Mansfield Varsity Hockey Beats Franklin 4-3

The Mansfield High hockey team earned the first Hockomock League championship in the program’s history with a hard-fought 4-3 victory over rival Franklin in a league contest on Saturday night at the Foxboro Sports Center.

The win gave the Hornets the inaugural Large School Division championship, improving them to 14-1-1 overall, 10-1 in the league and 7-0 in the division. With the loss, the Panthers fell to 10-3-1 overall, 8-2-1 in the league and 5-2-1 in the division.

Mansfield’s only loss this winter came 2-1 during a league battle in Canton on January 22. The deadlock was against a talented Bridgewater-Raynham team, 6-6, during a non-league game on December 29 at the Foxboro Sports Center.

The Hornets put themselves in a position to win the outright Large School Division crown on Saturday by defeating the Panthers, 4-1, on January 30 at the Sgt. Pirelli Veterans Memorial Rink in Franklin.

Sophomore center Brendan Murphy scored a pair of key third-period goals and also added an assist for Mansfield on Saturday night. Senior forward Colin Yanovitch had one goal and one assist, while junior forward Steve Folan scored the other Hornet goal.

In his first year as the team’s starter, sophomore goalie Richard Shipman continued his terrific 2010-11 campaign with an impressive 30-save performance against Franklin.

Following a very physical and scoreless first period between these two fierce rivals, Mansfield scored a pair of goals in the second period to take a 2-0 lead.

Yanovitch gave the hosts a 1-0 lead with a goal off assists from Murphy and junior defenseman Jason Collins. Three minutes later, Folan’s goal made it 2-0 as senior defenseman Mike Connolly got the assist.

Facing a program that has been successful for several years, Mansfield knew there would be a response from Franklin and that point came in the third period. And the Panther response came in a flash as the visitors scored twice in the span of just 10 seconds to tie the game at 2-2.

Following the second Franklin goal, Mansfield head coach Rick Anastos called a timeout. The break helped as a short time later Mansfield took the lead for the remainder of the game when Murphy scored his first goal off an assist from Yanovitch.

The Hornets scored a much-needed insurance goal in the late stages of the game as Murphy notched his second score with just 1:51 remaining in the contest.

In the final minute of regulation, Franklin pulled their goalie and added an extra attacker in hopes of scoring two goals to tie the game. The Panthers did score once to make it 4-3, but Shipman and the Hornet defense held off the visitors for the win and the first league championship in the program’s history.

 Mansfield won’t have long to enjoy this victory as the team has four games over the span of six days this week. That stretch will begin on Monday when the Hornets travel to Aleixo Arena in Taunton to face Attleboro in a Large School Division contest at 2 p.m. Mansfield will then host Quincy in a non-league game on Wednesday at 4 p.m. at the Foxboro Sports Center before entertaining Cohasset in a non-league contest on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in Foxboro.

The Hornets will then get another shot at Canton, looking to avenge their only loss of the season when they face the Bulldogs for the Hockomock League Cup on Saturday.

The Bulldogs, the defending league and Division 2 state champions, captured the Small School Division crown this winter. Canton currently has a record of 11-2-2 overall, 9-1 in the league and 5-0 in the division.