Longtime head coach Frank Pagliuca had a simple idea for his St. Mary’s of Lynn girls hockey program, not quite realizing it would blossom the way it has over the last five years.
Any coach can speak on the importance of goaltending. A hot goalie can be the difference between a first-round playoff exit and a state championship, and after the 2017-18 season, he saw the pipeline at the position was thin.
So, when second-year team manager Angelina Catino was helping clean out the locker room, he thought he’d plant the idea into the seventh-grader’s head to maybe switch her focus from defense to netminding for the next year’s tryouts.
Catino just needed some help getting the gear. Otherwise, she was all in.
“You ask me to do this, you’ve got to kind of help me out here,” Catino joked. “Even though I hadn’t been there for a while and hadn’t played games, that program meant the world to me. I was ready to kind of do anything.”
Talk surrounding the consensus Div. 1 title favorite Spartans (16-1) often starts with their star skaters.
Senior forward Jenna Chaplain registered her 100th career goal and 200th point this season, pairing with fellow seniors in 100-point scorer Maggie Pierce and Amanda Forziati to make up one of the best top lines in the state. Senior Haylie Grossman and junior Kasey Litwin lead a strong defense, and opposing coaches always rave about the program’s layers of depth.
But tucked in the middle of the mix is the now senior Catino, who – after watching any game this season – nobody would be able to tell is just in her fifth year at the position.
Only in their overtime 3-2 loss to Archbishop Williams has any team scored over two goals against the Spartans. Catino has nine shutouts this year. Through the seven games in which the St. Mary’s attack couldn’t generate more than three goals, Catino has only allowed five goals total. Only 11 goals have come against her in all, giving her 0.69 goals against average.
She’s the first to practice, she’s the first to hold anybody accountable, and she knows how and when to keep the locker room light. Catino is exactly that reliable goalie Pagliuca hoped for.
“Offensively, with our group sometimes, she gets overlooked,” he said. “She’s a two-year captain, she’s a big leader for us. … When we’ve needed her to step up, she has risen her game. It’s going to be important moving forward as we get closer to the tournament.”
It took some time for Catino to play how she does now.
After a conversation with her parents ultimately sealed a commitment to the switch, Catino went to Stop It Goaltending in Woburn to learn the craft in the offseason. Seeing how more developed the other goalies were proved a challenge, but as Catino worked, vast improvements started to come.
Observations and notes from those goalies around her accelerated her growth, as did learning under all-star goalie Lauren Vaccaro in her eighth-grade season. And once she finally got her first start – against Austin Prep, no less – in the season-opener of her freshman year, the transformation was complete.
She split time with Rhyan Pitari, helping the team to a 16-2-4 record before bowing out in the Div. 1 state quarterfinals. Much of the same came in the COVID year with newcomer Rylee Smith, and they continued to split time last season before another loss in the quarterfinals.
This year, in her first season as the full-time starter, Catino has helped bring the team to new heights.
“It was the best decision I ever made becoming a goalie, it’s been amazing and I love it so much,” Catino said. “It was a very proud moment for me, a very big moment for me (when Pagliuca told me I was the full-time starter). This program means so much to me, obviously I’ve been here for seven years. … It gave me a lot of confidence going into the season just knowing each and every single one of my girls on my team and my coaches had my back.”
“It’s a testament to her,” Pagliuca added. “Goalie is not just something you can pick up right away. When you’re going into high school, kids are starting playing goalie seven or eight years before that and getting that training. You would never know the lack of quote-unquote experience that she’s had in net based on how she plays.”
Hip – Hingham girls star scorer Caroline Doherty added another chapter to her legacy with seven goals in a win over Norwell on Wednesday, breaking the program’s record.
Hip – Dracut/Tyngsboro boys senior Tommy Workman became the second player in co-op history to notch a 100th point, doing so in a 5-0 win over Cambridge on Monday.
Hooray – Framingham girls goalie Mikal Franklin recorded 33 saves in a 4-0 shutout over Braintree on Wednesday, marking the first time the Flyers have beat the Wamps in a decade. She’s played a large role in Framingham’s success since its winless season three years ago, accruing over 1,000 saves.
It’s been a big season for coaches. Hingham boys head coach Tony Messina picked up his 600th win through 39 years as an assistant and head coach by beating Catholic Memorial 2-1 on Wednesday. St. John’s Prep’s Kristian Hanson cracked 300 with longtime assistant Jeff Tache on the same night, as did Canton boys coach Brian Shuman. Duxbury boys head coach Mike Flaherty reached 200 last week with a 6-1 win over Quincy. Add that to Marshfield boys head coach Dan Connolly’s 350th win earlier this year, Lynnfield boys’ Jon Gardner earning his 100th on the same night Drew Damiani scored a 100th-career point, and Peabody/Lynnfield/NR girls coach Michelle Roach went for her 100th win in eight years on Saturday against Newburyport.
