ARLINGTON — Curt Colarullo couldn’t have requested for a greater response.
Simply three days after the Arlington Catholic boys hockey crew was trounced by six targets in opposition to Xaverian, celebrations flooded the stroll from the ice to the locker room Tuesday afternoon following a 3-2 upset win over St. John’s of Shrewsbury — the reigning Div. 1 state finalists — in its subsequent sport.
The Cougars (2-2) scored two power-play targets in a sport the Pioneers (1-2) couldn’t keep out of the field (eight penalties), and acquired a robust effort in internet from Henry Naylor (25 saves) as they search for a constant starter to switch departed star Patrick Clair.
Senior Alex Frost and sophomore Brayden Boczenowski scored within the third interval for AC.
“It doesn’t get a lot decrease than a 7-1 loss,” Colarullo mentioned. “We labored actually laborious the final two days. They put a number of work into it. We did a number of video, we did a number of stuff on the ice. I feel the emotion is, that’s an entire (180) for us. … We went again to the drafting board and we talked about all of the little issues. What it takes to win a hockey sport.”
“It’s an enormous win,” Frost added. “We had a tough sport on Saturday, and I feel it introduced the depth in follow. And we actually took it into this sport. We haven’t beat this crew in 5 years, so, it’s an enormous win for the fellows.”
St. John’s put Arlington Catholic in an early gap that would’ve snowballed, as Jayson Wrzosek tallied a shorthanded aim with 8:47 left within the first interval.
As an alternative, the Cougars utilized strain round Pioneers goalie Colin McCarthy (24 saves). Cael Colarullo potted the neutralizer a couple of minutes within the second interval on an influence play, sparking three straight targets AC scored over the subsequent 20 minutes.
With the rating tied at 1-1 after two durations, the Cougars got here out firing. Their all-senior prime line wanted simply 25 seconds to seize a 2-1 benefit, with Frost ending off the aim in entrance.
“It’s tied up, we knew needed to come out laborious, quick,” Frost mentioned. “My linemate Stephen (Constantine) popped it up entrance, just a little snipe, and all of the boys on the bench had been hyped. It actually set the tone for the remainder of the interval.”
4 minutes later, one other St. John’s penalty got here again to chunk them when Boczenowski fired a shot off McCarthy that trickled in for a 3-1 Arlington Catholic lead on the facility play.
“That was one thing that we labored on so much the final two days, was our energy play,” Curt Colarullo mentioned. “Simply getting youngsters shifting. We couldn’t be standing nonetheless, we acquired to get them shifting and get pucks to the online, and get a physique in entrance.”
The Pioneers saved preventing out of a timeout, although, drawing an influence play with 8:22 to go.
Naylor couldn’t deny a Kaden Rorick aim that reduce St. John’s’ deficit to 3-2 with 4:37 left, however he did sufficient to maintain St. John’s off the board throughout its 4 energy performs.
“Naylor stepped up,” Curt Colarullo mentioned. “That was precisely what we wanted at this time from him. He made some actually huge saves, he saved the puck out, he had some well timed freezes if you want a whistle.”
