ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
St. Mary’s Dante Maribito and Fenwick’s Kasey O’Brien collide along the boards.
By SCOT COOPER
PEABODY — The St. Mary’s boys’ hockey team got a goal in the first period and a goal in the second, and 20 saves between the pipes by Andrew LoRusso to get by Bishop Fenwick, 2-0, Saturday evening in Peabody’s McVann-O’Keefe rink.
The winners peppered Crusaders goalie Matt Goulian, the junior from Melrose, all night, with both goals coming off of broken plays and a broken stick. Goulian got a piece of 32 of 34 St. Mary’s shots.
St. Mary’s dominated the early going, but did not have anything to show for its efforts. The Crusaders were on their heels early, and their first shot on goal came while short-handed, when a clearing attempt went down the ice and was swept away by LoRusso.
The Spartans finally got on the board after long stretches of intense pressure in the Fenwick end. A broken stick opened up a chance for St. Mary’s with 5:41 left in the first.
Taking advantage of a defenseman with no stick, Damon Marabito got the puck from Nick Napolitano and got a shot on net. Goulian got a piece of it, but Dante Marabito was able to get his stick on the puck before he could freeze it. Maribito buried it in the back of the net, and St. Mary’s had a 1-0 lead.
Marabito almost had his second of the period, but he rang one off the pipe to Goulian’s right with 1:20 left before the break. LoRusso made a great save of his own with just 30 ticks left in the first period when Fenwick’s Jim Moore broke in alone and tried to put a backhander home to tie it up.
St. Mary’s picked up where it left off , doubling its lead to 2-0 four minutes into the second period. Once again the puck was boxed around in front of Goulian’s cage, Nico Scalli slid toward the net from his point position and got the puck to Alec Matho, who blew it by Goulian with 11:13 left in period two.
The two teams were held scoreless in the third period, the closest call for the Spartans came when Fenwick’s Rob Murphy got a pass in the slot from Kasey O’Brien, but his wrister got nothing but metal behind LoRusso.
The Crusaders lifted Goulian with 1:12 left in the game and managed three shots before the buzzer, with LoRusso stoning Moore twice and getting a pad on a shot by Derek DelVecchio as time ran out.
Spartan (12-4-1) coach Mark Lee tipped his cap to the Crusaders’ junior goalie and his team for a good effort Saturday evening.
“I think we outshot them by a 3-1 margin, so my hat’s off to their goalie, he played really well,” Lee said.
“It was a close game,” he said. “We would have liked to convert a few more of our chances, but we didn’t convert. We pressed a little and got frustrated, but we came out with a win. We know they weren’t going to go away and they didn’t, they’re a good team.”
Senior defenseman Marc Zampanti said Fenwick played his team tough, and his team is glad to pick up two points anytime.
“We had a big win (6-0) the other night over Matignon, this was a good win for us, another shutout,” Zampanti said. “We have a huge week coming up with Andover at home Monday night, BC High on Wednesday, and we have a big game with Newburyport coming up too.”
“We’ve been playing pretty good hockey lately, and we need that to continue, this is a very big stretch for this team coming up,” the senior from Winthrop said.
Crusaders (3-13-1) coach Jim Quinlan said that if one of those shots off the post went in, things might have played out better for the home team.
“We battled, they’re an excellent team, we’re a very young team, only three seniors, it’s tough to lose so many close games,” Quinlan said. “These kids will grow, they’ll get better, we’ve been in, with the exception of a (7-0) loss to Austin Prep, every game we’ve played this season.”