By Avonlea Cummings
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The ice glimmered on Norwood’s Skating Rink of Boston’s arena, where the Westwood Wolverines took on the Mustangs for the competition’s senior night match-up on February 15th. The Wolverines fought hard against the Mustangs but ended up falling to them 4-2. This loss closed out their league competition.
In the first period, the Wolverines built a strong defense, not allowing the Mustangs’ to chargeback for most of the allotted time. It wasn’t until Norwood’s Sam Lally snuck past the Wolverines and notched a point right past Westwood’s goalie with 3:13 left of the first.
Westwood captain, Daniel Sullivan, encouraged the team to amp up intensity in the next period.
“I think it’s about staying positive, I mean we went down 2-0, we needed to bounce back and have that fight in us. I think we did a good job of that towards the end,” said Sullivan.
Raising their energy in the second, the Wolverines labored against Norwood’s consistent striking of the goal, defending their shots left and right. When the time clock struck 6:29 the Mustang’s assistant captain, Kevin Broderick, flung in the puck past Westwood’s defense. This landed another goal point for Norwood. Less than two minutes later, Norwood’s Andrew Gillis slid in another goal point for the Mustangs at 5:09 left to the second period, leading Norwood with a 3-0 score.
Westwood came out hot in the beginning of the third, after encouraging each other right before the period. The boys took off on their skates as the clock began to tick. Dominating offensively during the third period, the Wolverines launched against Norwood’s defense. Wolverine’s Benjamin Levering hurled the puck into their net with 7:50 left to go.
Head-to-head towards the end of the third, Norwood answered Westwood with another goal put in place by one of their captains, Sean Dittmeier, with only 2:42 left to go. Westwood earned themselves a powerplay with two minutes left. Head coach Matthew Sebet quickly brought the team together for a timeout.
Pulling their goalie, the Wolverines established a six-on-four competition and repeatedly pounced on the Mustang’s net. With 11.6 seconds to spare, Westwood’s Maximillian O’Brien saw an opening and whirled his shot past Norwood, finishing the competition with a 4-2 final score.
“We definitely match up with them pretty closely, it’s always a tight game no matter what the stats are. They were pretty sharp coming on today and took it to us during the first and second with a 3-0 lead. The third period was definitely our best period, we came out stronger, and we won that period. Though, it’s something we can’t wait on doing,” said Sebet.
The Wolverines faced off in a non-league competition against Oliver Ames High on Monday, February 20th, at three pm.
“When we stick to the script, and play as a five-man unit out there, that’s when we see our success… We wrapped up league today, we are on the road again Monday, and another on Wednesday. Both games are against teams with higher rankings in the tournament. It will be a good test to see what we will be up against in a couple of weeks during the start of the state tournament,” said Sebet.
