Stoughton High Hockey Can't Crack Bourne Defense

Heading into Wednesday’s game against the Stoughton High hockey team, Bourne had allowed only 20 goals in 18 games this season. The Black Knights had 30 shots on net, but weren’t able to crack this defense, falling 4-0 to Bourne in the opening round of the season-ending Buzzards Bay Cup, held at the Gallo arena in Bourne.

With the loss, the Black Knights’ record drops to 4-14-1; their Hockomock League record remains at 2-9-1 and Davenport Division (small schools) record stays at 1-5-0.

The Canalmen (16-2-1) are a very strong team and will enter the Division-3 South Sectional State Tournament next week as the top-ranked team in the entire Division.

The shutout of Stoughton was Bourne’s ninth over an opponent in 19 games this season. Bourne has also held their opponents to one goal in five games and two goals in three games, on their way to outscoring the opposition 90-20 and capturing the South Coast League title.

Stoughton did mange to outshoot Bourne, 30-25, but came out with a slow start to the game, falling behind, 2-0, in the opening period. The Black Knights gave up two more goals in the middle period.

Stoughton did control the final period, taking over the game with a territorial advantage, but was unable to put the puck in the net past Bourne goaltender Josh Eddy (30 saves).

Bourne’s goal scorers were Spencer Andrews and Myles Horn in the first period. Jim Commesso added the Canalmen’s third goal, early in thee second period and Matt Crowley gave Bourne a four-goal lead with 4:09 left in the middle period, to account for the final score.

Stoughton finally put consistent offensive pressure on Bourne in the final period, but it was too little too late, and Eddy was equal to the task.

“Bourne always has a fine team with great defense and goaltending and they did a great job defensively on our top line,” said Stoughton coach Dan Mark. “We played better as the game went on, but we came out with a very slow start and we couldn’t recover.”

Stoughton’s leading scorer sophomore Phil Falkof (18 goals and 12 assists) was often double-teamed and when he got his shots on net, Eddy came up with some big saves.

Stoughton started freshman goaltender Paul Sheehan for a third time this season, and again he was very effective, with 21 saves, but had no offensive support from his teammates.

Senior Steven McNamara played a very strong game on defense as one of the few bright spots for the Black Knights.

“We have one more game left and it would be nice to go out on a winning note especially for our seniors,” said Mark.

Stoughton will close out its season, playing Dartmouth in the Consolation Game on Thursday at 2:10 p.m. Dartmouth lost to Westfield, 3-2 in overtime, in the other opening round matchup.