Lynnfield 3-1

8 WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 MARCH 1, 2018
Hockey coach Roach steps on familiar ice
By Anne Marie Tobin
PEABODY — The Peabody/
Lynnfield girls hockey team, fresh
from having completed the best
season in its history, certainly got
a dose of postseason reality when
it found out that it would play St.
Mary’s last night in the opening
round of the MIAA Division 1 state
tournament.
After all, the Spartans have won
five state titles, four in Division
1. They are the fifth seed with a
15-3-2 record. And they are, like
Peabody (11-7-2) working on their
best season since their most recent
state title in 2013.
The good news for the Tanners
is that if anyone knows a thing or
two about St. Mary’s girls hockey,
and has the bio to back it up, it’s
Peabody coach Michelle Roach, a
former St. Mary’s assistant coach
and one of the trailblazing female
hockey pioneers who were there
when the Spartans’ program began
in 2001-2002.
A Lynn native and resident,
Roach cut her hockey teeth at
Connery at the age of 10 when she
started playing in the Lynn Youth
Hockey program.
Roach, who had played on the
boys junior varsity hockey team as
a freshman and sophomore, made
the leap to the girls team her junior
year.
“They didn’t have a girls’ team,
so my only choice was to play with
the boys, so that’s what I did,” said
Roach. “My father, Bob, was instrumental
in getting the program
going. He went to all the meetings
and ended up coaching as an
assistant the first four or five years.
LYNN — Former St. John’s
Prep standout Justin Foley,
a Lynnfield resident, will be
pitching this summer for the the
North Shore Navigators. Foley,
a junior at Bates College, will
toe the Fraser Field rubber for
the first time with the Futures
Collegiate Baseball League club
this summer.
“You can never have enough
pitching on a summer roster, and
we’re excited to welcome Justin
and Deven to the ballclub,”
General Manager Bill Terlecky
said. “Justin is a local product
who has past experience in our
league.”
Foley made 19 appearances
over his first two seasons at Bates
College, where he was a teammate
of three-year Navigator,
former FCBL All-Star reliever,
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When the school finally voted to
start a girls team, there were about
12 or 13 of us who played on the
team my junior year when it was
club. There were only four or five
of us who had ever skated before,
let alone play hockey, and everyone
else was brand new. I didn’t come
off the ice much, needless to say.
We just were a bunch of girls who
wanted to play hockey. We had a
few forwards and a couple D who
had played before and a coach
(Todd Langlis) who really believed
in us.”
The following year in the
Spartans’ first season as a varsity
program, Roach served as captain
and led the team in scoring, earning
Eastern Mass all-star honors, CCL
all-league honors and all-scholastic
honors. She led the Spartans to their
first-ever state tournament, scoring
three goals in the Spartans’ first
round 9-6 loss to Watertown.
Roach also served as captain of
the Spartans’ cross country and outdoor
track teams.
Roach moved on to play three
years on the women’s team at St.
Michael’s College, becoming the
first of many accomplished St.
Mary’s alums to play collegiate
hockey. She hung up her skates
prior to her senior year when concussions
and pneumonia cut her career
short.
Playing career, that is.
In 2009-2011, she was back at her
alma mater as an assistant coach.
“It was an incredible run, and to
be a part of those teams that had a
100-game unbeaten streak was just
the best,” she said. “I still remember
when the streak was broken, it was
and fellow St. John’s grad Rob
DiFranco as a freshman. The
Lynnfield native went 3-1 with
a 5.00 ERA in eight outings, including
two starts, for the Bobcats
last year, striking out 20 batters
while walking just seven over 27
innings of work. As a freshman,
Foley posted an 0-2 record in 11
appearances with an ERA of 4.29
in 21 innings of work, striking out
19 and walking eight.
Foley, who was ESPN Boston’s
Mr. Baseball recipient as a Prep
senior, is no stranger to the FCBL
as he helped the Nashua Silver
Knights to their first of two consecutive
championships in 2016.
