The first state semifinal hockey was a matchup of the winners of the Sylvania and Brooklyn regions. The Toledo St. Francis de Sales Knights came into this game with a 24-11-3 record and faced the Cleveland St. Ignatius Wildcats at 26-8-0 entering Friday’s state semifinal. In the MyHockeyRankings.com OHSAA final rankings the Wildcats and Knights were #1 and #4, respectively.

The first period was fast paced action with both teams alternating goals. Scoring was initiated by St. Iganatius’ Dario Piazza with the feed from Sam Elwell and Braden Esenwine. Shortly afterward, Nathan Kozma for St. Francis evened up the score with the pass coming from Henry Wiercinski.

Neal Bartone got the first of his two goals unassisted. St. Francis got a goal from Jamison Rose on the power play with assists by Drew Tucker and Kozma. Bartone made it 3-2 with Piazza and Zack Bleick getting him the puck for the score.

The pace of the battle changed near the end of the first with the game becoming more physical resulting in several penalties in the second. The Wildcats took a two goal lead off the score from Adam Mustafa with the assists by Esenwine and Elwell.

With a goalie change by St. Francis and St. Ignatius needing to kill off multiple penalties, the Knights got back-to-back goals from Tucker (unassisted) and Jamison Rose (assists from Tucker and Zielinski) to make it tied at 4-4 through the second.

The third stanza was controlled by St. Ignatius. The Wildcats got a score from Zack Baker with the assist from Justin Frederick. Captain Piazza bookended the game by getting the first and last goals of the contest to make it a 6-4 final.

The second semifinal was between the Hunting Valley University School Preppers, winners of the Kent region, and the Columbus St. Charles Cardinals, tops of the Columbus region. The Preppers entered the game with a 35-3-0 record and ranked #2 in the MyHockeyRankings.com OHSAA last rankings. The Cardinals record leading up to this game was 24-11-3 and were #9 in the same rankings. 

The Preppers demonstrated a strong performance in all facets of their game. University School converted two goals in each period while surrendering none. Noah Caballero was in net for U.S. with the shutout.

Both scores in the first were short handed. Anthony Messina got the first tally off a feed from Sam Wade. The second was by Wade unassisted.

The middle period had Luke Palmer lighting the lamp off passes from Wade and Messina. Sam Robinson found the back of the net on the first of his two goals, both unassisted.

The third stanza had Carson Barlow dishing to Ethan Roberts. Scoring was closed out with Robinson’s second.

St Ignatius and University School will square off in the state championship. These teams have faced each other twice this season with a split between them. The Preppers won the first 5-4 and the Wildcats won the second matchup 1-0. With both teams familiar with each other the big game should be a great matchup for the top 2 ranked teams in the state.

--- Earl Hosack for Ohio Hockey Digest

photos: J. T. Hosack