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Masco finds fire, hits stride late in season

Thursday, February, 07 By Matt Williams
Staff writer

Masconomet girls hockey coach Bill Haines isn't sure exactly what has tilted his squad in the right direction lately. Perhaps it's been a bit of puck luck. Maybe it's just a matter of drawing some extra inspiration.

Undoubtedly, though, something has flipped the switch and the Chieftains are playing their best hockey of the year. Despite last night's loss to Andover, Masconomet has gone 3-3-1 over the last three weeks. The stretch includes a 1-1 tie with area power Marblehead and a win over local rival Beverly. More impressively, the win over Beverly ended a six-game winless streak that ran from mid-December through Jan. 18.

"The biggest thing is the heart. You can have all the skill in the world, but without that it means nothing," said Haines. "We're starting to show heart."

Unfortunately for the Chieftains, this latest stretch might be too late to salvage a berth in the state tournament. The team is 5-8-2 with three games left and would need to win out against first place Waltham | as well as Lexington and Acton-Boxboro, a pair of consensus top 10 teams | to make postseason play.

"We're playing good hockey, but the bad news is our remaining games are all against ranked teams," said Haines. "We have the same record we had last year, but this doesn't feel like a 5-8-2 team | the girls are having fun and we're improving tremendously. It's a much different feeling." Among the many reasons Masco has been able to shake off its early season woes has been the play of senior forward Dani Hall, who is tied for the team lead with 10 goals and 14 points. She's embraced her speed and is authoring an exemplary end to her high school career.

"Before the Beverly game, I told Dani I wanted her to be the best player on the ice. Her first goal that night was a thing of beauty," said Haines. "It was awesome | she saw it develop, blew by everybody and just buried it."

Senior goalie Allison McCarthy, in her first year between the pipes, has a sparkling 2.00 goals against average in the last few weeks. A field hockey goalie by trait, she's made big strides on the ice in the last month in terms of controlling rebounds, balance and using the butterfly to her advantage.

"I'd love to have her for another year. She's a great kid, she's smart and she works hard," Haines said. "(Marblehead's) Tori Snow doesn't miss much, and Allison made two breakaway stops on her (in the 1-1 tie Jan. 25)." The defensive end has been anchored in part by senior captain Julia Croyle, who has been a steady presence in the back end. Junior Jen Pino has also lit the lamp 10 times, and Masco's team defense has been like night and day compared to when the season opened. No longer can the opponent expect to find odd man rushes and juicy rebounds regularly.

"Our defenders have been stellar. Our forwards are coming back and really pressuring. It's been a team effort," said Haines. "A lot of the skill development we did early in the season is paying off."

Add to this the efforts of Pam Herter, Marissa Paci, Meg Twomey and Ellie and Hannah Koenig and the Chieftains have everybody on the same page.

While the postseason may be out of reach, a team with just four seniors is building momentum for the future and becoming a team the favorites don't want to see down the stretch.

"We're trying not to look at the could'ves, would'ves and should'ves," said Haines. "It's a lesson to the younger girls that they have to play the way they are now from the start (next year).

"I told them it's like Dorothy and Oz, she always had the power to get back to Kansas. Everything we've done was always within them, they just had to bring it out."