WA girls’ ice hockey was able to pick up their seventh win in a row tonight, beating Waltham by a commanding score of 5-2. While struggling at the very beginning of the game, the girls were able to begin to dominate in order to secure the victory.

As the game began, one could not help but notice that the Waltham roster featured six middle school age students, with a handful from as low as seventh grade. In fact, their starting goalie Caitlyn Burke, is in the eighth grade.

The girls began the game strong, keeping Waltham on their heels for the start of the first period. They were able to create some chances on net but nothing was sticking yet. Seniors Colleen Ellis and Renee Twogood headed these attacks.

Waltham was able to find an opening in a breakaway and scored early in the first period. However, on traditional breakouts, they were stopped by the Ghost defense, getting stuck in the neutral zone.

As the period rolled on, senior Cat Mahanna scored for WA, Waltham answered this goal, and Twogood netted another one for WA in this back and forth opening period of play. WA held possession for most of the period, which ended with the score tied 2-2.

The rest of the game went very well for WA, as they were able to put on the gas and never let up when it came to offensive pressure on wAltham’s young net minder. The girls cycled the puck around for minutes on end in the second period, putting up shot after shot in hopes that they would eventually go in.

Ellis capitalized on this pressure and netted two for the Ghosts in the second period despite strong play from the Waltham goalie. The score at the end of the second was 4-2 in favor of WA.

The third period followed the exact story line as the prior period. WA would hold the puck for the majority of the period, and Waltham would only be able to mount small and evidently meaningless attacks for very brief periods of time. The only clear cut way to stop the WA offense was to ice the puck, which Waltham did many times throughout the game.

Senior Kelly Demarco would score an insurance goal for WA from the point to make the score 5-2.

Following this victory, the girls’ play again on Saturday at 2pm vs. Andover.