BEVERLY — Drew Godfried, a 17-year-old honor roll student at Danvers High and a captain of the Falcons’ hockey team, had watched his older teammates go through Senior Night in the past.
Friday night, he gained a whole new perspective on it.
“It was a good atmosphere, a lot of the students came out for us, and my mom (Tara) was the only one crying when I skated over to her and handed her flowers,” Godfried said with a laugh after Danvers’ 3-1 victory over Masconomet at Endicott’s Bourque Arena. “I get it, though. This one definitely means more.”
Godfried was one of nine seniors for the Blue-and-White honored in a pregame on-ice ceremony in what will likely be their last home game.
One of them, Cooper Dunham, scored two goals in a 23-second span of the first period to give the Falcons all the scoring they’d need. Another 12th grader, goaltender Evan Morey, came 58.5 seconds away from pitching a shutout Friday night, finishing with 14 saves.
Now 8-8-2 on the season with two regular season games remaining in next week’s Newburyport Bank Tournament before the Division 3 playoffs begin, Danvers ended the Northeastern Conference portion of its schedule at 7-3-2. That temporarily puts them in a first place tie with Gloucester with 16 points, one ahead of both Beverly and Winthrop. Those three teams all play their final NEC contests on Saturday.
Danvers went 5-1 against Gloucester, Winthrop and Beverly this season, sweeping the Fishermen and Vikings while splitting two games with the Panthers.
“We didn’t have a great practice Thursday, so I challenged the boys to play for the guy sitting next to them,” said DHS head coach Bill Sheehan. “We’re trying to create more offense, trying to get our defense to move the puck north and create quick transition.
“I see glimpses of those things, so we’re getting better,” he added. “Hopefully that continues when we can continue to build consistency.”
Dunham’s first goal came as a result of a rebound following an offensive zone faceoff. Dunham pounced on the loose puck and lifted it up over sophomore keeper Jackson Yespy (24 saves) at 6:32 of the first period.
On the very next shift Dunham struck again, taking an up-ice pass from defenseman Aiden Hockney in the neutral zone, skating in on Yespy and deking forehand before tucking a backhand high into the netting.
“It’s tough to dig yourself out of a hole, and the fact that we had a slow start made things more difficult,” Masconomet (2-16, 2-10 NEC) head coach Andrew Boepple stated. His team has scored just five goals in its last half-dozen games.
“Getting only 15 shots, too; that’s a been a focus of ours, to try and get more pucks on net,” Boepple added. “We’re still not doing a great job with it. We want to get traffic out front and get pucks to the net, but we aren’t. It shows with our lack of scoring recently.”
Freshman Anthony Sheehan made it 3-0 early in the second period with his second career goal. Going hard to the net, he was rewarded with a lamplighter assisted by Hockney and senior wing Gaven Cooper.
Morey made two of his better saves in the middle stands, both times denying Masconomet 2-on-1 bids. Five minutes into the period he made a left pad stop on a scoring chance off the stick of Seamus Cronin; five minutes after that it was his right pad that stuffed a Ben Miga chancenatvthe far post.
The Chieftains got on the board in the final minute when Nick Vetrano snapped home a shot from just inside the blue line on the power play.
“Hopefully we can win the Newburyport Tournament and build some momentum for the state playoffs,” said Godfried, whose girlfriend, Danvers High girls basketball standout Kayda Brown, was at Friday’s contest. “It starts with (the coaches); we have to be more coachable and listen to them. We have to come together as a team more.”
Danvers 3, Masconomet 1
at Bourque Arena, Endicott College, Beverly
Masconomet;0;0;1;1
Danvers;2;1;0;3
First period: D, Cooper Dunham (un), 6:32; D, Dunham (Aiden Hockey), 6:45.
Second period: D, Anthony Sheehan (Hockney, Gaven Cooper), 1:23.
Third period: M, Nick Vetrano (Ben Miga, Jack Wheadon), 14:02.
Saves: M, Jackson Yespy 24; D, Evan Morey 14.
Records: D, 8-8-2; M, 2-16-0.