Sophia Venditti and Eliza Connolly each scored two goals Friday to spark Cape Elizabeth to a season-opening 5-2 win over York in a schoolgirl hockey game at Troubh Arena.
Cape, which includes four girls from South Portland and two from Waynflete on its 20-player team, controlled the last 20 minutes.
“We’ve got girls from three different towns and it gives our locker room a whole new atmosphere,” said Hannah Bosworth, a junior right wing who had a goal and an assist. “It’s really awesome to meet new girls from different towns.”
Cape fell behind early, then reeled off four goals.
“We have no seniors on this team and we’ve got a lot of freshmen who are playing varsity hockey for the first time, so I think it was a little bit of nerves going into it,” Cape Elizabeth Coach Bob Mills said.
“We were taking a lot of shots on the goalie, so we were preaching ‘just keep doing what you’re doing and the goals will come sooner or later.’ ”
Bosworth opened the scoring after 11 seconds when she took an across-the-slot feed from from Venditti, a freshman forward from South Portland, and deposited the puck inside the uncovered right post. Venditti set up the score by drawing the defense while carrying the puck out of her defensive zone down the left side.
With two minutes left in the first period, the Wildcats tied it when Erin O’Donnell slipped a rebound into the left side after goalie Abby Joy kept a shot by Grace Campbell out of the right side during a two-on-one break.
Five minutes into the second period, York took the lead when Katherine Bertolini put a close-in shot into the left side of the goal.
With less than five minutes left in the second, Venditti, powering past two defenders on the right side, swerved in front of the goal on a breakaway and slipped a backhander under goalie Sophia Stephens’ pads to tie it.
Cape regained the lead with 7.3 seconds left in the period when Connolly turned a pass from Bosworth into a goal during a three-on-two break.
Venditti and Connolly added third-period goals. Connolly scored from the right faceoff dot during Cape’s second power play of the game.
“Penalties hurt us and we lost one of our more experienced defensemen,” York Coach Kevin Banfield said.
The Wildcats, who lost six seniors from a team that went 12-7-1 last season and reached the South Division semifinals, played the final 20 minutes without Sydney Bouchard. She hit her head on a goal post on Venditti’s first goal.
Cape Elizabeth lost nine seniors from a team that advanced to the South Division semifinals the past two seasons.
“We just (want) to continue to develop our skills,” Mills said. “There seems to be good chemistry right now.”
“This team is different than our program has ever seen,” Bosworth said. “We’ve really banded together well as a group of girls who just go out and give it their all and hustle.”
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