Sandwich, Barnstable skate past Vineyard girls

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The girls varsity hockey team laced up the skates with two of the best teams in Eastern Massachusetts last week.

On Sunday, the Vineyarders were in Sandwich to take on the powerful Blue Knights. The hosts jumped out to an early 4-0 lead. Celia Mercier scored from Maggie Johnson to make it 4-1 in the second period, but the Blue Knights added two more goals for a 6-1 win.

The Purple are 5-5 overall and 3-1 in the Southeastern Mass. Girls Hockey League. The girls played in a must-win league contest at Quincy late Wednesday.

Last Wednesday, Jan. 18, M.V. played in Barnstable against the division one Red Raiders, losers just once this season — to last year’s state champs, Hingham.

For two periods, the Vineyarders were at the top of their game but still trailed 3-0 at the second intermission.

In the third period, the Red Raiders scored twice early to take a 5-0 lead. Vineyard coach John Fiorito then put in some of his younger players to see some ice time. Barnstable, however, left the starters in the game and proceeded to score four times in the final four minutes. The final goal came off the stick of standout player Kelsie Corbett with 48 ticks remaining to make the final count 9-0.

The final score gave little indication of how well the Vineyarders had played, which Coach Fiorito was quick to point out to The Times the day after the game. “We played probably our best two periods of the season in the first and second periods,” he said. “We were still down 3-0, but we were playing right with them. We played ridiculously well. It’s a shame it ended as it did.”

The girls host Mansfield Saturday at 1 pm.