It didn’t take the Hockey Headers long to change last year’s narrative around. They did it on opening night against Shawsheen — a non-league team that has turned into a rival — in convincing fashion last Thursday at Billerica’s Hallenborg Memorial Pavillion, 5-0.
The eventual Division 3 state champs couldn’t buy a win last December. They were 0-6, and didn’t get their first win until Dec. 30 in a game against Melrose, another non-league opponent. But they are 1-0 this year, and they got that win on Dec. 12.
Marblehead coach Mark Marfione always likes Shawsheen’s ‘approach’ to the sport, and it’s no accident they are on the schedule once again this year. “They bring out the truth in our team,” Marfione said of the Rams in the Dec. 11 edition of the Marblehead Current.
Elaborating further on the Rams in that Dec. 11 preview story, Marfione said, “The BS does not work against them. I think the most important (regular season) game that we had last year was the [butt]-kicking we took against them (a 4-1 loss). (That loss) told the truth about what we were, and where we needed to be. We didn’t lose again after that.”
After beating them on opening night, the streak is now eight since that regular season loss that did them better than any win would have that night.
But, despite the shutout victory, Marfione still sees room for improvement. “I think we have many things to work on,” he said. “The game was sloppy as expected for all first games, but the effort was there, and we generally had a good attitude. But we did take too many penalties, but that’s one thing we can fix right away.”
Marfione says he can also see that they have to get in better shape, while adding, “because of the teachers’ strike, we didn’t have all of our off-season workouts, and if we are the same team in March, it’s going to be an early exit from the state tournament.”
But the bottom line is that Marfione never wants to see complacency hover over his team, because he has even bigger goals in mind for the program. “We want to develop a culture here that is passed on from year to year,” he said.
The final score notwithstanding, the game was fairly even throughout the first two periods, and “the game was also very physical,” Marfione said.
Captain Crew Monaco and London McDonald paced the offensive attack with two goals apiece. Freshman Teddy Dulac netted his first varsity goal to account for the other tally. Junior Avin Rodovsky, senior captains Kyle Hart and Sean Doyle, and E.J. Wyman collected the assists.
Dolan also played a solid game on defense, according to Marfione. “But the defense overall is fairly young, and they made their mistakes against Shawsheen. But they were able to fight through them,” added the coach.
Their efforts helped preserve the shutout for goalie Leo Burdge, who picked up where he left off last year. Burdge, in his last six games, has allowed only five goals, and five of those contests were postseason nail biters. Marfione also praised Wyman, who has shown solid improvement since last year.
Monaco had this to say about Burdge, his fellow captain, after last Thursday’s opener. “Leo is the heart of this team, because without (him) there’s no team,” Crew said. “He makes everybody play with more confidence, because we know he’s between the pipes. This was just another shutout for him; he’s been lights out lately.”
Monaco agrees with his coach that they are not a finished product. “We still have plenty of work to do as a team,” he said. “I think our neutral zone play and transitions could use some work, but it’s still early, and I’m confident we will get these things down.”
The Headers took on host Beverly last Saturday night, and then they will have a week off, before facing non-league Malden Catholic this coming Saturday night (Dec. 21) at Malden’s Valley Forum, starting at 5:30 p.m.
“We will use this time off to do some film review and input some systems in our everyday gameplan,” Marfione said.
