The St. Charles Cardinals won the second district championship in school history with a 4-2 win over defending state champion Olentangy Liberty Saturday afternoon in Columbus.

The Columbus district final of the Ohio hockey championship brackets was a matchup of the top 2 seeds. The Olentangy Liberty Patriots came into this game as the #1 seed with a 24-11-0 record and faced the #2 seed St. Charles Cardinals at 23-11-3 entering Saturday’s district final. In the MyHockeyRankings.com OHSAA final rankings the Patriots and Cardinals were #5 and #9, respectively.

These teams met each other twice during CHC regular season action, splitting the games. This district matchup had St. Charles advancing with a 4-2 victory.

The first period was fast paced action by two teams that knew each other well. The only tally in the first was off the stick of Sean Moore for St. Charles with an assist by Luke Myers.

The second period became a more physical contest with several penalties and penalty kills. However, neither team found the back of the net in this period after several outstanding saves by the starting goalies, the Cardinals’ Dylan Fansler and the Patriots’ Caleb Ross.

Early in the third, Liberty appeared to score but the goalpost was dislodged prior to the puck going in to negate the goal. Shortly after, Nicholas Scharfenberger had a breakaway that he converted to give St. Charles a 2-0 lead. 

John Vincent III made it 3-0 from the slot off a nice pass from Danny Roncone. This led to Liberty bringing in Thomas Morgan in net.

Andrew Leonard brought his lunchbox and went to work in front of the goal. He battled to knock in a rebound of Brannon Spencer’s shot. Only a minute later, Liberty got their second goal from Jake Bacchus.

Needing a goal to tie it up, Liberty pulled their goalie with about two minutes remaining in regulation. The extra skater allowed extra pressure to be placed on Fansler but he held up to it. With under a minute left Roncone got an empty net goal to secure the 4-2 final score.

St. Charles Coach Danny Greiner stated the keys to this game were “Our effort, our team game. We talked all year about playing our style of hockey…aggressive on the forecheck, solid in our d-zone. I think today was a testament to us getting back to our basics and back to our game.

This game sets up a matchup with University School, the winner of the Kent district, in the state semi-final. They will meet on Friday March 8 at 4 p.m. at Nationwide Arena.

These two teams met earlier this season with University School getting the 3-1 victory. Both teams were missing players to injury in the earlier matchup. Hopefully both teams will be at full strength. 

--- Earl Hosack for Ohio Hockey Digest

PHOTO: Columbus Dispatch

Earl Hosack contributed to this story.

Defending OHSAA champion Olentangy Liberty, the current #1 seed and finalist in the Columbus Regional tournament, placed head coach Kevin Alexander on leave last week.

The Patriots, members of the Capital Hockey Conference and Greater Ohio Hockey League, played a pair of playoff games over the weekend with JV coaches Ryan Welsh and Jonathan Falvo serving on an interim basis behind the bench.

Liberty defeated Thomas Worthington and Olentangy Berlin to advance to Saturday's Regional Final against St. Charles.

The Patriots are attempting to defend their OHSAA championship after becoming the first team from Central Ohio to ever win the state tournament last year.

On Friday, Coach Alexander circulated the following letter to the Liberty Hockey Community, which includes a timeline:

2/23/2024:

Let me first start out by saying thank you to everyone in the Liberty Hockey Family. Coach Jack “Hoogie” Hoogeveen, Korms, Baggs, Mr. Bergy, Dougie and the group that started this great program. The great parent volunteers who built this amazing program and put in countless hours (you know who you are). It has been our honor to coach your kids and I hope we left them with life lessons they will never forget. For all the former captains of Liberty Hockey and former players who gave everything they had and left it all on the ice, thank you. And to the best dressed coach in the history of High School Hockey, who can rock the Air Jordan’s like nobody, we could not have done it without you. Coach Rich Smith it’s been my honor to have you on our staff, and I apologize you got tied up in this. You have been an amazing coach, person and a great addition to this program and have done nothing wrong. Jaclyn, Eric, and all the great coaches at Liberty High School, thanks for taking care of our great young men and thanks for putting them first. B$, you and your family are such an inspiration of what hockey is all about. Thank you for everything.

Although last season’s 1st ever Central Ohio Team state championship was amazing and HABE to the amazing kids who made the coaching staff look like geniuses with all the Coach of the Year and team honors, I do have 1 regret……Coach Darwin never got the credit he deserved. 39-1-1 was not an accident. I played AAA hockey in Detroit, Division 1 College Hockey in the CCHA, and played the first ever game and first 2 years with the Columbus Chill and you are by a long shot the greatest hockey coach I have ever been around. The things you taught these kids over the years they will never forget. Our goal was never to win a state championship, it was to teach young men how to play the game we love, learn accountability and play the game the right way.

To the Capital Hockey Conference Volunteers and board, the refs, the Columbus Blue Jackets, the McConnell Foundation, and the Chiller Ice Rinks thank you for doing everything you do to promote High School hockey in Central Ohio. Nobody but the coaches know how much the Blue Jackets and the McConnell Foundation does for the love of the game. To UA, St. Charles, Jerome and Berlin programs, it’s been a blast battling against you guys in big games at the Ice Haus.

To the GOHL Family, thanks for welcoming our coaching staff and our program into the premier league in Ohio, and my sincere apologies for this quick departure. You guys truly get it, and are putting big time Ohio High School Hockey on the map. It was an honor to join this amazing league and I am so sorry this has come to an end as you play the game the game the right way.

No great coach is perfect, but every great coach and great player knows Hockey is a tough game that requires grit and mental toughness. Great coaches always have nothing but the best interest of their players in mind. As everyone knows we have nothing but love and respect for our past and present players. We have always demanded, at Liberty Hockey, our players give everything they have and to play to their full potential, but learn accountability and grow up as respectable young men in the community. Nothing would make me happier than for the seniors to be back at Nationwide playing in the final 4. As the #1 seed you must remember that hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard. The great thing about being a hockey player is it’s a team game, and you always stick together. Great people and great hockey players don’t throw away a teammate or a season on the first sign of adversity. I hope our seniors and team stay together, and don’t let the school administrators (who still

have not told me what is going on) to distract you. Also remember what I tell every senior when they play their last game, I am here for you forever and if you ever need anything from me or job recommendation, just let us know.

I hope I didn’t miss anyone and now to answer the question that’s been asked all week…Kevin, what happened? Up to this point I have let the rumors fly while waiting for my AD, Principal and administrators to advise me of the complaint, allegations, reports as well as honor their requests for me to not talk to anyone while I sit and wait hoping to for a hearing so I could defend myself.

Many of you may not know, but letting a Head Coach go during a state tournament is not a first for the Olentangy School District and Olentangy Liberty High School. This happened about 6 years ago to one of the most amazing human beings and another great hockey coach who loves the game Coach Hoogie. Parents filed a complaint during the state tournament, and for the good of the kids and the program he stepped aside and asked me to keep this amazing program alive. The kids were devastated and the season ended in a disaster that year. Until Tuesday, as the Head Coach, I have honored Coach Hoogie’s wishes, but sorry HOOG I no longer control the program…the administration now does.

After going through this process with HR 6 years ago, I am not shocked by the lack of loyalty by administration to back me up, as this is the reason OHSAA struggles to get great coaches and referees in involved. 6 years later, they are distracting a great group of a seniors and a #1 seed team in the middle of the OHSAA State Hockey Tournament.

As of Friday 2/23/2024 @2:00pm my attorney nor I have not been acknowledged, contacted or advised of anything verbally or in writing.

I will let you be the judge on whether my coaching staff has been treated fairly by this administration based on the chain of event below: