RallyNorth.net

WORCESTER | The assumption after the Marblehead High hockey team lost to Scituate, 8-2, in the Division 3 state semifinal last night was that the Headers will be back here next season and do better.

WORCESTER | The Marblehead High hockey team had an otherwordly state tournament run, beating teams it wasn't supposed to beat and playing like it was destined to go out on top.

But the Headers not only ran out of miracles, they ran out of steam against Scituate last night.

On Hockey Phil Stacey

WORCESTER | You can look at this game one of two ways.

The pessimist would say that Marblehead was in over its head in the Division 3 state semifinal last night, giving up four goals before the game was eight-and-a-half minutes old and got hammered, 8-2, by the defending state champions from Scituate. Then there would be the view from the intelligent hockey observer.

Jackson Barber's friends are getting ready to play spring sports at Marblehead High. He's not part of that group.

No disrespect intended, but he doesn't want to be part of that group for a few more days.

A lot of sectional champions | especially those that win it all after being seeded as low as 12th to begin the tournament | are happy just to advance to the state semifinals.

You might say the Marblehead hockey team, the current Division 3 North champs, are happy with their playoff result so far.

Nobody in state hockey circles could have foreseen Marblehead's improbable run to the Division 3 state semifinals, right?

Wrong. Geno Faia did.

Faia, the head coach at arch rival Swampscott High, knew | just knew | that whoever got out of the Division 3 first round matchup between his Big Blue and the neighboring Headers was going to go very far in the state tournament.

Marblehead High junior winger Andrew Bates could have chosen not to play high school hockey.

The trend in recent years has been for top talent all over New England to forego their schoolboy days to chase on ice dreams in various prep school and junior league venues. To be sure, Bates certainly appears to have the skill set needed to do so.

There's no need for the boys on the Marblehead High hockey team to pinch themselves. Their amazing Cinderella run through the Division 3 North bracket might be a dream come true, but it is indeed a reality.

NORTH BILLERICA -- If a picture is worth 1,000 words, the look on Marblehead senior Eric Fader's face as he hoisted the Division 3 North championship trophy might as well have been worth one million.

Simply put, one thousand words aren't enough to describe the joy Fader and the 12th-seeded Headers (14-10-0) felt when, against all odds, they dropped No. 2 Concord-Carlisle, 1-0, to win the first sectional title in school history at the Chelmsford Forum last night.

How many teams begin a season winless in their first four games, then wind up two games away from winning a state championship?

The Marblehead High hockey team doesn't know the answer | and you'll forgive them if they don't really care. That the Headers have managed to turn the trick themselves is enough to keep them occupied.