LYNN – St Mary’s hosted and dominated Bishop Feehan in a Catholic Central League matchup on Wednesday night, 5-1.

“We play a certain way at St. Mary’s, and that’s blue collar hockey and gritty effort,” Spartans head coach Matthew Smith Sr. said. “Everyone in that locker room is committed to playing hard and the right way, and it showed up on the scoreboard today.”

There were five different goal scorers, five others recorded assists and goalie Matthew Boyer had 14 saves for the Spartans (4-4, 1-1). It was early and often as they put up three goals in the first 10 minutes of the contest.

The first came just 59 seconds in as sophomore left wing Cam Marchand caught a long-range pass from deep inside their own zone and showed off his speed to get by all the defenders and beat Feehan’s goalie to make it 1-0.

Seven minutes later, senior center Evan Toto took a beautiful set up pass by his right wing Finn Racki across the attacking zone, where Toto buried it from the bottom of the faceoff circle.

Sixty-one seconds later, it was Racki again, setting up a linemate with a pretty pass to gain another assist. This time he flawlessly executed a two-on-one and found left wing Colton Carpenter, who then slammed it in to make it 3-0, which is where the score stood after the first period.

Bishop Feehan (3-5, 1-2) came out swinging to start the second. Fifteen seconds in, left wing Brady Donovan shot a laser from just inside the blue line and it snuck past the goalie who was heavily screened in front to put the Shamrocks on the board. They continued to pepper the offensive zone, but that was their lone goal due to big saves and great team defense from St. Mary’s.

The Spartans, however, were able to get back multiple insurance goals later in the period. With just over five minutes to go, a big scrum in front of the Feehan net caused the puck to trickle out and find defenseman Matthew Ianotti, who sniped the top right corner for his first high school goal.

The other score came with 38 seconds left when right wing Cole Alexander came out of the penalty box at the same time as St. Mary’s gained possession of the puck. Center Stephen Nason connected with him, where Alexander undressed the goalie in front with multiple dekes to make it 5-1 at the end of the second to ensure the rout was back on.

“The boys were buzzing on the forecheck and backcheck, especially in the first period,” Racki said. “All talking and communicating. Coach tells us to go hard in practice, and it’ll make you work hard in the game, and that’s what we do and use our body and play gritty.”

Both teams will look to regroup as St. Mary’s travels to Pope Francis, while Feehan will host Archbishop Williams for their next respective opponents.

“We’ve been talking about standards of excellence, and for it to be against everyone we play, especially against Feehan, who is a solid league opponent, so it felt good to see their hard work be rewarded with a W,” Smith said.