VIDEO: Caroline Batchelder scores in Archies girls hockey playoff win
The junior forward converted in the second period for a 3-0 lead in what became a 4-0 Archies win over Belmont/Watertown in the Div. 1 Elite Eight.
FRAMINGHAM – With its season on the line, the Archbishop Williams girls hockey team needed a big play in a pinch.
Leave it to the youngest player on the MIAA state tournament’s Cinderella story to come through: McKenzie Lima-Tower, a seventh grader from Holbrook.
Lima-Tower scored the game-tying goal with 8:10 to play, despite the No. 11 Bishops suffering a 2-1 overtime loss to No. 2 St. Mary’s in the Division 1 Final Four on Sunday at Loring Arena in Framingham. She’s one of three seventh graders, and six middle-schoolers, on this senior-less team that nearly pulled off a wild upset and finished one game shy of the state final at TD Garden next weekend.
St. Mary’s (21-3-1) will play No. 1 Notre Dame Academy in the championship next Sunday (time TBD).
It’s young, but coach Doug Nolan’s team sure proved it belonged.
“I’ll battle any team in the state with this group I have. And we’d be in every game,” Nolan said. “That’s a fact.”
Archbishop Williams outshot St. Mary’s, 37-23, and responded quickly when Alyssa Norden of St. Mary’s broke a scoreless stalemate by deflecting in teammate Isabella Fretias’ shot with 9:19 to play in the third period.
Just one minute later, Lima-Tower buried the tying goal on a cross-ice set-up from junior captain Caroline Batchelder, of Braintree. Safe to assume it’s the biggest goal of 13-year-old’s life?
“Probably, yeah,” Lima-Tower said with a smile.
“Certain kids just have that swag, that shoulders-back confidence. Even at 13 years old, she walks into the rink and has that confidence,” Nolan said. “As a coach, you have to love that.”
“We pushed these kids to the limit every day and we’ve watched her respond to pressure situations, to being clutch,” Nolan added. “We were very aware of how she’d react to big moments because we’ve seen it in practice.”
Archbishop Williams (11-11-2) made it to the tournament after starting 1-6 on the season. The Bishops rattled off three wins en route to Sunday’s Final Four: 4-3 win over No. 23 Waltham, 2-1 win over No. 6 Methuen and 4-0 win over No. 14 Belmont. The underdog playoff run “took on a life of its own,” Nolan said.
“We finally pulled it together,” said junior forward Shea Nolan, one of Doug’s two daughters on the team. “We were like, ‘OK. Let’s…
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