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THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2021 Page 7 Sachems fall twice at Hillie Tourney T By Greg Phipps he Saugus High School hockey team hit a bump in the road after opening the 2021-22 season with two straight wins. After dropping a close 4-2 decision at Essex Tech, their first loss of the season, last Friday, the Sachems came up short twice at the annual Hillie Christmas Tournament in Haverhill. Saugus was blanked by a 7-0 count against Winnacunnet, N.H., in the first round on Monday and followed that up with a 4-1 defeat at the hands of North Andover in Wednesday’s consolation game. The losses put the Sachems at 2-3 overall on the early season. The trio of defeats was preceded by a 3-1 victory over Pentucket back on Dec. 22 at the Malden Valley Forum. Sauthis season with an 8-2 rout of Lynn. Along with Ventre, Ryan Ragus broke open a 1-1 deadlock with two third-period goals. Captain Massey Ventre netted two scores and Jason Monahan added the other tally. Head Coach Jeff Natalucci said before the season that this year’s squad is focused on contending for a spot in the postseason tourney. The Sachems finished with four wins in last season’s COVID-shortened campaign. They opened World Series Park looks for public’s help in catching players who vandalized the playing field a year ago; suspect photos released (Editor’s Note: World Series Park issued the following statement this week along with security film photos of suspects involved in a vandalism and break-in incident in October of last year.) O n Sunday, October 25, 2020 at noon, four people broke into the World Series Park field. They forced open the third base dugout gates and proceeded to do batting practice on the field for about a half hour. The field had its last games the previous day and was closed for the season. Posted signs state “when the gates are locked the field is closed.” Only teams who are scheduled are allowed to use the field. Damage was done to the hasps that secure the dugout gates. All of this was recorded on surveillance video. Saugus Police were provided with this video, but to date no one has been identified as those shown committing the breaking and entering. “This type of behavior makes me sick,” World Series Park Superintendent Bob Davis said after discovering the damage later that day. gucci and Chris Regnetta are sharing the leadership role as captains, as the Sachems move on to face Marblehead next Wednesday at the Salem State University rink. The Magicians were 1-4 overall as of this week (getting their first win over Beverly on Monday), so the Sachems will have their sights set on achieving victory number three when the two teams collide on Wednesday. Thus far, Saugus has netted 14 goals and allowed 18 over the first five contests. The seven given up against Winnacunnet contributed a lot to the goals-against number. Looking ahead, the Sachems have a road game against the Lynn Jets next Saturday, Jan. 8, at Connery Rink and then play their first home game against Swampscott on Jan. 12 at Kasabuski Arena. The Swampscott game kicks off a stretch of six straight home games for the Sachems. FROM THE VANDAL VIDEOS: Surveillance camera security film footage shows suspects who broke into World Series Park in October of last year. (Courtesy photo to The Saugus Advocate) “Such lack of respect for the park that provides a first-class facility for the youth of Saugus to play baseball blows my mind. I work very hard to maintain the park and then for someone to come along and do something like this is unacceptable,” Davis said. “This is like someone breaking into your yard or your house. We have a very good security system with cameras that show all areas during the day and night. Anyone who causes problems will be seen. We did not publish the pictures at the time but choose to do so now,” he said. “I did provide these photos to adult leagues in the area but they weren’t able to identify the four people.” Anyone with any knowledge of this who can identify those who caused the damage and trespassed is asked to contact Saugus Police. MBTA wins award from TransitCenter for ‘Best Transit Street Upgrades’ in the nation T he MBTA along with its employees, municipal partners and advocates, celebrated special recognition for transit-priority design from TransitCenter, a national foundation that supports improving American public transit in cities. TransitCenter presented the MBTA with the Award for Best Transit Street Upgrades at its annual Frequency Awards ceremony to recognize outstanding achievements in the transit industry, which was hosted on social media. “This award comes at the end of what has been a banner year for the MBTA when it comes to transforming our bus system,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak. “In addition to partnering with the City of Boston to launch the center-running bus lanes on Columbus Ave., we have added nine miles of bus lanes across the region, nearly doubling the region’s bus priority network in 2021. This work would not have been possible without the commitment of the MBTA’s world-class staff of transit professionals and the leadership of our municipal partners. We thank TransitCenter for this prestigious honor.” The MBTA, the city of Boston, neighbors and advocates celebrated the launch of Columbus Avenue’s transformative, center-running bus priority corridor last month. The nearly mile-long, center-running bus priority facility between Franklin Park and Jackson Square Station includes enhanced bus stop amenities, accessible boarding islands, traffic calming measures and improved pedestrian safety treatments. In order to realMBTA | SEE PAGE 13

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