Telegraph photo by TOM KING The Admirals are a happy group after Wednesday night's 7-1 win over Nashua North-Souhegan.

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – The Admirals used a speedboat on Wednesday night.

A fast start enabled the Alvirne-Milford hockey team to take control early and sail to a 7-1 win over a struggling Nashua High School North-Souhegan squad at Skate 3.

The game was sloppy as the two teams combined for 17 penalties (nine for the Saber-Titans).

The Admirals started strong, with two goals eight seconds apart in the first two minutes. Anthony DeRosa scored the first of his two goals on the night at 1:40 when Saber-Titans goalie Jack Casey (21 stops) was unaware DeRosa was coming from behind the net. Then Jake Natola scored on a bang-bang play seconds later off an Anthony Viola feed and it was 2-0.

Viola made it a 3-0 game at 11:15 of the first. Don’t look now but the Admirals are now 6-3-2 in Division II.

“We’re a fast team, we’re usually pretty aggressive,” said Admirals coach Matt Simpson, who got 21 saves from his goalie Jackson Dowd. “We’ve got kids who can put the puck in the net. But we didn’t play great tonight. We were a little off our game.”

But not as far off as the Saber-Titans, now 2-8 after their sixth straight loss, were at the start. Remember, North-Souhegan was coming off a nine-day layoff.

“That break really hurt us,” Saber-Titans coach Josh Lavoie said. “We played really good against Concord, that’s momentum, and having those nine days off really slowed us down.”

Jared Egersheim ended a nine period scoring drought shorthanded, catching Admirals netminder Jackson Dowd napping at 4:57 of the second to give the Saber-Titans life at 3-1.

But nearly four minutes later the Admirals DeRosa zipped down left wing during a 4-on-4 to make it 4-1. Corey Girouard scored during a 5-on-3, assisted by Bobby Pace at 12:48 for a commanding 5-1 Admirals advantage.

Alvirne-Milford added two more goals in a penalty-marred third period, with Zach Girouard (11:58, Kevin Sullivan’s second assist) and Dylan Greenlaw (12:45) getting on the board off Titan backup netminder Robbie Morel.

But the strong start is what helped the home team.

“It’s the way we play,” Simpson said. “But we don’t like to play that style of game, we don’t like to be in the box, we like finesse and fast. We’ve got a long way to go.”

Newsletter