, 3-1.

Winthrop, which has outscored its two opponents 11-1, and is ranked in the top 10 in the Boston Globe poll, finished second in the NHL last season behind Peabody and will be looking to make an early-season statement against their Lady Tanner rivals.

Fast Start, Furious Finish for WHS Boys in Tough Loss to Saugus, 60-55

The Winthrop High boys basketball team got off to a fast start and then turned in a furious finish, but came up just short in an exciting 60-55 contest at Northeastern Conference (NEC) rival Saugus this past Monday.

The Vikings opened the contest with a quick blitz to jump out to a 9-2 lead with 3:06 remaining in the first period, but Saugus pulled within 15-12 at the first buzzer.

The teams were deadlocked at 24-24 at the end of the first half, with the Vikings receiving some stellar defense from sophomore Ryan Harris.

“We were tied at the half thanks in large part to the defense of Ryan Harris,” said WHS head coach Mike Triant. “He was tasked with covering Saugus center Tyrone Manderson and he was really physical with him and that gave him and their offense some problems.”

Triant went with a quicker lineup, looking to inject some spark into the Winthrop offense, after the intermission, but Manderson heated up, hitting for 16 points with three three-pointers, to boost Saugus into a 44-40 advantage after three periods.

The Vikings buckled-down on defense to start the fourth quarter, making five defensive stops to open the period. However, Winthrop was unable to take advantage of their stellar defensive efforts and could not convert at the other end of the floor thanks to some shots that rimmed out and a pair of turnovers.

Saugus went on a 9-0 run to expand its lead to a 53-40, but the Vikings refused to throw in the towel and soon closed the gap.

The Vikings employed a full court, man-to-man defense and the duo of Chris Cappuccio and Zach Bogusz (who hit for nine points in the Winthrop run) combined to bring the Vikings back to level at 53-53.

However, that would prove to be the apogee of the Winthrop comeback effort and Saugus outscored the Vikings 7-2 in the closing minutes for the 60-55 victory.

“I thought our effort and intensity were amazing,” said Triant. “We came out and got five or six consecutive stops in the fourth. We limited them to one shot and cleaned the glass as a team really well.  Unfortunately, we didn’t convert anything on our first five possessions of the period and then they went on their 9-0 run.

“We did a great job of creating turnovers when we went man-to-man and Bogusz had nine points in a row for us as we tied the game up, 53-53. Unfortunately, Saugus had a little more left in their tank down the stretch,” Triant added.

Bogusz ended up with 21 points and Cappuccio hit for 18 to pace the Vikings in the scoring department.

“Saugus has a very good club with big, physical guards, who proved a little much for us,” Triant noted. “But we definitely had opportunities and we will just continue to work on improving what we need to improve.”

Triant and his crew were scheduled to make the long trek to Gloucester last night (Wednesday) and will meet Pioneer Charter School in a holiday tournament next Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 at Winthrop High. The consolation and championship games of the tourney will be played next Thursday.

Tough Loss in OT for WHS Boys Hockey

The Winthrop High boys hockey team came up on the short end of a 4-3 decision to Northeastern Conference rival Danvers in the Vikings’ season-opener last Saturday afternoon at Larsen Rink. Winthrop jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the opening period. Sophomore forward Robert Rich reached the back  of the Danvers net with an unassisted goal for the first Viking tally of the 2022 season and fellow sophomore Peter Silverman made it 2-0, with assists from senior captain JD Parker and sophomore defenseman Hunter Fife. Danvers got one back before the first horn and then evened the count at 2-2 with a goal in the middle stanza. The teams remained deadlocked for the remainder of the second period and most of the third until Winthrop pulled ahead with an unassisted goal by freshman forward Phil Boncore with about 4:00 left in the contest. However, the visiting Falcons won a faceoff in the Winthrop end in the final minute and notched the equalizer. The teams then went into a five-minute, 4-on-4 overtime session. The Vikings picked up a penalty in the final minutes, giving Danvers a 4-on-3 advantage. Winthrop were on the verge of having killed the penalty successfully, but the Falcons were able to put home the game-winner with eight seconds left on the penalty to claim the 4-3 win. Coach Dale Dunbar and his crew were scheduled to entertain non-league foe Lynnfield last night (Wednesday). However, their scheduled contest with Saugus next Wednesday has been postponed.