CONCORD – For the first 15 minutes of action at Everett Arena on Wednesday afternoon, Concord High girls’ hockey acquitted itself well. Freshman Hailey Pinette scored her first-career goal 5:59 into the opening period, the Tide (1-2-0) outshot the Astros 8-3 and carried a 1-0 lead into the locker room.
But Pinkerton (3-2-0) proved to be the stronger team in the latter two periods, scoring three times in the second and once more in the third to pull away with a 4-2 victory.
“As the game went on, we got tired, we fell into some bad habits and Pinkerton was able to capitalize on that,” Concord head coach Tim Herbert said. “They got two goals that were the result of our fatigue in the game. Back to practice next week. Continue to work on our breakouts, solid passes and stuff that we’ve been focusing on. I think we’ll be better Saturday and the following week.”
Through the holiday break, the Tide didn’t have much time to practice. Partially because of the schedule and partially because of several players who were sick, some of the team had only practiced twice in three weeks. The onset of fatigue after the first period became readily apparent.
“The first period, we had the jump, we got in their zone, we were on them; they struggled to break it out against us,” Herbert said. “As the game went on, the girls were struggling to get on the man and take away the time and space. That ultimately led to breakouts and them getting in our zone and getting some offensive chances.”
In the second period, Concord’s Sophia Branch expanded the Tide lead to 2-0, but Pinkerton scored four unanswered goals, including a hat trick from Riley Dunn and a fourth goal from Emily Gosselin.
As the Tide look to get back into the swing of things in their January schedule, Herbert said he plans to focus on more conditioning in upcoming practices. He also mentioned the play of his goalie Taylor Lamb – who made 13 saves on Wednesday – as a reason for optimism moving forward.
“She had many odd-man rushes she handled well,” Herbert said.
And it was certainly appropriate to celebrate Pinette’s performance, which included her first-career high school goal.
“It’s good to see the ninth graders stepping up and doing the things that we’re coaching and having them produce already early on,” Herbert said. “Hailey ended up with two points at the end of the night, she assisted the second goal.”
The Tide resume play on Saturday against Manchester Central-Memorial, hoping to find more in the tank after running out of gas on Wednesday.