CANTON — For most highschool hockey groups, operating right into a sizzling goaltender sometimes spells doom to your squad.
Xaverian, nonetheless, isn’t your common program, and regardless of some early struggles Wednesday night, the Hawks finally solved the puzzle.
Jack Silva buried a pair of objectives within the remaining interval, as second-seeded Xaverian superior to the Div. 1 Round of 16 with a 4-0 blanking of No. 31 Andover.
“We had to adjust in-game,” mentioned Xaverian coach David Spinale. “Obviously we knew about the goalie. He beat Hingham, and was really good all year. … If he sees it, he’s going to stop it. So we just wanted to get a lot of pucks to the net, get a lot of traffic to the net. It was just hard. (Andover) had a good game plan.”
While Xaverian managed the tempo of play for probably the most half early on, the Hawks (17-3-1) merely couldn’t discover a solution to shatter the barrier in entrance of the opposing web, higher often called Andover senior goaltender JJ Quill. The two applications would stay deadlocked in a scoreless affair till the waning moments of the second interval. Then, senior captain Aiden Rodriguez fired a bullet into the twine, offering Xaverian a 1-0 edge with 5:20 to play within the stanza.
“By the end of the first (period), we were able to find seams on the half wall, try to attack it from the goal line, because we couldn’t go through them,” Spinale mentioned. “Then, we started to open up a little bit, and we were able to get a few by them.”
Once the third interval started, the Hawks have been lastly capable of draw back, and so they did so with some help from considered one of their cornerstones.
With precisely 8 minutes left to play, Silva collected the puck, and determined to fireside a prayer on the cage. The shot one way or the other whistled into the higher nook of the online from a seemingly unattainable angle, as Xaverian prolonged its result in 2-0.
“It was obviously hard to score on (Quill),” mentioned Silva. “He’s very good. We just knew we had to take shots. On my first one, I was just throwing it high, and the goalie went down low. It hit the top corner, and I loved it.”
Then, with 2:48 remaining in regulation, the senior captain deked his solution to the online, and registered his second aim to make it a 3-0 sport, whereas sealing the victory within the course of.
Nolan Dion closed issues out with an open-net aim for Xaverian, whereas Gavin Moynihan and Will Irving have been credited with assists in the course of the win.
Quill completed with a whopping 33 saves to maintain Andover (7-11-3) in rivalry.
Xaverian will face the winner of Friday evening’s sport between Chelmsford and St. Mary’s (Lynn) subsequent.
“You only have one option,” Spinale mentioned afterward. “But it’s always good to get the first (playoff) game out of the way, the nerves, the jitters. We had been off for a while, so we just wanted to get back at it. This is a good confidence booster for us. Now, we’ll just kind of get back to work, and get prepared for whoever wins the next one.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com