As the defending State Catholic Champions and sitting atop Division 1, one might think that St. Joe’s is the team to beat, but that’s not how the Marauders think.
“We’re in a dogfight right until the very end”, St. Joe’s Head Coach Rich Crozier said. “We’re still climbing the mountain.”
On Thursday night in a rare regular season matchup against the St. Francis Red Raiders, the Marauders played like a big dog and beat the Red Raiders 6-0 in Boys Federation Hockey action.
St. Francis played very tough to start the game as the Red Raiders successfully kept the Marauders out of the net for the first 15 minutes of the game. But, St. Joe’s kept the pressure going in the offensive zone and finally broke through when Jordan Weigand found Nathan Burke in front of the net to score. Soon after, the Marauders got the man-advantage and senior Trevor Conschafter converted to give St. Joe’s the 2-0 lead at the end of the first period.
Thanks to some confusion around the net sophomore Niko Pavicich slipped the puck by the goalie for the Marauders third goal. Less than two minutes later senior defenseman Seth Glanowski took a shot from the point that got through a few defenders and found its way into the net.
Glanowski, a three year player on the Fed team at St. Joe’s, is young man who according to his coach represents the values of his school very well.
“The one thing I appreciate about Seth is that his faith is really strong. The Lord comes first in his life”, Crozier said. “That’s really important for us as a Catholic school that God comes first in our lives.”
“Not many people get to play as a sophomore on the team, it’s really cool reminiscing about it now as a senior”, Glanowski said.
In the third, junior David Matthew made a great play stealing the puck in the Red Raider zone and converted on the chance. Before time expired Shane Scheeler and Spencer Frome found classmate Jimmy Grable for the final goal of the game.
The St. Joe’s offensive pressure lasted all night, as the Marauders took 61 shots on goal.
St. Francis knew they had a tall task on Thursday night. The Red Raiders play in Division 3 and rarely see teams as talented a St. Joe’s. But come playoff time, St. Francis will be facing a top Division 1 Catholic school foe.
“I think we played pretty well, but there’s absolutely room for improvement”, St. Francis Head Coach Tim Benner said. “St. Joe’s is a great team, they work hard and get to pucks, so we have a long way to go.”
According to Crozier the key to success this year is that everyone has been contributing. Thursday night’s win over St. Francis couldn’t have been a better example as 11 different players participated in the six Marauder goals.
“It took us a little while to get there but everybody’s buying in”, Crozier stated. “We’re playing St. Joe’s Hockey right now.”
Glanowski echo his coach’s comments.
“It was a great team effort out there”, Glanowski said. “St. Francis fought real hard, but we did what we needed to do in order to get a win.”
St. Joe’s has some tough games coming up as they head into the home stretch of the regular season. The key to keeping the success going and heading back to the Catholic State Title game, is that self-interest needs to be put aside.
“These guys made a decision to play St. Joe’s, so they have to put individual aspirations to the side”, Crozier said. “Team first.”
“We just need to play hard and stay consistent”, Glanowski said.
The Marauders will be back at the Northtown Center on Saturday as they face Hamburg at 1pm. St. Francis will face West Seneca East at the HarborCenter Sunday at 6:30pm.