High School Sports
“I really felt it in my coronary heart and my soul that they’re nonetheless with me. I like them a lot. They’re nonetheless right here, and I do know it.”
The Blackstone Valley co-op hockey staff has worn its collective coronary heart on its sweaters over the past month.
Because the BVS skaters took to the ice on Wednesday at Windfall’s Amica Mutual Pavilion, a crimson coronary heart — that includes the initials “RD”, “AD”, and “GD” — was featured on the Knights’ hockey jerseys, as has been the case all through the staff’s Cinderella run via the Rhode Island Division II hockey event.
It’s a reminder of the tragedy that this hockey staff and the better Rhode Island group have weathered over the past month.
Blackstone Valley senior Colin Dorgan was on the ice when three of his relations had been killed throughout a tragic shooting at the team’s “Senior Night” game at Pawtucket’s Dennis M. Lynch Enviornment.
However amid that heartbreak, Dorgan and his teammates discovered triumph on Wednesday with a state title on the road.
The No. 5 Blackstone Valley co-op staff emerged victorious within the Rhode Island D-II championship sport towards No. 2 Lincoln Excessive Faculty, with a tally from Jaxon Boyes within the fourth extra time interval securing a dramatic 3-2 win for BVS.
It stands because the Blackstone Valley co-op staff’s first state title.
“The outpouring of affection and help that was despatched our manner from throughout North America, it’s simply been nothing however spectacular, and it made the distinction … We gained it due to love,” Blackstone head coach Chris Librizzi told Christopher Gavin of The Boston Globe after the victory.
Skating with a heavy coronary heart, Dorgan helped will his staff to a title over the previous few weeks, scoring 4 targets over Blackstone’s final three video games.
Dorgan pressured extra time on Wednesday, releasing a shot that sailed into twine with simply 32.2 seconds left in regulation — knotting the title sport up at 2-2 apiece.
That equalizing objective got here lower than per week after Dorgan scored the game-winning goal in double overtime to carry BVS previous Portsmouth within the Rhode Island D-II semifinals.
Talking after Wednesday’s win, Dorgan pointed to the guts emblem stamped onto his sweater as a supply of power.
Dorgan’s mom, Rhonda Dorgan, and his 23-year-old brother, Aidan Dorgan, had been killed when his father, Robert Dorgan, opened fireplace on the household on Feb. 16 earlier than dying by suicide on the scene. Dorgan’s grandfather, Gerald Dorgan, died greater than per week later because of accidents sustained within the taking pictures.
Amid the entire tragedy that he has endured, Dorgan took solace in sharing the ice along with his teammates on Wednesday — and honoring his household along with his heroics out on the frozen sheet.
“They’re with me each step of the way in which,” Dorgan said of his mother, brother, and grandfather. “All through the entire playoffs, even on this sport, and the overtimes, I really felt it in my coronary heart and my soul that they’re nonetheless with me. I like them a lot. They’re nonetheless right here, and I do know it.”
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