In the first game of the 2018-2019 season, Deerfield traveled to St. Mark’s on Saturday afternoon. We battled through typical first game jitters, and generally played with intensity and focus during the scoreless opening frame. A few defensive lapses led to two St. Mark’s goals in the first half of the second period, but we used that as a wake up call and began to hit our stride. We did a much better job of executing our systems and getting shots to the net, and that paid off when Mae Emerson ‘19 tipped home a Deirdre Mullowney ‘19 shot to pull us within one. After several shifts of sustained offensive zone pressure early in the third period, Aurora Devereaux ‘20 tied the score with a shot from the point that found its way into the back of the net. The teams traded momentum for the rest of the period, and ultimately headed into a deciding overtime period. There, Lisa Ito-Bagshaw ‘21 took a nice outlet pass from Ali Fujiyoshi ‘19, streaked down the ice, and slid the puck through the St. Mark’s goalie to set off a huge team celebration. This was a great team win, with all 11 forwards and 6 defensemen contributing to our efforts this afternoon. Jordan Manning ‘19 earned the win in goal with calm and composed play, and Emerson earned the “hard hat” from her teammates for extraordinary effort and grit all over the ice. A nice way to start the season, and we’ll look to keep improving ahead of our Wednesday match up against Loomis. Thank you to the Fujiyoshis for the pizza, salad, brownies and drinks after the game!