by Ryan Condon
With a disappointing record this season, girls’ hockey, 1-12-1, is working on creating scoring opportunities that will lead to wins, according to Emileigh Mercer, an assistant coach.
“We are working hard to improve our offensive attack,” Mercer said. “We struggle the most with generating offense, and without offense, you can’t win games.” Mercer said the team is trying to take more risks that will lead to scoring opportunities.
According to coach Robert MacDougall, the team’s strength this season “has been in the play of our goalies, senior Courtney Leahy and freshman Haley Ring. Both have done their jobs, but we haven’t given them too much support with our offense.”
MacDougall added that the team has kept a winning attitude. “To the credit of the kids, their approach to each game is right where you want it to be,” he said. “They are working hard, and I am very lucky to be a part of a team where effort is never in question.”
Mercer pointed to the team’s win against Newton South Monday, Jan. 2 and their tie against Weymouth Saturday, Jan. 7 as important games in the season. “In both games, we generated excellent offense late. We want to build off the games where we have created scoring opportunities,” she said.
Leahy, a captain with seniors Katie Caruso and Stephanie Vitone, said that a large factor in the team’s record has been injuries and other bad breaks. “In hockey, you can’t just judge a team by its record,” she said. “Just because we have a bad record doesn’t mean we’re not a good team. We had some important players injured early in the season, and we’ve had some breaks that didn’t go our way.”
The team has three league games left to go. “We have to look one game at a time right now and work on the little things so that the big things take care of themselves,” Mercer said.