BOURNE — Niamh Cote and Amanda Mambro’s high school hockey journeys ended much like they began five years ago.
Cote and Mambro were eighth graders when the Methuen-Tewksbury girls hockey co-op was founded in 2012-13. In the program’s first year, the Red Rangers stunned the high school hockey community when they made a run all the way to the Division 2 state semifinals as the No. 20 seed, upsetting three much higher seeds (Nos. 13, 4, 5) by a combined score of 20-7 along the way.
Methuen-Tewksbury lost to eventual champion Duxbury in the semifinals, but the Red Rangers weren’t anybody’s underdog from that point on. Over the past five years, Cote and Mambro watched as the young team grew in size and stature, quickly becoming one of the premier programs in the division.
Now senior co-captains, they were instrumental leaders for a Methuen-Tewksbury team which finally broke through and made it back to the state semifinals. Although Wednesday’s season-ending 5-1 loss to unbeaten defending state champ Notre Dame Academy of Hingham (21-0-1) wasn’t the way the pair hoped to go out, the seniors are proud of what they helped build and optimistic about the program’s future.
“I hope to look back in a few years saying, ‘Oh, I was a captain of that team, and look, they just won a state championship,’” said Mambro, a Methuen resident and a defenseman. “I hope we can come back and say that in a few years.”
That’s a possibility with most of this year’s talented squad set to return next year, and despite the score, Wednesday’s semifinal at Gallo Arena in Bourne wasn’t nearly as lopsided as you might think.
Notre Dame held a one-goal lead for most of the game. After NDA extended the lead to two early in the third, the Red Rangers responded with a dominant run for about 10 minutes before the Cougars finally put the game away with a late goal and then an empty-netter to finish things up.
Kelly Golini, the talented junior, tallied 45 goals this year and 36 last winter, both area highs. She was a wizard on the ice, weaving and bobbing through the tough Notre Dame Academy defense.
But it was sophomore Carolyn Curley who made the most impactful play of the day, scoring a beautiful goal only 20 seconds after Notre Dame’s Katherine Pyne had scored the second of her four goals. That made it 2-1 going into the first intermission and gave the Red Rangers plenty of momentum.
The second period was a battle, with the Cougars peppering freshman goalie Kaia Hollingsworth (35 saves) with shots all throughout, but the Red Rangers defense held strong.
Finally, in the third period, Notre Dame’s Alexa Graziano scored to make it 3-1, putting the Red Rangers into a difficult hole. The following 10 minutes, however, Methuen-Tewksbury dominated the pace of play, keeping the Cougars in their own end and outshooting the opposition 9-5.
With just under four minutes left, Methuen-Tewksbury drew an interference penalty. Unfortunately for the Red Rangers, an errant pass eventually found its way onto the stick of Pyne, who slotted the puck for a backbreaking shorthanded goal to put the game away.
Methuen had a goal called back under questionable circumstances in the final minutes as well, but by that point the game was effectively finished. Notre Dame was able to collect an empty-netter with 1:02 to play, and that was that.
“I think we had a really strong season. I think we could be in that game on Sunday, but a few bounces, a tough period, there’s nothing I can say that they did wrong,” said Methuen-Tewksbury coach Sarah Oteri.
“We have a lot of young girls, so hopefully they’ll develop and we’ll be back here again.”
Methuen-Tewksbury finishes the season 19-2-3.
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