Recent Amherst Steele News
Reports of the Wildcats’ death have been greatly exaggerated
PHOTO: Patrick Gallagher
No Ohio school has won more state championships than St. Edward’s 11. But the Eagles have not won it all since 2008 and the rival Saint Ignatius Wildcats have ruled the roost in the Brooklyn District in recent years.
Tim Sullivan, who was a part of the 1992 St. Edward state championship team as a player, returned to the program as the head coach prior to the 2019-20 season. In his second year at the helm, the team was the wire-to-wire #1 team in the state coach’s poll and won the Great Lakes Hockey League’s Cleveland Cup for the first time in the eight-year history of the league, but the slate is wiped clean for the district tournament.
The Eagles’ ancient rival Saint Ignatius, meanwhile, has won four consecutive state titles. They were on their way to a fifth after defeating Ed’s by a 9-0 count in last year’s District Final, but COVID-19 brought the Drive for Five to a premature end.
Hit hard by graduation, the Wildcats struggled early in the year and won just two of their first seven games. It appeared the reign over varsity hockey in Ohio had come to and end, but head coach Patrick O’Rourke has coached his young group up and they are not the same team heading into the post-season that they were in November.
Following an 8-2 loss to St. Edward on January 8, Saint Ignatius has gone on a 7-0-2 run that includes wins over ranked teams St. Charles, University School, Upper Arlington, Olentangy Orange and Northview. The tied came against #2 St. Francis and #3 Gilmour Academy.
Suffice to say, reports of the Wildcats’ death have been greatly exaggerated.
So, while both teams have been going through their own transitional periods over the last year or so, the 2021 district tournament could very well come down to the two of them once again.
Post-season action picks up around Ohio
The brackets are set in the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s four districts but, before we reach the post-season at the state level, high school hockey teams are battling for their respective league tournaments across the Buckeye state.
In Columbus, the Blue Jackets Cup has reached the semifinals. The top four seeds all survived quarterfinal challenges, including Thomas Worthington putting a scare into top-seeded St. Charles, which pulled out a 2-1 win.
The Cardinals, ranked #7 in the state, now go up against #9 Olentangy Orange in the 6:00 semifinal Saturday at Ice Haus. That game will be followed by Olentangy Liberty and Upper Arlington at 8:00 p.m.
Both games are very evenly matched.
Orange defeated St. Charles, 4-3, on January 10. The Cardinals returned the favor, by a score of 5-2, on February 5.
Liberty and UA split their season series as well, trading shutouts three days apart between Christmas and New Year’s. Upper Arlington brought a three-year Dublin Jerome CBJ Cup championship run to an end last season. The Celtics qualified this year at #5 and were eliminated by Orange.
New Albany, the top seed in the Consolation Bracket of the CBJ Cup, is still alive and two wins away from winning that playoff. They face Olentangy at 2:00 p.m. Saturday. Dublin Coffman and St. Xavier go up against each other in the 4:00 semifinal.
In Southwest Ohio, the Southwest Ohio High School Hockey League tournament has also entered the final four. The top two seeds, Beavercreek and Archbishop Alter, separated themselves from the pack over the course of the league schedule and earned first-round byes. Both teams will be taking the ice for the first time in the post-season when they face Troy and Mason, respectively on Saturday at South Metro Sports and try to set up what would be a much-anticipated championship game on Sunday.
The Great Lakes Hockey League’s Cleveland Cup will see a re-match of last year’s championship game after St. Edward, the #1 seed and top-ranked team in the state, edged Walsh Jesuit 3-0 in the early semifinal Friday, then Gilmour Academy got past University School 1-0 in an overtime thriller in the nightcap at OBM Arena in Strongsville.
Gilmour defeated St. Edward, 3-1, for their second Cleveland Cup win in three years in 2020. The Eagles own more state championships than any other program in Ohio history (11) but have yet to win a Cleveland Cup in the eight years since the formation of the GLHL.
St. Edward head coach Tim Sullivan, who won the GLHL Coach of the Year for the third time, led Holy Name to the title in 2019, so he has been here before.
At Brooklyn Rec Center, the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League has three Baron Cup tournaments running simultaneously to crown the champions of their three divisions. This year, with the uncertainly of the league schedule, the GCHSHL decided to let every team into the tournament instead of qualifying the top eight teams in each division per usual.
It was an unplanned way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Baron Cup.
In Baron Cup III (Blue Division), top-seeded Chagrin Falls is already through to the finals where they will face Canfield at 1:00 p.m. on Championship Sunday. Neither team has made it to the title game since Chagrin Falls in 2009 when they lost to Solon. The Tigers defeated Lakewood to win it all in 2008.
Olmsted Falls and Parma will face off Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in the first semifinal game of Baron Cup II while Avon and Avon Lake will renew their rivalry at 3:00. The winners will meet Sunday at 3:00 p.m. to crown the White Division champion.
This year’s champ will end the three-year reign of Amherst Steele, which has moved up to the Red Division. Olmsted Falls, 2017, was the last team to win before Amherst’s run.
Rocky River and Mentor, which both have received votes in the state coaches poll this season, finished in the top two spots in the Red Division and received first-round byes in the Baron Cup. They will make their post-season debuts Saturday when they take on Amherst Steele and Hudson, respectively.
Sunday’s 5:00 p.m. Baron Cup title game, the 50th in history, will cap off the triple-header championship Sunday.
If the top two seeds make it, it will be the third straight season that the Pirates and Cardinals meet in the Baron Cup championship game. Mentor won in both 2020 and 2019.
--- Scott Harrington for Ohio Hockey Digest
50th Anniversary season will look different, but will move forward
Ryan Kelber, commissioner of the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League, distributed a memo to coaches of the league’s 34 member teams Wednesday announcing changes to the 2020-21 regular season and Baron Cup formats in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Teams are being encouraged to play as many of their scheduled leagues games as possible, but no league standings will be kept, and every team will qualify for the three 2021 Baron Cup tournaments.
It has become clear that crossing your fingers and hoping not many games get cancelled is not a viable option for commissioners around the state. Leagues must plan for more positive COVID tests and the game cancellations they will bring.
“What we are trying to avoid is having an imbalanced schedule in January when it comes time to do the seeding for the Baron Cup,” he said. “Some of these games are just not going to get made up.”
Kelber said he also did not want to put teams in a position where they had to cancel non-league games and try to re-schedule league contests.
"I think this year honestly is going to be very fluid," said Mentor head coach Paul McKito. "The GCHSHL is making the correct move."
Pause and Effect
- By Jim Smith 11/20/2020, 1:00pm EST
