skip navigation
|

Recent Olentangy Orange News

Olentangy Orange coach J.D. Damrath resigns after two seasons

By www.thisweeknews.com 04/15/2020, 8:00pm EDT

Pioneers won 22 games, CHC White Division

J.D. Damrath stepped down as coach of the Olentangy Orange hockey team April 15 after guiding the Pioneers to a bounce-back season.

After two seasons, Damrath said it was time for the team to have a new voice.

“I have mixed emotions about it because we have had a heck of a run,” he said. “You fall in love with it, and you love the kids. Sometimes a different voice coming in can help a lot.

Read the full story at ww.thisweeknews.com

 

"Semifinal Saturday" Coming Up at District Tournaments

By Scott Harrington 02/27/2020, 11:00pm EST

Statewide field will be reduced to eight teams this weekend

OK, let’s get this out of the way first.  It’s not, technically “Semifinal Saturday” in that not all eight district semis will take place that day, but “Semifinal-Saturday-Except-for-One-Game-Friday-and-the-CHC-has-their-Quarterfinals-Saturday-and-Semis-Sunday” did not have much of a ring to it.

The point is this:  It’s getting down to the short strokes in the OHSAA post-season and, by this time Sunday, we will have the matchups for the four district final games to be played next weekend.

There are 20 teams still alive as I post this Friday morning:  Four each in the Brooklyn, Kent and Sylvania districts and eight in Columbus.

Sylvania started with a smaller field and Brooklyn/Kent played mid-week quarterfinal games, so that’s how they trimmed their respective fields faster than in Columbus, where Saturday's winners play again Sunday to determine the two finalists.

There were no huge surprises Tuesday night.  The upper seeds Saint Ignatius (Brooklyn #1) and Mentor (Kent #2) advanced easily.  Shaker Heights defeated Great Lakes Hockey League rival Walsh Jesuit, 5-1, in what was the marquee matchup of the evening and Amherst Steele won their 26th game of the season, 5-3, over Strongsville to earn a date with Ignatius Saturday.

Comets head coach Steve Morris said Amherst concentrated on defense and made good on their offensive opportunities - the same formula his group will try to follow against the 4x defending state champions.

“They are excited to play such a good team and are looking forward to the challenge,” Morris said. 

The most anticipated tilt of the Brooklyn District so far came on Wednesday with St. Edward and Holy Name colliding in the quarterfinals to write the next chapter in their district tournament rivalry.  The Eagles prevailed, 3-0, behind senior goaltender Nate Cappellazzo's shutout and will play Rocky River next on Saturday.  The Pirates, who topped Avon Lake, 7-3, have scored 217 goals this season.

St. Edward head coach Tim Sullivan said the Eagles were able to concentrate on taking space away from Holy Name stars Brennan Dickey and Milo Henry, but Rocky River spreads their scoring around.

Sullivan saw River twice last year when he was behind the Holy Name bench - including in the district tournament.

"The team looks the same on paper," he said.  "But their skill is on another level now.  They are a different team."

Over in Kent, the stage was set for a SOM Center Semi as Gilmour Academy and University School rolled over Orange and Hudson by a combined 16-0 count.

Columbus District Update

By Scott Harrington 02/24/2020, 3:15pm EST

17 teams eliminated in first two days of action

I love the way the Columbus District bracket is set up.  In almost every instance there was a Friday or Saturday first-round game with the winner advancing to a Saturday or Sunday second round game against a higher-seeded team that had a bye.

Since there were 25 teams participating instead of 24, that meant there was one exception where both second-round opponents had played the day before and that was the SWOHSHL champion Talawanda Brave advancing past Springboro and Thomas Worthington.

So now, after the first weekend of action, we are down to a nice, clean, eight team bracket with four quarterfinal games on the docket for Saturday, February 29 followed by the two semifinal games Sunday March 1.

Here is a listing of the substantial upsets that came out of the first 17 games of district play:  Dublin Coffman over Dublin Jerome (5-1)…that’s it.

No, I’m not counting #17 Bishop Watterson’s 6-4 win over #15 Olentangy as an “upset”.  It is interesting to note, however, that it was the only other game where the lower seed advanced – even in the first-round games that pitted close seeds against each other. 

Things have gone largely to form up to this point.  So, while there was some reinforcement as to why we play the games, we could have just seeded an eight-team quarterfinal field and have been 87.5% right…

Here’s the lineup for Friday’s quarterfinals at Ice Haus:

2:00 p.m. #1 Upper Arlington vs. #9 Talawanda

4:00 p.m. #4 New Albany vs. #14 Dublin Coffman

6:00 p.m. #2 St. Charles vs. #6 Olentangy Orange

8:00 p.m. #3 Olentangy Liberty vs. #7 Olentangy Berlin

The UA-Talawanda winner will play the New Albany-Coffman winner in first semifinal Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

|