PEABODY — The Peabody/Lynnfield girls hockey team celebrated Senior Night with a rock-solid 5-0 win over visiting Marblehead Saturday at McVann-O’Keefe Arena.
Prior to the start of the game, the team honored its three seniors; North Reading’s Sammie Mirasolo, who will be studying management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; North Reading’s Jeny Collins, who will attend the University of Vermont where she will be studying history, and Lynnfield’s Carolyn Garofoli who will be heading to the University of New Hampshire where she will play field hockey.
Peabody coach Michelle Roach said she was glad all of her seniors contributed to the win.
“Those girls have been with the program for four years, and they’ve helped us get to where we’ve gotten as a team,” she said.
There were long stretches where the action was pretty even between, particularly in the first period when Marblehead held its own. Both teams had plenty of scoring opportunities, but Collins (28 saves) and Marbleheader goalie Avery Olsen (38 saves) each made a few big saves to keep the game scoreless through the first 15 minutes of play.
Peabody picked up the pace in the second period. With a player from each side in the penalty box, Reilly Ganter scooped up a loose puck and swished it past Olsen about four and a half minutes in to put Peabody on top, 1-0.
Three minutes later the Tanners doubled up the lead when Ella McTeague took a pass from Catherine Sweeney and buried it. Mirasolo capped the period’s scoring, with an assist credited to Paige Thibedeau, to make it a 3-0 game with one period to go.
Peabody added a couple of insurance goals in the third period, the first from Hannah Gramko (from Mirasolo). Jen Flynn added an unassisted short-handed goal with 56 seconds remaining in the game.
Roach said she was pleased with her team’s effort.
“We’ve been doing good things with the puck, we’re not just going through the motions,” Roach said. “We did a good job on coverage, where 9-5-1, and now we get ready for Medford Wednesday.”
Marblehead High coach Ryan Wood said the team had a big first period, and acknowledged that Peabody really picked it up in the second period.
“As the play went on, we kind of second guessed ourselves, we’re young and we’re going to get better, we’re competitive but we need to be a little more competitive,” Wood said. “This is a grind, this time of the year, the girls played a really disciplined game, the sky is up for these guys, we’re taking our lumps, but we’ll get better.”
Marblehead is back in action Wednesday at Connery Skating Rink against Beverly (TBD).