What started as a close checking game turned into a 6-2 rout, as the North squad rode a two-goal first period lead and never looked back in Saturday afternoon’s Southeastern Massachusetts Girls Hockey League All-Star game at The Bog in Kingston.

The Lady Dragons had five players named to the South team, as senior defenseman Colleen Connolly, junior forward Meg Muncey, freshman defenseman Catherine Byrne, and sophomore goalie Julia Hannon all saw significant action, while senior forward Erin Levesque sat out with an injury.

While the South squad couldn’t take advantage of a first-period power-play opportunity, the North squad was more fortunate with theirs, as Franklin’s Rachel Porter intercepted a South clearing pass and faked out the defense and Falmouth goaltender Mariama Hesek with 3:21 left in the first period for a 1-0 lead.{sidebar id=4}

It was all the North team needed to get their offense rolling, as they came back less than a minute later to take a 2-0 lead on a goal by Franklin’s Melissa Coughlin, who walked out of the left corner and beat Hesek.

Duxbury’s Julia Hannon replaced Hesek midway through the second period and got a rough reception, as Hingham’s Stephanie Invernizzi came flying down the right wing with a pass from teammate Chrissie Bowler and beat the Duxbury netminder for a 3-0 lead with 4:47 left in the second period.{sidebar id=1}

What looked like an apparent blow-out for the North got put on temporary hold when Barnstable’s Michelle Manning narrowed the deficit to 3-1 when she took a pass in the slot and wheeled around to fire a shot inside the right post and past Hingham freshman goalie Beth Findley with 1:06 remaining in the middle period.

What looked like a momentum changing goal did nothing for the South squad, as the North took full advantage of a tired looking South team in the final period.

Invernizzi’s second goal of the game made it 4-1 with 10:51 left, and North Quincy/Quincy 8th-grader Presley McLaughlin put the game out of reach at 5-1 with 6:42 remaining.

The South did retaliate 34 seconds later when Marshfield’s Shannon Driscoll beat Findlay to cut the deficit to 5-2. But it was obvious the North was a step ahead in the final 15 minutes, as Whitman-Hanson’s Gianna Desisto capped the afternoon affair by beating Hannon for the final score of the game with 1:36 to go.

The Lady Dragons will now turn their attention to the MIAA Division II Tournament that gets underway on Wednesday night when they travel to Waltham for a 7 p.m. first-round game.{sidebar id=6}