Warwick Co-op caps four-point weekend with 2-1 win

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 2/2/16

After defeating La Salle 2-0 on Friday night, the Warwick Co-op girls’ ice hockey team edged the Smithfield/North Smithfield/Coventry Co-op, 2-1, on Saturday night to finish the successful weekend …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Warwick Co-op caps four-point weekend with 2-1 win

Posted

After defeating La Salle 2-0 on Friday night, the Warwick Co-op girls’ ice hockey team edged the Smithfield/North Smithfield/Coventry Co-op, 2-1, on Saturday night to finish the successful weekend slate.

The Titans (7-5-1) had lost six of their last seven entering Friday night’s game against La Salle, but have gathered some momentum heading into the home stretch of their schedule. Pilgrim/Vets/Toll Gate owns the No. 3 seed in the Division I playoffs, one point ahead of the Narragansett/NK/SK Co-op.

“It was a huge weekend,” Warwick captain Kelsey Holmes said with a smile. “We definitely found ourselves this weekend. We put in a lot of effort through the whole game. We were consistent and we stayed motivated the whole entire game. We put in all of our effort. It was really amazing.”

Moving forward Madison Balutowski to defense worked wonders for the Titans over the weekend, as the Sentinels struggled to get much going offensively. Having scored just seven goals on the season entering the matchup, the Sentinels relied heavily on the goaltending of freshman Mia Gardner.

Gardner was superb in net, allowing just two goals on a barrage of 34 shots. Warwick did just enough in the first period offensively to carry it the rest of the way, starting with Holmes collecting a missed shot and putting it past Gardner at the 2:22 mark.

“We just have to keep our head up and keep pushing,” Balutowski said. “You hope a lot go in, but then you realize how good that goalie is and you just have to take advantage of her low points.”

Freshman Nicole Procaccini found the back of the net six minutes later on a goal of her own, taking a second to aim the puck before firing past Gardner’s left side.

Warwick kept trying to add on, but Gardner turned everything away. Right out of the gate in the second period, Balutowski took a shot that landed right in Gardner’s chest pad. Defenseman Alyssa Mathews and Balutowski then traded chances minutes later, both deterred by Gardner.

The Titans would fire 23 more shots-on-goal at Gardner in the second and third periods, but she stopped all of them. Warwick sophomore goaltender Mary Greenwell faced limited chances as the Sentinels were preoccupied with keeping the Titans out of their zone and couldn’t break the Warwick defense.

“We were a little rough with all the losses, but we’ve definitely tried to step it up,” Mathews said of the defense. “We’ve got Maddie back on D to help us out, we’re strengthening ourselves, we’re working harder. We’re trying to be the best we can be so that the forwards can be the best that they can be, and then we can progress from there.”

Greenwell made nine saves on 10 shots, with her only mistake coming four minutes into the second period while the Sentinels were on the power play. Sam McCarthy went top shelf from close range to cut the deficit in half, 2-1.

Though Warwick didn’t score again, the constant offensive assault kept the Sentinels on their heels. Smithfield had five shots-on-goal in the third, but couldn’t get any past Greenwell.

The Titans got back to their winning ways at the right time as they have a matchup with the first-place Barrington/Mt. Hope/Portsmouth Co-op (10-2) on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. at Thayer.

“It’s just gonna give us more energy to go into every single other game,” Holmes said.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here