The Padua Franciscan Bruins are coming off a tough season that saw them win only three games and get eliminated in the first round of both the league and district tournaments, but third-year head coach Perry Cohagan is not taking his foot off the gas.

Cohagan put together an ambitious non-league schedule for Padua that features six different in-season tournaments including the most prestigious and competitive in the state – their own Padua Holiday Hockey Tournament later this month.

That is, of course, in addition to the gauntlet that is the GLHL league schedule.

The Bruins’ head coach says his roster, while still young, is bigger and stronger than in past seasons.  He feels junior Seth Kaiser is among the top defenseman in the GLHL and his classmates Giovanni Iannelli and Drew Lampa provide physicality and creativity, respectively. 

Padua returns only 11 players and, while Cohagan points to freshmen Shane Helman and Liam Conway as new faces to watch, the Bruins are pretty green – especially between the pipes.  Goaltender Michael Mason got into just three varsity games as a freshman a year ago.  He is joined on the roster by a pair of freshmen goaltenders:  Aidan Knox and Dylan Brown.

But while the Bruins were handed some one-sided losses early in the season, they did pick up an impressive early-season win over league rival Walsh Jesuit and it was Knox who stepped up in that one.

The frosh goalie faced a barrage of 47 Warriors shots and turned away every last one.  Junior forward Conor Nagle scored both goals in the 2-0 win at the Walsh Thanksgiving Tournament.  Due to the tourney format, Knox even had to go an additional six minutes to record the shutout (17-minute periods).

While the points will not count in the GLHL standings.  It was big for Padua to get a quality win under its belt early in the season.  Hopefully it will lead to more as the season wears on.  They certainly will not lack for opportunities to go up against elite competition.

--- Scott Harrington for Ohio Hockey Digest