Photo: Eight-grader Kate Townsend (right) celebrating her game-winner in Belmont High Girls’ Hockey 3-2 victory over Winchester

The best thing about the end of the Belmont vs. Winchester Girls Hockey tussle for the home team was the Marauders had seen the last of the Red and Black for this season.

After a combined 90 minutes over two highly competitive games concluding Saturday night, Feb. 1, the teams were separated by a single goal as the Marauders defended their undefeated 2024-25 campaign with a 3-2 victory played at the JAR (John A. Ryan Arena) in Watertown, thanks in large part to the goal-scoring prowess of the Marauders’ backline.

Sophomore Elise Lakin-Schultz, senior Thea Monovich, and 8th grader Kate Townsend’s game-winner connected from distance in each period as the trio of defenders provided the offense punch that propelled Belmont to its 13th victory with only an earlier tie against the Rossoneri to blemish its record.

The Marauders are 9-0-1 and atop the Middlesex Liberty table. They are ranked 13th in the Boston Globe Top 20 and 8th in the MIAA Division 1 Power Rankings.

“Winchester is a good team, and we had some kids who weren’t feeling well; they were under the weather tonight. When you have that, the sign of a great team is kids stepping up to fill those spots,” said second-year Head Coach Brendan Kelleher. “We got three goals by three different players, three on defense. And Jil [Costa, Belmont’s outstanding junior goaltender] did a great job stopping 22 shots. She gives you the confidence a team needs, which helps in these tight situations.”

At the start of the game, it was all Belmont as it controlled play up and down the ice. Just after the halfway point in the first, Lakin-Schultz launched a rocket of a slap shot that flew by senior goalie Claire Zhang to give the hosts the first goal in the rivalry.

But after a Belmont penalty two minutes later, the ice tilted toward Belmont’s end for the remainder of the period as Costa was required to be on her toe box as the Red and Black occupied their offense zone, at one point keeping the Marauders on the ice for two minutes.

Belmont regained the game’s momentum in the second and scored when co-captain Monovich got into a long rebound and ripped it home at the 10-minute mark. But as Carrie Bradshaw says, “And just like that … ” Winchester was back level. Just 18 seconds after Belmont’s second, knuckler from first-year defender Anna Beaudry handcuffed Costa, giving the Red and Black a lifeline at 2-1. Two and a half minutes later, while on the power play, Winchester knotted it up at two when a rugby scrum suddenly occurred in Costa’s crease, resulting in the puck – along with Belmont’s goalie – pushed into the back of the net with senior defender (yes, yet another from the D line!) Amelie Corvi credited with the goal.

For the remainder of the second and into the first half of the third period, the game was a toss-up, with both teams moving the puck into dangerous positions as Costa and Zhang held down the forts.

It took one of the youngest players on the ice to put her stamp on the game as Townsend took a pass from fellow Chenery classmate Mackenzie Tierney and placed her shot just under the crossbar with 10 minutes left on the scoreboard. While Belmont had two great chances that Zhang saved, they were not needed as Belmont’s defense stood solid as the clock hit triple zeros.

With the season down to a handful of games, the Marauders will see the likes of at Reading (9-5-0), Woburn (8-5-0), and Arlington (9-4-0) over the biweek. But Kelleher said he will not change his preparation with these challenging games before them.

“I always joke with the girls that we will do what’s on the back of my shampoo bottle: rinse and repeat,” he said. “We talk about working our systems, being aggressive, and keeping the fun meter on high. We don’t discuss wins and losses. They play the game, and at the end, we figure out who wins and who loses.”