Unlikely Bailey Troika Leads Lady Raiders to Easy 11-3 Win

(Editor's note: Due to a reporting error, this article erroneously identified Simone Bailey. It has been corrected on Friday at 10:35 a.m.)

While eight different players ended up lighting the lamp for the Melrose/Watertown girls hockey team in an 11-3 trashing of Brookline on Wednesday night at Flynn Rink, they were paced offensively by perhaps the least likely name on the roster.

Standout senior net-minder Simone Bailey, a fixture in the crease this season for the Lady Raiders (12-3-5), put her versatility on display and bagged an improbable hat-trick, becoming one of the very few, if not the only, Bay State high school players to ever record a hat-trick and a shutout in the same season.

“We played (Bailey) out tonight, and she got a hat-trick,” said Watertown/Melrose head coach Steve Russo. “Nine of our goals came from players who normally don’t even play. It was just one of those games ... we’re a little bit stronger team than they are.”

The Lady Raiders scored five goals in the space of five minutes at one point during the second period.

Watching the smiling faces skating in the red, white and blue jerseys of Brookline High, you would never realize they were in the midst of taking a lopsided loss.

The Lady Warriors certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves during the non-league tilt, despite the fact they were outshot 51-23 and thoroughly overpowered by their opponents from the Middlesex League. All in all, there was nothing—save of course for the final score—to indicate that the Lady Warriors captured the program’s first victory in five seasons just over two weeks prior on Jan. 28, in a 6-5 slugfest with Peabody, or that they are a staggering minus-111 in terms of goal differential so far on the year.

On the contrary; for a team that’s been seeing a lot of lemons lately, the Brookline High girls hockey team has gotten quite adept at making lemonade. 

“Nothing bothers them,” said second-year Brookline head coach Sarah Musculus. “They just keep going out there ... it just makes me very proud to be their coach. It’s very hard to lose every game, especially by so much, but they always come out happy and ready to play ... that’s all you can ask for; just not being negative and always coming out and giving 100 percent with smiles on their faces.”

So, how bad was the thumping doled out by the Lady Raiders?

The 11-3 final score represents the largest loss of the year for 1-19 Brookline, and was laid on them by the third and fourth lines of Watertown/Melrose, rather than the more experienced mainstays of the starting lineup. Brookline also required a tremendous game between the pipes from junior goalie Megan Zak just to keep things as close as they were—a good thing too, as an official MIAA hockey game sheet only has room to record 11 goals per team. 

Freshman Marisa Russo bagged a brace for the Lady Raiders, while Charlotte Mays (1 goal, 2 assists), Erika Kelly (1 goal, 3 assists), Lauren Giordano (1 goal, 2 assists), Anna Morgan (1 goal, assist), Haley Gorman (1 goal) and Cali Inferrera (1 goal, 1 assist) all figured in the scoring as well.

Brookline received goals from Samantha Clark, Katherine Wolinski and Sydney Karnovsky—whose 22 goals on the season lands her squarely among EMass scoring leaders.

The biggest positive of the lopsided affair for Brookline was without question the stellar effort in net from Zak. The junior recorded 40 saves in the losing effort, and did all she could to keep this game from getting any more out of hand than it had to under extremely difficult circumstances.

“(Last night) was actually the first time she played the whole game,” said Musculus. “She did an amazing job. She’s never faced that many shots before, so she did a really good job to try and keep us in the game.

“We have another year with her, so we’re going to work on things, get better and look forward.”

Speaking of the future, Watertown/Melrose—whose only three losses have all come against the two teams above them in the Middlesex League standings (Woburn and Lexington)—will head into its final two regular season games, against Belmont at 6 p.m. on Saturday and St. Bernard’s/Gardner on Feb. 22, hoping that they prove to be better tune-ups for the MIAA North Sectionals than did Wednesday night's

“Our next two games should be a better test for us,” said Russo. “And then we’ll just get ready for the tournament.”

As for the Lady Warriors, coach Musculus understands that in order to move a mountain, you must first start by carrying away small stones. That is the approach that Brookline seems poised to employ in order to scale the peak before them, and reach at least a plateau of competitiveness, if not yet a pinnacle of success.

“We always do small goals,” she explained. “Every period we set little goals, we try to achieve them, we do achieve them, the girls are happy, and that makes me happy.”