Cunha Comes Up Big For Redmen

Tewksbury high goaltender Niko Cunha will be the first one to tell you that Franklin High's first-period goal in Sunday's state championship game was not his finest moment.

"It's a goalie's worst nightmare," Cunha said after he lost track of a Franklin shot, turned the wrong way looking for the rebound, and left the net wide open for the Panther's James Marchand to effortlessly give his team a 1-0 first period lead.

"Nobody wants to deal with that, especially in this kind of a game," Cunha admitted.

Worse, the goal came with just two seconds left in a scoreless first period, and the Franklin players bounced into their locker room, while the Tewksbury skaters looked around in disbelief.

"Everyone, luckily, didn't put their head down," Cunha said. "They kept 'em up."

Instead, the Division 2 state champion Tewksbury High Redmen rallied around their senior goaltender in the locker room, and made sure his head was still in the game.

"They said it's not how I play and they know that," Cunha recalled. "They just kept telling me to pick my head up and get over it, and it worked."

Surprisingly, it was the Redmen who took the second period ice with some extra spring in their step, and Cunha proceeded to shut down Franklin from that point on, playing perhaps his two best periods of the season in the second and third.

"I told myself 'they are not scoring in the second period' because that was just absolute momentum (for Franklin)," Cunha said. "One second left in the first and they score a goal. That's just complete momentum. I told myself 'They cannot score, no matter what happens, 5-0n-3, anything. They cannot score.'"

And they did not. Cunha stymied three Franklin breakaways in the game, and stopped 25 of the 26 Panther shots. He closed the door on the Division 2 South Sectional champions long enough for teammate Frank Mazzei to tie the score at 1-1 with four minutes left in the second period.

Cunha stood even taller in the third period, making several more spectacular saves, and regulation time ended with the score tied, 1-1.

Fortunately, Cunha didn't have to make a single stop in the overtime period, as Tewksbury scored just 52 seconds into the extra period, and the TMHS netminder was mobbed by his teammates after the 2-1 state championship victory.

"It was an absolutely amazing feeling," Cunha said. "I've never wanted anything as much as this. I've worked for this for the last 15 years of my life. I couldn't ask for anything better."

Cunha was quick to share the credit with the rest of his team, especially the four stalwart defenders who protected him all season long, P.J. Mugford, Sean Taylor, Rob Pruyne and Sean MacLeod.

"We have the greatest defensive team in the state," Cunha said. "We've got a lot of seniors, a lot of upperclasmen. They know what they're doing. They're very smart with the puck, they're physical and they know how to help me.

"They do their job very well and it helps me do my job," he added.

Tewksbury High coach Derek Doherty never lost confidence in his senior netminder, even after the Franklin goal.

"He's been playing great for us," Doherty said. "He played great for us all tournament. You cannot win a state championship without a great goalie, plain and simple.

"We have a good defense and we have good forwards," Doherty added. "But our goalie came up really big for us."

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