Brother Rice 3 Mona Shores 2 (OT)

More ravings from our roving reporter in Mona Shores Sailor country:

The new hospital where I am currently residing has been very helpful with my blogging. They bring us to the rink for MS hockey games, feed us microwaved pretzels during intermission, let us log on to the WMHSHB for updates, and have recently allowed me an extra half hour of computer time to complete my writeups. As you know, in blogging, it’s all about the computer time...

After Saturday nights game against the Warriors from Birmingham Brother Rice, many Sailors nay-sayers, doubters and misguided M-Liver’s are having their fill of crow today, after MS first put down one premier team in the state Friday night and then took another, the preseason Division 2 favorite Warriors, to the wire on Saturday. Brother Rice eventually prevailed in overtime, 3-2, but not until the Sailors gave them everything they could handle for over 51 minutes at the Lakeshore Sports Centre, before they made their escape into the night. The #3 ranked Warriors, who returned 14 starters (and eleven seniors) from a season ago including three all-state players, had already beaten last year’s state champs, Detroit Catholic Central, back in December. The Sailors were still recovering from an incredible effort on Friday night against OLSM. All the ingredients were there for a letdown by the Sailors.

My own personal bookie had the Warriors as an 8-1 favorite and I even noticed my mother-in-law was on the Bro Rice bandwagon, starting out the game sitting in the midst of the Warriors fans and waving orange and black pom poms. But there would be no letdown by the Sailors, as the coaching staff clearly had the kids ready to play and motivated for this cold war. The Warriors showed why they are one of the premier programs in the state early in the game, coming out full tilt and sniping away at the Sailors. Repeatedly rotating a forward in and out from the front of the net, many of the shots were coming from point blank range. But the young Scottie “Baby Teef” Tiefenthal, whose heart seemed to grow three sizes that day, denied shot after shot by the Warriors in the rope-a-dope first period. If the early strategy was to tire the arms of the Warriors by letting them shoot themselves out, it was working to perfection until 10:28 of the first, when #9 Brandon Contratto tipped a pass across the crease into the corner of the net. The Sailors had a number of scoring chances themselves in the opening period, with opportunities by Adam Meloche, JC Boyd, Brett Grevel, and Austin Zaloga; none of which was spectacular enough to warrant a nickname.

The second period, also known in MS hockey as the Brooklyn Bagel Power Play Period, caused further consternation for the Sailor Student Section and their dynamic, yet reclusive leader, Jesse Hanson, with BBR again outshooting the Sailors and again striking at the heart of MS with an ugly goal by #15 Nick Tenetti. Tenetti somehow had time to turn his body, pump-fake three times, and re-lace his loose skate before firing a slapshot on the ice surface past Tiefenthal.But before any Sailors fair-weather fans had time to pretend they may have left their headlights on and head for the exits, the man-child David “Chick(en) Magnet” Coppock tipped one in with just over 5 minutes remaining in the period. Coppock was aided by the new Special Assistant to the Scorer Mike “Soto-Matic” Soto and Drew “Hop” Skocelas. The SSS (Sailors Student Section) roared to life and began body surfing to show their approval. Curiously, BBR changed goalies at this point, substituting Junior Jareth Glanda for Zach Fieroh.

In the third and commonly final period of play, back and forth rushes by both teams were featured. Just as in the 2nd period, officials, through a variety of hand signals, winks and nods to one another, agreed to put away their whistles and let the players determine the outcome. The clock seemed to be running at twice normal speed as the third period faded into oblivion. But only seconds before I hit “send” on my text message to the Chronicle reporter with the final score, MS abandoned their net, contributed another attacker, and reaped the rewards as Adam “OshKosh” Meloche broke away at the blue line, received a pass from Soto, and buried it with authority into the net, sending the home crowd into pandemonium just this side of rioting.

The eight minute overtime presented MS with multiple scoring chances, and the game remained tied up at 2 all with under 2 minutes to play, until one official broke the code and signaled an infraction on a Sailor defenseman for a trip behind the net. BBR smelled blood, and in a flurry of activity in front of the net, with bodies stacked up and Tiefenthal, no longer able to see the puck but forced to rely solely on listening for it, was scored on by Warrior sparkplug Bandon Contratto, who went solo at 6:43 in OT for the death blow. A BBR fan also won the 50-50 drawing to add insult to injury.

For the Sailors, in a hit filled contest with several deserving candidates, the hit of the game went to Mike Soto who went yard with 2:50 remaining in the third and struck a Warrior wall (#18) so hard he erased all of his childhood memories. Shots for the game favored BBR by a tally of 32 - 21. With only 4 penalties the entire night, it was a tribute to the sportsmanship of both teams who played a clean but physical game.