Knights Hockey Defends City Title

By Peter Barbieri '10 

The Knights started their title defense with a sweep of St. Peter’s Boys High School (Staten Island) in a best-of-three series with convincing victories of 6-2 and 7-0 to return to the Catholic High School Hockey League (CHSHL) “B” Division Championship. Xavier was eager to repeat as champions, but would have to take on a formidable opponent in St. Francis Prep. In Game 1 of the best-of-three series, the Knights cruised past St. Francis with a 6-2 victory at Bayonne Ice Rink. This set the stage for Game 2 in front a great crowd of fans, families, students, alumni, and teachers. St. Francis drew first blood with a goal halfway through the first period. However, the Terriers’ lead would not last for long as George Clark ’16 tied the game up with 6:00 minutes to play in the first period. Soon after, Matthew Owen ’17 followed Clark’s goal with a goal of his own to put the Knights on top, 2-1, with 4:00 minutes to play in the first period. At the end of the second period, Brian Ostrander ’16 added an insurance goal for the Knights with an excellent wrist shot to increase Xavier’s lead to 3-1.

St. Francis did not go down quietly and managed to cut the deficit to 3-2 with a goal at the 5:40 mark of the third period. The Terriers had a few chances at the end, but Xavier goalie Matt Erhard ’16 was standing on his head between the pipes and was able to preserve the victory for the Knights. Captain Tyler D’Agostino '15 sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with a few seconds remaining in the game. D’Agostino said the reason Xavier repeated as champions was because “everyone on the team played their roles, worked hard, and believed in one another.” It was a great performance by the Knights as they repeated as CHSHL “B” Division Champions. After a slow start to the season, the Knights never looked back, winning 12 straight regular-season games and going undefeated in postseason play. Congratulations to the Xavier Knights varsity hockey team! (For photos from the championship game, visit our Flickr album. To read The Tablet's coverage, click here.)

In other athletic action last weekend, the varsity basketball team finished its season with a 13-12 record after a tough quarterfinal loss to Monsignor Scanlan, 54-38, in the Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) “A “playoffs. The score was not indicative of how close the game really was. Xavier played very well defensively but had a difficult time scoring. "Although the playoff game didn't finish the way we would have liked, Coach Dolan and I were very happy with the progress the team made throughout the season,” said Coach Joe McGrane. This year, the Knights were a young team with only two seniors, Ryan Kennedy ’15 and Joe Santangelo ’15; the rest were juniors and sophomores. Both Kennedy and Santangelo exemplified leadership and hard work throughout their time at Xavier. Coach McGrane was voted CHSAA Coach of the Year for the second year in a row and will be inducted into the CHSAA Hall of Fame this coming May. Ryan Kennedy ’15 and Christian Raslowsky ’16 were named to the CHSAA “A” All-Division team. (This was Kennedy’s second time being named to the team.) Kennedy will also participate in this year’s NYC Mayor’s Cup, which showcases the city’s top basketball talent and features the best seniors from both the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) and CHSAA leagues. Congratulations to both Coach McGrane and the varsity basketball team on a great season!

For other athletic news and updates, visit the Xavier Athletics website.