Senior Jed Robinson stopped all 19 shots by the Reading Rockets as the Winchester Sachems hockey team cruised to a 5-0 victory on opening night.

"Jed made the stops all night. He was very solid and was in good position all night," said Sachems' first-year coach Matt Spang.

The battle between the Rockets and Sachems had all the recipes for an opening night game. It was intense, fast-paced and very physical, but the Sachems capitalized on every opportunity while the Rockets did not.

"There was not much we did well tonight. Our compete level was not enough and we did not come ready to play," said Rockets Coach Mark Doherty.

The Sachems lit the lamp first with 2:05 remaining in the first period when freshman Dan Durgin scored on a feed from junior Mark Martignetti making it 1-0 in favor of the Sachems before the first intermission.

Midway through the second period, the Sachems came knocking again. Senior Dan Donovan scored at the 12:25 assisted by teammates Scott Carson and Matthew Gehrig. The Sachems continually contested Rockets' goalie, Andrew Keen, who kept Reading in the game as much as he could, saving 23 shots.

It did not get easier for the Rockets as the Sachems went on a power play late in the second period. Mark Martignetti and Peter Troiano set up freshman Nolan Redler to make it 3-0 Winchester.

Doherty was unhappy with the way his team could not respond.

"We had no offense and no defense but give them credit. We need more energy, we need to skate better, and get better at conditioning. Hopefully this was a wake-up call," said Doherty.

The third period was much of the same as the Sachems added two more goals by Donovan (unassisted) and Nick Ducharme, assisted by senior assistant captain Ryan McGoff and senior Colin Edwards.

The Sachems stressed defense from the start of preseason and their coach was very pleased with the outcome on opening night.

"I am very proud of our guys tonight. That is a good team we beat. We showed a lot of character as well," said Spang. "From day one we concentrated on defense. We also come to practice and skate," said Spang.

This was Spang's first victory as a Varsity head coach and he was relieved the first one was under his belt.

"It is always nice to get the first one," said Spang.