The Walpole Girls hockey team failed to rise to the challenge of defeating the defending Eastern Mass Champions, Falmouth.  Walpole was looking for revenge after a hard fought loss in the playoffs last year to Falmouth.  The Clippers came out with a victory last season after a shootout; then, moved on to the Garden and competed in the Division 2 State Championship.  Last year, the Falmouth Girls hockey team had many strong underclassmen, including a young goalie, who all returned this season, making the already strong Falmouth line-up even stronger.

Falmouth played hard right from the beginning.  Within the first three minutes of the game, Falmouth had already scored twice, the first goal off of a tip from a shot and the second goal – 20 seconds later – slipped in past senior Captain goalie Bethany Welch during a scrum in front of the net.  After a good penalty kill by Walpole, Falmouth was able to put their third shot behind Welch, with a shot from the blue line, which snuck its way through the goal-tender’s pads.  Shortly after, Walpole stepped up their game during a power play for the Rebels, with many good shots on net and several scoring opportunities, but were unable to convert these opportunities into goals.  At the end of the first period both teams had equal shots on net, nine, despite the lopsided score.