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Freshmen lead Newburyport to opening-round victory over Saugus

Friday, February, 29 By Dan Guttenplan
Sports editor

State tournament games are no place for freshmen.

At least until last evening.

The scorching Newburyport hockey team advanced to the Division 2 North quarterfinal with an opening-round 5-1 victory over Saugus at Stoneham Rink. Newburyport freshman Anthony Federico came within 8:20 of a shutout in his first career appearance in a state tournament game. Fellow freshman Gaven LaValley netted two goals | Newburyport's second and third of the game | in a span of 10:28.

No. 6 Newburyport also received two goals and an assist from senior center Derek McCoy. Collin Cusack added the final goal for the Clippers (14-6-1). Kevin Holmes had two assists. Dave Freeman, Kyle McElroy and Derek Freeman had one each.

Craig Cooper scored the lone goal for No. 11 Saugus (9-8-3). Falling in line with the theme of the evening, two Newburyport freshmen | William Boudreau and Billy Eiserman | played regular shifts on defense.

"If you look at the amount of time our four freshmen got during the season," said Newburyport coach Paul Yameen, "it doesn't surprise me how well they played. They knew what to expect. They've played in front of big crowds before ... I really had no reason to think they wouldn't do it here."

Despite the four-goal margin of victory, many of Federico's 20 saves came with the game hanging in the balance. He stopped 16 shots in the first two periods, after which Newburyport led only 2-0.

"I could never have expected the output we've been getting from the freshmen all season," McCoy said. "I thought they'd come around, but not this quickly ... They've stepped up more than I've ever seen freshmen step up."

Winners of eight straight games, Newburyport will play No. 3 Gloucester in the quarterfinals Sunday afternoon (2:30 p.m., Salem State College).

Gloucester (15-4-2) captured a Division 2 state title in 2006 under first-year coach Don Lowe. The Fishermen fell to Lynnfield last winter in the Division 2 North semifinals. They are 8-1 in the state tournament under Lowe.

"We don't look at it as eight straight wins as much as we go game to game," McCoy said. "We want to keep working hard. We aren't worried about any other team's game-plan as long as we play our game."

Last winter, Newburyport fell to Lynnfield in the Division 2 North quarterfinals. The team figured to take a step back this winter after losing two-time CAL all-star goalie Matt O'Connor and two 100-point scorers in Max Bayko and Kyle Roback.

Federico earned the starting position in the fifth game of the season and promptly allowed 27 goals in the next eight games (3.38 GAA). During the current eight-game winning streak, Federico has played seven of the games and allowed 10 goals (1.43 GAA).

"I never knew how it was going to be," Federico said of his first tournament experience. "It ended up being like any other game."

Fellow-freshman LaValley shared Federico's sentiment in approaching his first tournament game.

"I just wanted to play a team game," LaValley said. The approach may seem simple enough, but on a team with nine seniors on its roster like Newburyport, it can be difficult to keep the proper perspective.

"They've been really supportive all year," Federico said. Last night, it was the freshmen who provided the support.