Red Raiders Open BHS Winter Sports Season, Take On Weymouth

By: Tom Moran Jr.
Published: 12/07/12

One thing is for sure, there will be lots of new faces on the Barnstable High girls’ hockey team when the Red Raiders drop the puck tomorrow night at the Hyannis Youth & Community Center for their 2012-13 season opener against Weymouth.

Although graduation took half of last season’s varsity team with it, BHS head coach Peter Nugnes knows that is a fact of high school athletic life and with the players he has back from last year’s squad and the addition of some talented newcomers, he is quite confident this season’s Red Raiders will have no problem making their own mark.

“We went from a team that was senior-heavy to a team that is mostly underclassmen,” said Coach Nugnes. “We have a nice corps of returning players to build on and a good group of new players. We are young and we will pay our dues but by the time the season ends, we have a chance to be a pretty good team.”

The Red Raiders will have one tough row to hoe with a season’s schedule that includes matchups with very tough opponents from Falmouth, Duxbury, Austin Prep, Hingham, Lexington, Sandwich, Needham, Norwood, Notre Dame of Hingham, Wellesley and Weymouth.

Rounding out Barnstable’s 18-game season will be matchups with Dennis-Yarmouth and Whitman-Hanson/Pembroke.

Last season, the Red Raiders posted a 13-7-1 record and advanced to the second round of the state tournament before being eliminated by state-champ-to-be Arlington.

The goals for this season will be the same as they always are, win your league and qualify for state tournament play.

There will be no easy path to either of those goals but Coach Nugnes liked what he saw in his young team in a scrimmage with Acton-Boxborough.

“We lost 3-2 but we skated all four forward lines and we juggled our defensive pairings,” he said, adding, “The girls skated hard and I was very happy with the team’s performance. Again, we have a lot of young players but I do think this team will get better with each game.”

Backstopping the Red Raiders this season will be goaltenders Carly Spalt, a senior and three-year starter, and Kyra Corbett, a sophomore, who is new to the varsity this season.

The defensive pairings haven’t been set in stone just yet but look for senior Meghan Woods, junior Kathleen Frazier, sophomores Morgan Richard, Nicole Derosier and Kylie Hallam and freshman Eleanor Everett to all be skating regular shifts in front of Spalt and Corbett.

Just who will skate with whom on the club’s four forward lines has yet to be decided as well but the Red Raiders have some experienced players back led by seniors Marissa Peri, Joanne Johnson and Alyssa Petercuskie, junior Brenna McCaubrey and sophomores Sarah Boule and Lindsey Phelan.

All six saw plenty of ice time last season and with the addition of junior Katie Quilty, sophomores Bridget Jones and Catherine McShera, freshman Callie Rogorzenski and 8th graders Danielle Derosier and Meghan Moore, the Red Raiders look to have the talent to get points from all four forward lines on a pretty regular basis.

“We added some pretty tough teams to the schedule,” noted Coach Nugnes, “but playing better competition can only make us a better team. A coach couldn’t ask for a better group of kids to work with. This is going to be fun and I think this could be a very exciting team to watch.”

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