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North Reading finding its goals

Saturday, January, 07 By Jeff Hamrick

HAVERHILL – North Reading had trouble finding the back of the net while losing its first four hockey games. But the Hornets have turned things around once they found their offense.

Scoring proved no problem during the first period last night as North Reading erupted for four goals in a 10-minute stretch en route to a 5-3 Cape Ann League victory over Pentucket.

After scoring only six goals the first four games, the Hornets (3-5 overall, 1-4 league) now have put 19 in net while winning three of their past four.

“This was definitely a big win,” said North Reading senior captain Jonathan Gravallese, who had a goal and two assists. “We need to keep the momentum going, but I really think we’ll be alright. I remember last year we started off 2-6 and we turned it around (going 8-1-1 over its next 10). Hopefully, we’ll do the same thing this year.”

The way last night’s match started, it appeared the two squads might put up the kind of score the schools’ basketball teams would appreciate with each team scoring a pair of goals the first 8:31.

North Reading took a 1-0 lead less than 2 minutes in on a forehand shot by Tommy Potter crossing the slot. After a tying goal by Pentucket’s Josh Potter off a nice pass from JoJo Mangano, the Hornets grabbed another lead on the first of two power-play goals in the period. This one by Erik Morrison with 9:33 left – a mere 9 seconds into the penalty.

But the Sachems (1-7, 0-5) once again forced a tie on a goal by Tom Pingree off a slick cross-ice pass from Ian Mitchell with 6:29 remaining.

The Hornets, however, took the lead for good 21 seconds later on an unassisted goal by Gravallese. Eric Vallenti scored what proved to be the game winner with 3:08 left in the first on another power play.

“We’re trying to put it together,” North Reading coach John Giuliotti said. “It’s still somewhat early. We’ve had some injuries, and we’re still shuffling some things around. But things are starting to click now.”

After the first-period explosion, both teams turned up the defensive pressure during a second period that featured only 13 scoring opportunities. But the Hornets did get a big goal by Valenti on a loose puck in front of the Pentucket net with 21 seconds left.

“Anytime you give up or get a goal in the last minute of a period is either a huge lift for your team or a huge setback for the other team,” Giuliotti said. “Cody was in the area of the ice where we told him there were a lot of rebounds and we told him to go to that spot. It certainly helped to get some momentum going into the third period.”

Pentucket, which has scored only one goal in four of its seven losses, did get a third goal with 1:17 left on a short-hander by Mitchell. It was also a strong period for both goalies as North Reading’s Keith Linnane recorded 14 of his 27 saves and Sachem goalie Sammantha Bomba had 10 of her 29.

The third also was a chippy period as Pentucket had a 4-minute power play, including 1:50 of five on three, and late in the period the Sachems had three players in the box at one time.

“We need to put three periods together is what we need to do,” Pentucket coach Bill Burns said. “We play two good periods and we fall asleep in the third. That’s happened to us this year. And we can’t let things affect us. We’ve got to keep our poise and be mature enough not to let teams affect our game.”