Cinderella Dances On! Red Rangers Advance to State Semifinals

With its top scoring threat is shut down, the Tewksbury/Methuen girls hockey team needed to find offense from another source in its State Division 2 quarterfinal matchup with Gardner/St. B's, Monday night in Watertown.

Enter Hayley Sutherland.

The junior defenseman scored one goal and assisted on two more to lead the Red Rangers to a 3-1 victory and a trip to the State Semifinals in their first year as a varsity program.

Junior goalie Taylor Lirakis was brilliant between the pipes, making 40 saves. The Red Rangers were outshot, 41-20.

Tewksbury/Methuen, seeded No. 20 entering the tournament, will take on No. 1 seed Duxbury on Saturday at Gallo Arena in Bourne. The time has yet to be announced.

The Red Rangers (11-7-3) had their hands full Monday, as No. 5 Gardner/St. B's did an outstanding job putting the shackles on sniper Amanda Conway, who came into the game with 51 goals.

Trailing 1-0, Tewksbury/Methuen tied the game in the second period, when Sutherland scored off a feed from Conway. Sutherland then assisted 7th grader Kelly Golini on a third period goals to put the Red Rangers on top.

Conway finally got on the board with her 52nd goal of the year into an empty net in the final miinute to put the game away.