Woburn, MA – The Spy Ponders of Arlington High School traveled to O’Brien Arena in Woburn for a Saturday afternoon face off against long-time rival the Red and Black of Winchester High School.
Winchester came out flying for the first couple minutes of the game, trying to establish an early lead on Arlington. But Arlington had its own plans. With a face-off to the left of the Red and Black goalie, forward Jake Russell wins the draw back to forward Brendan Hirsch who fires a shot low through the goalie’s legs, making it 1-0. One minute later with Arlington on the shorthand, forward Reid Malatesta made a great hustle play at center ice stealing the puck away from defender and went bar down on a breakaway, giving Arlington the 2-0 lead. Winchester struggled offensively, recording only a couple of shots in the period.
There was no mistake who the better team was in the second. Winchester took a penalty 56 seconds into the frame, and Arlington would make them pay with a great cross-ice pass by Malatesta from the top of the circle to Jack Sadowski on the back door for the goal and the 3-0 lead. A few minutes later, Matt Alese would slide a pass through traffic onto an uncovered Sadowski’s stick beating the sliding goalie top shelf giving Arlington the 4-0 lead. At the seven-minute mark, Russell would add to the lead with a goal off a blocked shot in the slot. Extending the lead to 5-0. The scoring didn’t end there: 30 seconds later, a puck found its way onto Hirsch’s stick then into the back of the net. The period would end with Winchester taking a timeout to make a goalie change. At the end of two periods, the score was 6-0.
The third period was more of the same from Arlington, controlling play and getting pucks deep, making it tough for the Red and Black to generate any offense in the period and for most of the game. With Arlington leading 6-0, and having to play Hingham tomorrow, the Spy Ponders decided to rest their top lines for most of the back half of the period. Winchester’s freshman goalie Aiden Emerick would stay in the net for the Red and Black, and made some timely saves keeping the score at 6-0 to end the period and the game.
Three Stars:
- F Brendan Hirsch, Arlington
- F Jack Sadowski, Arlington
- F Reid Malatesta, Arlington
