The Lady Dragons found the back of the net four times while the defense and goalie Julia Hannon shut down the Braintree offense in a 4-0 win at The Bog.

Julia Hannon butterflies to make one of her 14 saves in the shutout win.

The win means that Duxbury needs one more win to clinch a position in the MIAA tournament.

“Every game is like a playoff game now,” said head coach Friend Weiler. “When teams are so evenly matched, it’s going to be doing the little things that decides the game.”

Four minutes into the first period, neither team had put a shot on goal. Duxbury got a break at the 10:52 mark when a Braintree penalty put them on the power play, and they did not waste it.

Eighteen seconds later, captain Meg Muncey put a shot between the pad and the blocker of the Wamps goalie Colleen Casey put Duxbury up 1-0.  Muncey struck again for the Dragons to put them up 2-0 at the end of the first period. After Briana Connolly’s shot was rejected and Casey stopped another shot off the rebound, Muncey blasted the second rebound into the back of the net at the 5:37 mark. 

Duxbury dominated the second period, out-shooting Braintree 12 to 6 and adding another power play goal courtesy of Erin Levesque. In the third period, freshman Siobhan McCarthy added the final nail in the coffin with her first goal of the game at 4:44, again off a rebound.{sidebar id=4}

Muncey had an assist on Levesque’s goal to lead all scores with three points. Leveque also had an assist in the game while McCarthy, Connolly, and Molly O’Sullivan all had a point apiece for Duxbury.

Defensively, Duxbury did a good job disrupting Braintree’s offense, holding the Wamps to 14 shots for the game. Weiler said senior Colleen Connolly played exceptionally well for the Dragon defense, but added that all his defenseman executed well in the win.

“From a defensive standpoint, we did exactly what you want to do,” he said. “If you frustrate the other team [on defense], the offensive opportunities are going to come.”

Though she wasn’t tested often, Weiler also gave credit to Hannon for making some tough saves to preserve the shutout and the win.{sidebar id=1}

“She always comes up big,” he said. “The tougher the game, the harder she plays and she has a lot of poise back there for a sophomore.”

 The Lady Dragons hope to lock up their tournament spot when the hit the road for their second match-up of the season against the Marshfield Rams. Duxbury edged Marshfield in the final minutes in their first meeting, and Weiler expects the second one to be just as even.

“I expect a real tough, hard-fought game,” he said. “Hopefully the girls will be ready to go.”