Essex boys, Spaulding girls win D1 state hockey titles

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - After quick flurry of goals, the Spaulding girls hockey team jumped out to a lead they would never give up, earning the program’s first Division 1 title.

“It’s kind of crazy,” 8th-grade forward Amelia Healey said. “I never thought our team would be here and I never thought we were going to win the state championship. So it’s really exciting.”

“We wanted to get here so bad,” senior captain Rebecca McKelvey said. “We have a sign in the locker room that says ‘Get to the Gut.’ So that was the plan. And you know, undefeated season again, just like my freshman year. Couldn’t be happier for the team, couldn’t be happier for the seniors I’m graduating with.”

In the boys game, it was scoreless all the way into the third, before the defending champion Essex Hornets got on the board and sealed it with an empty-netter.

“It means a lot, a lot of people didn’t think we were going to be as good this year because we lost 10 seniors,” senior Gavin Blondin said. “But at the start of the year, I looked at the team we had and I knew we could do it. It just means a lot.”

“I was really just thinking about what my celly was going to be, to be honest, when I scored,” senior Brendan Dubray said. But you know, I was really just more happy that the boys were up and about to win a championship.”

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