Canton girls reload with 10 freshmen faces

CANTON -- If there is anything that the Canton High School girls' hockey team enjoys besides winning, it is a poetry recital.

No, it is not slam or beat, or e.e. cummings or Robert Frost. The poet laureate of the Canton High Bulldogs is assistant coach George Kozak.

''We all look forward to it," said Katie White, the lone senior on the Bulldogs and one of its captains. ''It's one of our rituals."

Before the girls take the ice, Kozak recites a short poem he has written for that particular game.

''It's nothing terrific," Kozak said. ''It's just to inspire the girls. Some things they can remember on the ice. One might be about defense. It's usually four or six lines. For instance, after we won our fourth game, at our next game it began . . . 'Girls, let's strive for five . . .' I usually write them the day before a game. I do it just to get them going."

And Canton has been going pretty well this season. Despite losing several players to graduation, including its leading scorer and top goalie, the team has turned what should have been a rebuilding season into one where it simply reloaded.

The Bulldogs won their first 10 games and are in the hunt for the South Cape League championship. Through 14 games, they are 12-2, and in the SCL, the Bulldogs have an 8-1 record.

Coach Don Callow said the team has exceeded his expectations. ''If you asked me at the beginning of the season, I would have told you we probably would finish in the middle of the pack," he said.

''We lost nine players from last year's team, including Samantha Murphy, who is playing for Holy Cross this year. She was our leading scorer," said Callow. ''We also lost a couple of experienced defensemen."

The Bulldogs also lost their goalie, with no apparent replacement.

Callow had 10 incoming freshmen, and he did not know what to expect.

''We didn't have a goal scorer, either," he said. ''The kids coming back, none of them were prolific scorers. They worked hard at putting it in the net. You need that one girl who is always a threat to score."

Callow, who operates a hockey skills clinic on Monday and Wednesday evenings in August at the Bridgewater Ice Arena, found that scorer last summer.

''This one girl showed up, Brittany Lyons," said Callow. ''I saw that she was from Canton, and she was going to be a ninth-grader at the high school in September. When I saw her on the ice for the first time, I called George and told him, 'We have our race horse.' You could see right away that this girl could shoot the puck."

Lyons has proved her coach was right. After 14 games, she had 32 goals and 15 assists for 47 points. She plays on the first line, with junior Julia Matthews (14 goals, 21 assists) and sophomore Jackie Galvin (12 goals and 14 assists). They have combined for an eye-popping 108 points, an average of nearly eight per game.

''Brittany's been playing all her life. She, along with all of the freshmen, has stepped it up," said Matthews.

The high-scoring frosh wasn't the only jewel Callow found at his summer camp.There was also another freshman-to-be, Arielle Spadea.

''She wanted to be a goalie, but she'd never played goalie before," said Callow. ''When I first saw her, I thought she would be OK. She was a good athlete, but it would take a few years for her to learn the position. We were optimistic going into the season. But she has absorbed more than we thought she would, and she is a lot better than we expected."

The freshmen are not the only ones stepping up, said Callow. ''We have three great captains," he said. ''Katie White, who is the only senior on the team, and juniors Julia Matthews and Alexis Regan are veterans who have done a terrific job bringing the freshmen along and accepting them as members of the team."

The upperclassmen will say it was easy.

''Some are our sisters, and we knew a lot of the other girls coming up this year through them," said Matthews, whose younger sister, Kate, is a freshman defenseman. Freshmen Michelle and Kristen McElroy are the younger sisters of junior forward Jill McElroy. And cocaptain Erin Gaughan's younger sister, Jackie, is a freshman on the squad.

Callow said, ''Right from the first day, our captains did nothing but encourage the freshmen and make them part of the team. The upperclassmen accepted those freshmen with open arms. That's what makes a team a team."

The Bulldogs are hoping to make it back to the state championship this year. They made it two years ago, only to lose to neighboring Dedham, 2-0, in the finals.

''We've always qualified for the state tournament," said Callow. ''But we're a Division 1 team, and we're playing in a Division 2 league. All of a sudden you meet the iron, and it's a tough adjustment for us."

With 10 freshmen, expect Canton to be knocking at the door for some time.