Wolverines Turn Shortage in Advantage Against Dedham

If you looked at the 8-2 final score alone, you could be forgiven for seeing Westwood’s girls’ junior varsity hockey team's dismantling of Dedham as a bit of a mismatch.

A closer look, however, reveals half of the Wolverines were actually varsity players, getting extra ice time with a jayvee team lacking enough players.

“It was some good practice for our girls,” Dedham coach Don Parr said of playing against a more experienced opponent. “The competition won’t be as tough for rest of the season, so it was a good test for them. It shows them a lot, shows them how they have to play the game.”

The real story from the matchup came from a pair of Westwood eighth graders, each of whom had hat tricks. Janine Murray and Kat Heidelberger were called up from their middle school team to gain experience and round out a thin roster of older players.

“It was a faster pace, but I had fun,” Murray said after the game.

Each of the two girls had goals by the end of the first period when the score stood at 3-0.

The Marauders had a good look early in the second when a two-on-two turned into a showdown with the goalie, but a deflected shot turned into a breakaway for Westwood, and a wrist shot from 5 feet out gave them a 4-0 lead.

At the end of the middle period, Kaliene O’Neal took the puck at the blue line and brought it down the right hand boards. When she passed the hash marks she put a shot on net that found its way between the pipes, lighting up the Dedham side the scoreboard for the first time.

At the start of the third, Murray was moved up from defense to right wing, and found the puck after the face-off, which she brought into the Dedham zone and headed straight towards the net. She then passed to Heidelberger on her left, who moved it past Jamie Carty, the Marauder goalkeeper.

Although it was the second game of the season, it was Carty's second game of hockey ever. As the season approached, the field hockey player was recruited to mind the net on skates as she had done on the field. She’s hardly alone, as most of the team is only in their first or second year playing the game.

With less than two minutes to go, Dedham’s Gabby Amato took control of the puck in a breakout situation and took it coast to coast.

At the center of Wolverine blue line, she split the defense and from there had a clear path to the net. Her wrist shot was good, and the gap was closed to 7-2.

Heidelberger then got a final shot in with 15 seconds remaining on the clock to make it 8-2, and there the score stood as the final buzzer blew.