The Pope Francis boys hockey team nearly gave Massachusetts the perfect ending to its underdog story. Nevertheless, the Cardinals surprised a lot of people in the hockey scene around the Bay State.
Pope Francis made its first-ever Super 8 tournament appearance and made its season last as long as possible. Ultimately, its season ended with a 2-1 overtime loss to No. 2 seed and Eastern Mass. powerhouse BC High at TD Garden, but when a game is that close for a team that little was expected out of headed into the tournament, there’s no shame in that level of performance.
"I couldn’t be more proud of our guys," Pope Francis head coach Brian Foley said. "They work hard. I thought they really had a great stretch run there with those five games in the single elimination. I think they worked hard and developed a great bond and spirit within the team. They were really a tough out at the end of the year."
Consider this: Not only had the Cardinals never been to the Super 8 before, but they were the bottom seed, No. 10. In the first official round of the Super 8 tournament, BC High shellacked them, 6-1, and yet, just a couple of weeks later, Pope Francis gave BC High the most competitive game it had all tournament.
To actually make it into the tournament, the Cardinals had to do a play-in game against the defending Div. 1A champs, the Arlington Spy Ponders. Pope Francis was able to do just that on Feb. 27, blanking Arlington with a 3-0 win, with Tyler Wilson, Brendan Nehmer and Makem Demers scoring goals and freshman goaltender Ben Zaranek recording 19 saves for a shutout win.
Pope Francis advanced to the first official round of the tournament, where it suffered a major setback with that loss to BC High. However, the team was able to rebound, ousting top-seeded Central Catholic in the loser’s bracket to keep its season alive. The Cardinals toppled the Super 8 favorite, 4-1.
It was a major accomplishment for Pope Francis not only because the Cardinals had lost twice to Central Catholic earlier in the season, but also because Central had yielded just 15 goals in 24 games prior to that matchup. Central Catholic amassed 11 shutouts and in none of its bouts did it allow more than two goals thanks to a stout defensive unit led by seniors Joseph Biddle (18 points) and Nick Foderaro (19 points) and junior Raymond Galasso (16 points). The loss to Pope Francis raised junior goaltender Matthew Pasquale’s goals allowed per game on the season to 0.73.
After that game, Pope Francis had some serious momentum. The team took care of St. John’s Prep and Hingham with ease, winning 5-1 and 6-0, respectively.
With six seniors on this year’s team, one positive takeaway from the tournament for Pope Francis has to be that it was the youngest team competing in the Super 8. This means Pope Francis has to be an early favorite to make it back next year, even without the contributions of Nehmer, defenseman Jake King, forwards Brian Campbell, Trevor Crawford and Ryan Crawford and netminder Brendan Maymon.
"They got us somewhere we’ve never been before," Foley said. "They’re six great kids that are great hockey players. Their teammates love and respect them and they’re going to be missed They have a lot to be proud of."
The Cardinals likely will return three of its top four scorers in juniors Demers (23 goals, 25 assists), Max Cocchi (13 goals, 34 assists) and John Tavella (15 goals, 27 assists); all but one of their defensemen and their three primary goaltenders: freshman Zaranek (1.36 GAA), sophomore Gil Markman (2.64 GAA) and junior Victor Larssen (2.11 GAA). If this is any indication, they are a team to watch closely in the future.
South Shore dream team
Ultimately, it was the BC High Eagles who were able to win the Super 8 title this season — and they did so with some of the top players from points south of Boston.
Abington’s Mav Woods turned out to be the hero for the Eagles in overtime, burying the game-winning goal on a play started by sophomore defenseman Mike Adamson of Quincy.
To make it to that point, it took some third-period heroics from the Eagles. This included a game-tying goal from senior forward Joe Dragon, a Milton native, with 50.2 seconds left in regulation. The Eagles pulled Duxbury native and junior goaltender Luke Garrity (13 saves) from the net to get an extra attacker, and Dragon proved they made the right choice.
Ironically, this year’s Eagles squad had only three players from Boston on it: senior defensemen Andrew McDonough and Owen Callow and junior forward Matt Lakus. Of the 27 players listed on the Eagles roster, 21 of them (77.8 percent) are from Norfolk County, Plymouth County or Bristol County.
The team’s success this year illustrates the South Shore’s hockey prowess as much as the Hanover boys, Marshfield boys, Plymouth South boys and Canton girls programs making it to the the title games of their respective divisions.
The Eagles might have had nine seniors on their roster this season, but this does not mean they are going to be wiped out next season. After all, they had plenty of young talent on this year’s championship squad, including seven freshmen on varsity.
Public school shines
In 2017, Arlington became the third public school ever to win a Super 8 title, proving how difficult it is for just one town to win the tournament. Of course, a public school did not win it this year, but three of them made it into the final eight-man bracket.
Most notably, the Hingham Harbormen were the first team in the tournament to knock down top-seeded Central Catholic. In the battle of two defensive stalwarts, the Harbormen came up with a 1-0 win, which is a good reflection of the defensive-first style of hockey the Harbormen have thrived with under head coach Tony Messina.
Senior Robbie Kornack recorded eight shutouts in net during the season, including the one against Central Catholic. His twin brother Tommy Kornack (14 points) was the team’s defensive captain, and he and junior Jake Higgins (18 points) played major roles in the team’s defensive success.
Hingham’s only losses in the tournament came against BC High and Pope Francis. Had the Harbormen beat the Cardinals, they would have gotten to play at TD Garden for the title. That said, there is still a case to be made that the Harbormen were the top public school in the state this year because they played well in the Super 8.
A major reason why Hingham is able to enjoy the magnitude of success it has year after year is because of a brutal schedule. Instead of playing a mainstream Patriot League slate like Hingham does in other sports, the boys hockey team opts for an independent schedule where it hand-picks many of the hardest opponents in the state, incentivizing their players to stay in town instead of opting for one of the Catholic schools up north.
The Harbormen were not the only public school to earn an invite to the Div. 1A tournament this season; Andover and Burlington both competed in it as well.
