Sports
Headers Hold Off Late Dragons Rally
Senior Ryan Dempsey saves the day, finishing off his hat trick, and sealing a 5-3 win over Latin Academy.
What started as a rout, turned into a knock down drag out battle Sunday night, as Marblehead hung on to defeat Latin Academy 5-3 in Stoneham.
The Headers raced out to a 4-0 lead after two periods but hung on for dear life in the third as the Dragons cut it to 4-3 with 4:03 remaining in the game.
“We made some mistakes in the third, and we committed a lot of penalties,” Header coach Bob Jackson said after the game. “Those are things we can correct with more effort and more attention in our defensive zone.”
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“Give Latin credit, they came out hard in the third and took it to us a bit, they’re tough city kids and they scrapped until the end.”
Senior Ryan Dempsey came to the rescue and buried his third goal of the night into an empty net with eight seconds to play, and Marblehead will move on to the semifinals on Thursday night in Chelmsford.
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Dracut defeated Lowell Catholic 2-1 in overtime on Sunday afternoon, so the Headers will meet Dracut at 8:10 p.m. on Thursday. The winner will play in the finals on March 12, against either Shawsheen or Wayland.
Wayland punched their ticket earlier in the day at Stoneham, skating by Rockport 4-1.
The Headers enjoyed a 1-0 lead in the first, thanks to some of the youngest kids on the team. Freshman Tom Koopman converted with 1:34 to go, lifting a rebound over Edward Meagher. Fellow ninth grader Liam Gillis and sophomore Tyler Bates set up Koopman.
The Headers had a nine to two edge in shots in the first; Latin’s first shot on Tony Cuzner came with 4:04 to go in the period.
The second period was all Marblehead, the Headers made life miserable for Meagher, crashing the net every chance they could get.
Dempsey scored his first at 8:33 in the second, a missile off the left wing that went in just under the crossbar.
Just over a minute later at 7:07, Jake Kulevich grabbed the puck behind the Latin net and fed it out high to junior Austin Haley, who slammed it by Meagher.
Marblehead had a 4-0 lead heading into the locker room after two periods when Hunter Graves scored with 1:08 to go. Liam Gillis assisted on the play, picking up his second point of the night.
Marblehead had a 22-6 shot advantage, and it seemed like the life was draining out of the Dragons. Tyler Bates floored Beau Richman inside the Latin blue line in the second, sending the Latin defenseman’s helmet flying across the ice. Latin Academy was being out shot and out hit all over the rink at the end of two.
The third period quickly got away from the Headers, and Latin sliced the lead in half.
Richman got a bit of revenge when he scored with 13:08 to go, and Thomas Hynes made it 4-2 with 12:29 left.
Jackson called a time-out after the second Latin goal to talk things over.
“We really needed to refocus, we kind of took our minds off of the mission at hand,” Jackson said. “We tried to settle things down and try to get us doing the things that got us the lead.”
Chris Kelly’s shot broke off Cuzner’s arm and trickled into the net, and it was 4-3 with four minutes to play.
Marblehead didn’t allow a shot on Kuzner when Latin yanked the goalie late in the third, setting the stage for Dempsey’s second unassisted goal of the game.
The Headers improved to 15-4-3 with the win, Dracut comes into Thursday's game at 15-5-1.
