Playing in the opening round of the Girls Hockey Classic Tournament, the University School co-op girls hockey team defeated the Brookfield Glacier co-op 11-1 Thursday night at USM.
Junior Nicole Unsworth led the Wildcats with five goals. Freshman Karly Lamoreaux had three goals for the victors and seniors Caitlin McBride and Hannah Koniar, and freshman Lexi Epperson each had one goal.
In their first home game of the season, the Wildcats took awhile to get their goal scoring going. They scored just one goal in the first period and at the end of the period, the score was 1-1. It wasn’t that the Wildcats weren’t trying. They out shot the Glacier 14-4 in the period, but the Glacier’s freshman goalie Grace Eliot stopped all but one foray.
USM made good on one shot in the opening 17 minutes. It came while the Wildcats were killing a penalty. Off a faceoff in the USM zone, defenseman Rachel Hoge knocked the puck away from a Brookfield defenseman along the boards. Junior Nicole Unsworth dashed to the loose puck and sped away. She outskated the retreating Brookfield defensemen, and moved in on Eliot all alone. As Eliot dropped to stop her, Unsworth pulled the puck to the right and, like she was sweetly putting a baby to bed, she tucked it inside the pipe at 2:11.
Brookfield tied it several minutes later. On a breakout from the Brookfield zone, Isabel Pesci got the puck in center ice. Skating across the Wildcats’ blue line on a one-on-one, Pesci maneuvered past the defenseman’s stick check, and skated into the high slot. She fired the puck along the ice, and her teammate Tealin Robinson touched it, forcing it to slide just inside the right goal post at 9:46.
USM’s head coach Jake Haury said, “We did just about everything right in that first period, except score. I told the girls to keep going. I told them that a lot of our shots had been low, so I recommended we take some higher ones.”
The Wildcats followed the coach’s advice and were soon in the pink. It wasn’t too far into the second period that they took the lead for good. Off a faceoff in the Brookfield zone, the puck went to Delaney Weiss at the right point. Weiss’s shot hit a Brookfield player in the slot. Senior Caitlin McBride moved past like an express at a crossing. McBride picked up the puck, moved nto the left circle and bulleted a high shot inside the far goal post at 2:44.
Less than two minutes later the Wildcats had a 3-1 lead. As she forechecked along the right boards, freshman Gaby Turer tipped the puck toward the near circle. Unsworth collected it, skated across the slot, and lofted a backhander over Eliot’s glove at 4:37.
The Wildcats scored again at 5:44. Senior defenseman Hannah Koniar intercepted a Brookfield clearing attempt at the Glacier’s blue line. Koniar took a step and blasted a shot high into the net.
Soon the score was 5-1. Hustling back into the USM zone after a Brookfield clearing play, freshman defenseman Libby Hennelly got the puck and swirled toward the right boards in the USM zone. As she did, Hennelly looked then directed a stretch pass right to Unsworth’s stick at the Glacier blue line. The pass paid off. Unsworth stickhandled around a defender, cut toward the slot, and whipped a high shot past Eliot at 7:09.
The Wildcats increased their lead less than a minute later. Skating into the Brookfield end, McBride moved through the low slot. Eliot covered the available space, so McBride twirled back through the right circle and into the high slot. She sent a pass to Turer in the left circle. Turer pushed the puck to Unsworth below the goal line. Unworth curled out front. Seeing that Eliot was expecting another high shot, Unsworth followed philosopher John Stuart Mill’s ideas on freedom of thought and expression and chose to shoot at the five hole. Her thinking was clear; her choice was right. The goal was scored at 7:54.
The Wildcats scored again with 3:47 left in the second period. In center ice, freshman Lexi Epperson got the puck and dumped it deep into the Brookfield zone. Like a Kentucky Derby winner, freshman Karly Lamoreaux outraced a defenseman for the puck. Lamoreaux turned and fed the puck to Epperson who had cruised into the slot. Epperson one-timed her shot into the net.
The Wildcats scored a power play goal at 14:19 of the second period. Off a faceoff in the left circle of the Brookfield zone, McBride drew the puck to Unsworth on the boards, and headed to the near corner. The two Wildcats exchanged passes waiting for an opportunity. Unsworth skated with the puck off the boards and as she moved toward the net, she slipped it back to McBride, distracting the defender. McBride passed it to Unsworth in the low slot. Unsworth shot. Like the last few drops from an old Mr. Coffee, the puck trickled to its destination inside the net.
The goal put the clock on running time, but the Wildcats had enough time for three goals in the third period.
The ninth Wildcat goal was scored at 2:42 of the third period. Turer got the puck along the right boards in center ice. She chipped it ahead, and it caromed off of a Brookfield player. Lamoreaux picked it up and headed into the Brookfield zone. Unimpeded, she closed in on the net and fired a shot for the goal.
The Wildcats scored their last two goals within 30 seconds of each other late in the period. On the first of these, Koniar blocked a Brookfield shot in the USM zone. The puck went to freshman Isabel Schmidt who chipped it to the left boards to sophomore Sophie Kobylinski. Kobylinski quickly passed it to Lamoreaux in center ice and Lamoreaux sailed off on a breakaway. Nearing Eliot she lined a shot past the goalie’s blocker to make the score 10-1.
It was not long for the score to change to 11-1. The Wildcats got the puck into the Brookfield zone and cycled it. McBride took it under control in the right corner, spun around the circle like a clothes in dryer, and passed the puck to the slot to Lamoreaux who one-timed it in at 11:34.
After the game, Haury was pleased. “We got a slow start but played a good game. We have to continue to play well against Waupaca in tomorrow’s game and against Lakeshore on Saturday. “
The win improved USM’s overall record to 3-1-1 and 1-0-1 in the Eastern Shores Conference. Thursday’s game was the first in the round robin tournament, which continues Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. The Wildcats play Waupaca in the second round of the Girls Hockey Classic Tournament a non-conference game scheduled for 8:00 p.m. on Friday, December 11th at USM. The game will follow the tournament game between the Brookfield Glacier and the Lakeshore Lightning co-op, which is scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m.
