CANTON — St. Mary’s boys hockey coach Mark Lee knew that his team would have to play its best game of the season Saturday, and the Spartans did just that as they knocked off undefeated Archbishop Williams by a score of 4-1 to win the CCL Cup title on the road at the Canton Sportsplex.
“I’ve got to give my guys a lot of credit, they came out on fire and they didn’t back down after Williams scored that early goal,” said Lee. “This game was like a full season of work all coming together, and we just played three solid periods of hockey. We were active around the net and we left it all on the ice, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Kyle LoNigro scored two goals to pace the offense for St. Mary’s, while Colby Magliozzi had one goal and two assists. Jake Desmarais scored one goal, while Dante D’Ambrosio had two assists. Brady Bullock and Harrison Kinne each had one assist, while goalie Owen Giangrande earned the victory in net.
It was Williams that struck first in this one, getting a goal from Christian Koylion just under two minutes into the game. But the Spartans didn’t let that slow them down, as St. Mary’s got a goal just one minute later when D’Ambrosio found the back of the net to knot the score at 1-1.
The second period was a critical one for the Spartans. In addition to killing off two penalties in the frame, St. Mary’s got a go-ahead goal from LoNigro with about 11 minutes left to go up 2-1. Right after killing off the second penalty, Magliozzi escaped from the penalty box and scored to put the Spartans ahead 3-0.
“We killed off those two penalties and only allowed them to get three shots during that time,” said Lee. “To be able to do that and then tack on those two goals was huge for our momentum.”
The Spartans were able to hold on from there, getting one final goal from LoNigro to seal the victory with about three minutes to play.
St. Mary’s wraps up its 2020-2021 season with a 6-6-3 record and will take a lot of positive momentum into the offseason.
“There were a lot of ups and downs in this crazy season, and these guys will be telling their kids about this years from now,” said Lee. “We went up against some really tough teams — Pope Francis twice, Austin Prep three times, Williams three times — and we became much better because of it. We’re losing seven seniors and that’s always tough, but we’ve got a great returning group and we’re excited about the future.”