PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Saugus celebrates a power play goal by Brandan Ronan.
By SCOT COOPER
SAUGUS – It was a bright spot in a very frustrating season for the Saugus High hockey team on Thursday night at Kasabuski Arena. The Sachems got second period goals from Brendan Patterson and Pat Cross, and held off a late Swampscott surge to win, 3-2.
Cross, one of just two seniors dressing for the Sachems, said his team fought for the entire game, and that they’ll battle every team they face for the rest of the season, despite sitting at 2-10-2.
“It’s certainly been a tough season for us, but to come out and beat a team (Swampscott) that’s going to the playoffs says a lot about our team,” Cross said. “Like I said, it’s been tough, but we’re going to try and knock off every team we play. We played hard all game and tonight and the game ended on a good note. ”
Brendan Ronan scored with 5:08 left in the first period, giving the home team a lead they would never give up. Junior defenseman Brett Morey assisted on all three Saugus goals. His defensive partner C.J. Graffeo had a pair of assists, and winger Kyle Wood had the other.
Graffeo said after the game that he’d much rather be getting ready for the playoffs than playing the role of spoiler, but his team is ready to do just that: beat everybody left on the schedule, especially teams that are headed to the tournament.
“We beat Swampscott in a jamboree earlier, so we were confident going into the game. We did what we usually do every game, which is play hard. We played hard tonight and we got a big win,” Graffeo said. “That’s our goal right now. Be in a spoiler role. We would much rather be heading to the playoffs, but we’ll come out hard every night until the season ends.”
For the Big Blue, who qualified for postseason play with a win Monday night against Weston, a slow start hurt the team, according to coach Gino Faia.
“I thought we came out flat in the first, picked it up in the second and played better in the third,” Faia said. “We only got four shots in the first period, we ended up outshooting them 30-26, but no offense in the first cost us.”
Swampscott’s first line had all the punch for the Big Blue. Mike Johnson had a goal and an assist, Louis Olivieri had a goal and an assist, and winger Steve Santanello assisted on Olivieri’s goal. David Peterson also had an assist for Swampscott (10-8).
“It was a good win for us, it’s been a frustrating season, certainly, a lot of one-goal losses, a lot of close losses,” Sachem coach Jeff Natulucci said. “We want to finish strong for our two seniors, and show the younger guys how we want to play.”
“We have a huge test Saturday night against Marblehead, they’re unbeaten, we have to come out like tonight, grind it out and go for a win,” the coach added.
Scot Cooper can be reached at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @bscooper60.