Westford Academy Boys’ Hockey suffered a 5-2 loss to Billerica Memorial High School on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at a home game at the Skate Three Hockey Arena, starting their Dual County League (DCL) season with a 0-1 record.
Although the Ghosts were defeated by Billerica, their points on the board can still be credited to strong defensive skills and their ability to keep up with their opponents for the majority of the game.
The first period started out as a close game, with WA immediately using their offensive skills to drive the puck to Billerica’s side of the rink. However, shortly after this, the puck was conquered by Billerica, as they made their first goal early on in the game.
Despite the early disadvantage, the Ghosts prevailed, and senior forward Ethan Murphy stole the puck to attempt a shot on goal, which was followed by senior captain and forward Peter Burns scoring the team’s first goal of the game. The rest of the first period was dominated by constant switches between offense and defense, as well as multiple goal blocks by senior goalie and assistant captain Cam Hoagland. The first period came to an end with a tie of 1-1.
Similar to the first period, the second began with strong defense from the Ghosts. Billerica was able to push the puck back to WA’s side, but they faced strong defense from sophomore forward Carter Briggs and a specifically intense block from Hoagland. At this time, they also announced that WA had a power play, meaning that Billerica was down a player due to a penalty.
With 6 minutes left in the period, it seemed as though both teams were at a stalemate between offense and defense. In spite of this, Billerica was able to push the Ghosts to defense and score a goal with 5:33 left in the period, upping their lead to 2-1.
For the remaining five minutes, the Ghosts played a steady defense, which ended the second period with a score of 2-1, Billerica in the lead.
“I think the team played very well in the first two periods,” Hoagland said. “We were with Billerica [during] those periods and did a good job bouncing back after getting scored on early.”
As soon as the third and final period of the game began, Billerica spared no time in sneaking a goal in and furthering their lead to 3-1. Although senior defensive player Aidan Koehr attempted to score shortly after this, it was blocked by Billerica’s goalie, and the puck was stolen back.
Directly after this goal, Murphy suffered a severe injury to the collarbone, causing the game to be paused as well as his immediate removal from the game.
As the time dwindled down, Billerica was able to sneak two goals past Hoagland consecutively, with the first happening with less than 10 minutes left in the period, and the next happening a minute later. Despite this, the Ghosts did not let their energy falter and they kept high determination.
“Going into the game we were super fired up and ready to go, and going into the third period we just did our best to try and match that same energy from the beginning,” junior captain and forward Nick Kane said.
For the next six minutes, the Ghosts played a defensive game. However, with just 3 minutes left in the period, Burns was able to steal the puck and assist Koehr in scoring the last goal of the game. This left the Ghosts’ game against Billerica Memorial High School at a score of 5-2 in favor of Billerica.
While the game resulted in a loss, WA will not let this stop them from aspiring to secure future wins. According to Kane, they will try to improve their offense, shots on the net, and incorporate more conditioning.
“We need to minimize the mistakes we make,” Hoagland said. “It’s okay to mess up, but sometimes we do it at the [worst] time and it leads to goals we’ve let up. If we can [minimize] that, we’ll be way better off.”
WA Boys’ Hockey will play their next game on Monday, Dec. 22 at Newburyport High School. The time is still to be determined.
