For the first time in eight seasons, the Marblehead boys hockey team is headed to the Final Four.
Freshman Noah Feingold scored his first varsity goal and teammate Charlie Grenier, a senior, notched the game-winner as the Headers upset No. 3 seed Scituate, 2-1, Wednesday in a Division 3 playoff quarterfinal clash at Bourne Arena in Buzzards Bay.
Junior goaltender Leo Burdge made those two goals stand up, stopping 25-of-26 shots to help propel Marblehead (now 15-9-1) into the Division 3 state semifinals this weekend. The Red-and-Black will meet the winner of Wednesday’s late contest between second seeded Shawsheen and No. 10 Medfield Saturday at a time and rink to be determined.
Marblehead, which began its season 0-6, has gone 15-3-1 since and has captured six straight victories.
“We played great,” said head coach Mark Marfione of the Headers. “We had watched (Scituate) and film and saw that they were talented and opportunistic, but knew if we played our game, with our structure and intensity, that we’d have a chance.”
The Headers did just that early on, jumping out to a 2-0 lead after one period after Feingold and Grenier scored by the halfway point of the frame.
Feingold, who began the season on the fourth line but has worked his way up to the third with Sullivan and sophomore London McDonald, gave his team a 1-0 lead when Marblehead forced a turnover in the offensive zone and Sullivan collected the puck, whipping it over to Feingold. His short shide shot went over the pad of Scituate’s goalie.
A near-identical play by Grenier doubled the Headers’ lead. This time, it was junior James Mackenzie — a converted defenseman now up on the wing —who pounced on a Sailors’ turnover and got the puck over to Grenier for the eventual game-winner.
“Two really heads up plays led to those two goals,” said Marfione.
It remained 2-0 through 30 minutes before Scituate (17-6-2) cut its deficit in half in the third. But Burdge made sure another shot wasn’t getting by him, picking up his 14th win of the season in the process while lowering his goals against average to 2.04.
Burdge has allowed just four goals in 135 minutes of playoff hockey. His teammates have scored a dozen times in those same three games.
“We just outworked them,” said Marfione. “It was a terrific team effort.”
Marfione praised the play of defensemen Sean Dolan and Ben Wales, a junior and senior who paired up and were on the ice for every other shift.
“Sean’s one of our best players even if the stats might not show it. He does everything we ask him to and more,” said Marfione.
Marblehead had previously lost to Scituate in both the 2008 and 2010 state semifinals.
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