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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
An incredible 2017-2018 season and Division II playoff run came to an end for the Medfield High School varsity hockey team on Sunday at Gallo Arena in Bourne as the Warriors (14-6-3) fell 6-3 to Plymouth South in the South Sectional finals.
Despite entering as a mere No. 8 seed in the South, Medfield played like a top-seeded powerhouse. The Warriors outscored their opposition 18-3 during the first three rounds of the Division II Tournament.
Medfield began the tournament with a 9-2 thrashing of No. 9 North Attleboro in round-one before defeating No. 16 Norwood, 3-0, in the quarterfinals. On Friday, the Warriors took care of business down in Bourne against No. 13 Taunton with a 6-1 victory thanks to goals by Brian Abely, Sean Tyer, Ryan “Py” Johnson, Tom Schofield, Shawn MacTavish, and Charlie Spence.
Unlike each of Medfield’s first three contests of the 2017-2018 Division II Tournament, the Warriors were unable to net the first goal in Sunday’s championship game, as Plymouth South took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
Mike Tyer gave the Warriors the early response they needed in period-two as the sophomore forward potted home a cross-ice pass from MacTavish just 2:09 in to trim the deficit in half at 2-1. Unfortunately for Medfield, Plymouth South’s Dan Lincoln extended the lead back to two for the Panthers a little over four minutes following the tally by Tyer, and PS entered the second intermission ahead at 3-1.
Just as they did in the second period when they were able to trim the deficit in half early on, Medfield again cut the Panthers’ lead down to a single goal, thanks to a tally by Johnson off of a cross-ice feed from Dylan McNally just 3:34 into the third.
The game remained 3-2 in favor of PS until 2:02 remaining, when Sean Colbert tucked one home to double the Panther lead to 4-2. However, just 20 seconds later, Charlie Spence responded right back for the Warriors with a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle to cut it back to a one goal game with 1:42 to play.
Medfield yanked goaltender Mike Mangiafico for an extra attacker with 1:30 remaining in pursuit of the tying goal, but PS netted a pair of empty netters, one with 1:08 to play and another with under 30 seconds to play. It clinched the Panthers their first South Sectional title in program history.
For funny and incisive sports analysis, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter at @fLAno0, or read his blog at www.flannylive.wordpress.com.
