From the sound of the first face-off, both teams knew it would be a blood match. Players getting crushed into the boards, open ice hits, trash talk and any other physical elements of the game of hockey.

The varsity Hockey team beat Wootton 6-1 Nov. 14. The team out shot its rival 30 shots to 15 as the team cruised past Wootton to get the win.

“Coming into the game we had some confidence after beating Whitman and coming close with Gonzaga,” senior captain Ross Allen said. “We knew that if we played hard and played our game, we would come out with good results.”

Junior Trevor Dixon carried the puck behind the opposing net and hit teammate Chris Barber for the one-timer goal; it was the first goal of the game for the Bulldogs with four minutes left in the first period. Shortly after, CHS scored another goal with just over a minute left to play. However, right as the Bulldogs established a two goal lead, Wootton scored a lucky fast break goal that just slid through junior goalie Markus Hurd’s legs, shortening the lead to one.

There were four power plays in the first period alone, two for each team, and several Wootton players were in the penalty box at one time due to rough play. Despite all of this physical play and headhunting, the Bulldogs led after the first period 2-1.

“We needed to come out full speed and play our game from the start,” junior Zach Ruvo said.

Of course, the second period started off with another penalty against the Bulldogs, but CHS easily stopped the Patriot charge. With 10:10 left in the period, CHS became man up once again, but could not convert as senior captain Jake Arden and the bulldogs fired shots at the Wootton goalie. As 2:35 remained in the second period, Barber laid a vicious hit on an opponent into the boards, giving Wootton a power play. Only 45 seconds later, CHS received another penalty, which would give Wootton a three on five advantage. Luckily for the Bulldogs, they were able to kill the penalties.

“We did a good job of shutting down their team defensively, but we could have set up the puck and executed better offensively in the first two periods,” senior captain Ross Allen said.

Right from the get-go of the third period CHS started to gain momentum rapidly. In the span of under a minute, Dixon, junior Charlie Butler and freshman Jack Taylor all had goals of their own, giving the Bulldogs a spark they needed to pull away from Wootton.

“We started out slow, which kept them in the game, but we broke the game out in the third with some quick goals to gain momentum,” senior Justin Spivak said.

The game began to slow down due to the large lead, but the physicality remained nothing short of brutal. Wootton began to look tired and look as if they wanted to get out of the game without the embarrassment of this loss. However, the Bulldogs remained sharp as Dixon expanded the lead to 6-1 with 7:33 left in the game.

“We tried to stay focused on maintaining the lead and keeping the lead up,” junior Mark Weinstein said. “We had to make sure we were looking forward, not back, and to make sure we kept working hard and weren’t getting complacent.”

By the time the game had ended, both teams were banged up and tired. But in the end, CHS finally beat Wootton after losing to them twice in the regular season, and in the county playoffs 4-2 last year. CHS looks to use this win as momentum to thrive for the duration of the season against future opponents.

“This win for us definitely builds our confidence as a team,” Ruvo said. “It’s a message to all other teams that the Dawgs are coming.”