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Sports

Girls Ice Hockey Loses To Hill School

Hilltoppers lose 12-0.

BAYONNE—Hill scored three goals within the first three minutes of play and didn't look back en route to a 12-0 rout of the Summit girls ice hockey team.  The Hilltoppers responded well, but a much more powerful Hill team was simply too much for them.

But Head coach Matt Stanbro sees the game as a sign of growth.

"Coming off the ice, we got some compliments from the opposing coach and the referee that, even from what they've seen from a month ago and from playing us in the past, that our team is improving as a program," he said.

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Hill led an attack on senior goaltender Tory Round, scoring five goals by the end of the first period. The Hilltopppers were forced to quickly reinforce their defense, taking some pressure off Round.

"I wanted two defensemen back," explained Coach Stanbro.  "A couple of my defenseman really like to be aggressive and get into the play.  Some of them are trying to break a style that they've been using for years, but they're working and getting better at it."

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The defensive effort seemed to bolster Round's confidence, and she made some incredible saves in the second period, however Hill scored four more times and the Hilltoppers entered the third period down by nine.  Stanbro chose to send in freshman back-up goaltender Kirsten Gargiulo in the third period.

"Kirstie, our freshman goaltender, came in during the third period and really put out a great effort," said Coach Stanbro.  "Tori, our senior goaltender, is graduating so I really wanted to give her a taste of playing against a team like this and she really stepped up."

Gargiulo had a solid game in the goal, and the defensive effort continued to stop the majority of Hill's attacks on the goal.  Offensively, it was tougher to put together plays with two of the players hanging back, but Summit had several just-missed shots on goal.

"We got a couple offensive chances which, when we play a team of that caliber, I don't think we've had those kinds of chances in the past," said Stanbro.

One of the points Stanbro has been driving home all season is putting together a full game and playing until the final buzzer. They seem to be at the point where they can do that as Hilltoppers played pretty solidly across all three periods, but their youth showed and Hill simply outskated and outmaneuvered the Summit girls. Hill would score four more times, and the final score was 12-0.

"The third period was our best period by far," said Stanbro.  "It's been a long week, we've played a lot of hockey and in the first and second period it showed a little bit.  In the third period we skated a lot harder and we got better at our positions."

The girls are definitely showing signs of growth, and they still have plenty of season left to really bring it all together.

The Hilltoppers play their next game at Bayonne on Sunday, Jan. 17 against Princeton High School at 11:30 p.m.

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