BURLINGTON – Undermanned and on the road, the Varsity Boston Brahmas (5-1-0) were put to the test on Sunday as they traveled to the Ice Palace in Burlington to face the South Middlesex Coyotes (2-4-0). The Coyotes made a good run, but in the end the Brahmas were able to keep their opponent at length and score a 4-1 win.

It was a troubling start for the Coyotes, a very early defensive lapse leading to a 2-on-1 for the Brahmas and a 1-0 lead following a rebound score by Steven Giardina just 21 seconds after the opening face-off. The host side quickly settled in, however, and the defense tightened, Giardina’s tally remaining the only scored through two periods.

South Middlesex used home ice and a numbers advantage to their favor as the game continued to try and wear down their opponent. Though they began to take over on the ice, they could not overtake the Brahmas on the scoreboard. Like the first, Boston scored early in the third to give themselves a 2-0 advantage. This time it was Jack Manning coming through with the goal at 0:15.

A nice feed from Galen Riley and upstairs strike by Jack Jenness at 4:46 had the Coyotes on the board and the Brahmas lead cut to 2-1. Yet, another deadly strike off a center-ice face-off had the lead back to two less than 10 seconds later as the Brahmas won the draw following Jenness’ tally and marched down the ice to make it 3-1 at 4:55.

The Coyotes pressed through the game’s final 10 minutes, but were unable to get any more pucks behind Brahmas netminder Kevin Stotts, who had come on in place of starter Matthew Aviles late in the second period. Boston then struck again to kill any hopes of a Coyotes’ rally, the puck seemingly out of nowhere finding its to Nicholas Richman who was alone in the slot and sent a wrist shot upstairs to set the score at its 4-1 final at 11:29.