East Bay girls hockey team wins state championship

East Bay co-op wins second game, sweeps series

By Mathew Galvao
Posted 3/18/18

The East Bay co-op girls hockey team defeated LaSalle-Moses Brown, 4-2, on Saturday night and won the Division I state championship.

East Bay, which includes players from Portsmouth, Mt. Hope and …

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East Bay girls hockey team wins state championship

East Bay co-op wins second game, sweeps series

Posted

The East Bay co-op girls hockey team upset LaSalle-Moses Brown 4-1 on Saturday night at Brown University and captured the Division I state championship.

East Bay, which features players from Barrington, Mt. Hope and Portsmouth high schools, defeated LaSalle-Moses Brown 3-2 in the first game of the series. 

“We have an amazing senior class," said East Bay coach Allison Faria. "Since their freshman year, they have stepped up. They have carried this team multiple times. My goal was to get this senior class, this — the win right here.” 

La Salle-Moses Brown finished the regular season as the number-one overall seed with a 17-0-0 record in Division I. East Bay lost to the private school co-op team during the regular season but proved superior in the postseason.

“Heart, man,” Ms. Faria said of her team. “These girls, what they give every practice and in games … Yeah, they beat us in every game during the season, but this it when it really counts. This is where we needed to get the win. They had the heart and the determination and they pulled it off.” 

East Bay got off to a fast start, scoring just 2:20 into the game when senior Carissa Rego tapped in a puck that ricocheted off the end boards. Just a minute later, the score was 2-0 after Portsmouth’s Mary Arkins wristed a shot past LaSalle-Moses Brown goaltender Kaitlyn Oatley. 

La Salle-Moses Brown battled back to cut the lead in half just two minutes later when Alexa Morra backhanded a puck past the right pad of East Bay goalie Ellee Kopecky.

The first period ended in a 2-1 advantage for East Bay.

“Getting the lead early is obviously very key to a lot of teams' successes,” said Ms. Faria. “You gotta get that under your belt just to help you believe you can pull it off.” 

The second period was a more tightly played period, with LaSalle-Moses Brown focusing on defense. East Bay’s next opportunity came when Jennifer Rickard came up the right wing side and snapped a puck glove side that was saved by Oatley. The period ended with East Bay still up 2-1. 

“Keep playing them. You gotta play like you’re winning. Everything is on the line right here,” Ms. Faria said she told her team during intermission. 

“We didn’t wanna come back on Monday. We had to end it tonight. Keep the lead, keep the win and bring it home.” 

The third period remained scoreless until a beautiful end-to-end goal was scored by East Bay’s Madelyn Cox to add insurance to her team’s lead, making it 3-1 with 5:25 remaining in the game. 

With just over a minute to go in the game and the goaltender pulled for La Salle-Moses Brown, East Bay iced the game with an empty-netter from sophomore Maeve Harrington to make it 4-1.

“We went through three years of getting let down and finally I knew that we could get it done,” said series MVP Sydney Parkhurst. “I’ve played with some of these girls for as long as I’ve ever played and it’s just amazing to win a state championship with them.”

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.