Foley was the second St. John’s
Prep player in three years to receive
the Mr. Baseball Award,
following in the footsteps of
Bryant University standout
Brandon Bingle of Peabody.
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PHOTO | MARK GRANT
Coach Michelle Roach talks things over with captain Sarah Buckley during a recent game.
overtime against Hingham in the
2011 quarterfinals. We had won our
third straight state championship my
first year, then won again in 2013.
It was great working for Frank
(Pagliuca) and I think I learned so
much from him.
“It was incredible to be on the
ground floor of the program, then return
to see the program’s growth as
well as be a part of it. It far surpassed
anything I had imagined when I put
on the first jersey at 16 years old –
we built something really cool that
has made such a huge impact in
Massachusetts girls’ hockey.”
Fast forward to the summer of
2015 when Roach was hired as the
new coach of a fledgling Peabody/
Lynnfield girls hockey team. She
inherited a team that won just four
games the year before. That first
year, the team set a program record
with six wins, then last year,
Foley finished his Prep career
having never lost a varsity decision.
He finished with a career
record of 14-0. He had a breakout
season as a senior, posting a record
of 11-0 and ERA of 0.94. In
72 innings, he struck out 62 and
walked just 12 batters, helping
the top-seeded Eagles reach
the Super 8 final for the second
straight year. He opened the tournament
by throwing the first nohitter
in Super 8 history, leading
the Eagles to a 1-0 win over defending
champion Newton North.
He finished the tournament with a
2-0 record and set a Super 8 tournament
record for most strikeouts
with 22. His efforts earned
Foley Catholic Conference MVP
honors and he was also named
to the Boston Globe and Boston
Herald All-Scholastic and
Massachusetts All-State team.
the team qualified for the Division
1 tournament for the first time in
program history with a regular
season record of 9-8-3 before losing
in the preliminary round round to
Arlington, 5-1.
Roach was hoping this could be
the year Peabody breaks though to
get its first-ever tournament win.
“We play a tough regular-season
schedule,” she said.
Actually, Roach, a member of the
St. Mary’s Varsity Club, was in both
lockerrooms for last Wednesday’s
game She was in the visiting lockerroom
and her picture was in the
home room.
“Frank has a tradition of putting
pictures of all of his players who
go on to play college hockey on the
wall of the home locker room, so
that’s why my picture, as the first
player in St. Mary’s history to play
in college, is on that wall. I think it
Foley’s athletic achievements
extend beyond baseball. For the
past three years, he has been the
Bobcats’ starting punter. Last fall he
averaged 36.1 yards per punt in nine
games. As a sophomore in 2016,
he broke the Bates single season
record for most punts in week six,
finishing with 81 punts in all while
averaging 37.9 yards per punt. His
efforts earned him Second Team
All-NESCAC honors.
Freshman year, Foley averaged
37.2 yards per punt. He
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is so ironic, when you think of all the
teams we could have played, it’s St.
Mary’s where I was there when it all
started.”
Under Roach, the Peabody/
Lynnfield program has grown by
leaps and bounds.
The Tanners set program records
for most wins (11), most
games above .500 (four), fewest
games needed to clinch a tournament
spot (17), and most times
qualified for the tournament (2).
Sophomore Sammie Mirasolo set a
single-season scoring record with 41
points and became the first Tanner to
win a league (Northeastern Hockey
League) MVP award.
The Tanners also set a program
record for the their highest tournament
seed (25th) and finished with
a program-best record.
Ex-St. John’s Prep pitcher Foley signs with Navs
was named NESCAC Special
Teams Player of the Week on
Nov. 1, 2015, after the Bobcats’
10-9 win over Colby College. He
punted the ball nine times, seven
of which pinned the Mules inside
their 20, averaging 38.3 yards per
punt for the game.
The Navigators will be announcing
more additions to the
roster in the coming weeks and
months in preparation for the
2018 season, which begins on
May 31.
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