OHSAA hockey: St. Charles tops defending champion Olentangy Liberty, advances to state
The road to the St. Charles hockey team’s first state tournament berth since 2014 went through defending champion Olentangy Liberty, and that seemed appropriate to the Cardinals.
An early season blowout loss against Liberty provided St. Charles with a wake-up call, and the Cardinals answered the bell Saturday when they met the Patriots in the regional final at OhioHealth Ice Haus.
Goals by Sean Moore, Nick Scharfenberger and John Vincent III gave St. Charles a 3-0 lead, and sophomore goalie Dylan Fansler turned away 38 shots in a 4-2 win.
The Cardinals (24-11-3-1) will play Hunting Valley University School, last year’s state runner-up, in a semifinal at 4 p.m. Friday at Nationwide Arena. The winner will face Toledo St. Francis or Cleveland St. Ignatius for the title at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 10, at Nationwide.
“This feels good,” said Moore, a senior. “I lost in (the regional) final when I was a freshman, and I lost the last two years to Liberty. It’s good to finally get past them.”
St. Charles and Liberty split two Capital Hockey Conference games during the regular season, with Liberty winning 11-3 on Dec. 1 and St. Charles winning 4-2 on Feb. 2. Liberty edged St. Charles for the CHC-Red Division title and earned the No. 1 seed in the regional tournament, while St. Charles was seeded second.
“That first game (against Liberty) was our worst game of the year and we just played one of our best games,” first-year St. Charles coach Danny Greiner said. “It was a bad one in December, but that helped us flip some switches and realize what we needed to do.”
Liberty (24-11-0-1), which won central Ohio’s first OHSAA hockey championship last winter, reached the regional final despite late-season adversity.
Head coach Kevin Alexander, who guided the Patriots to the state title, and assistant coaches Darwin McClelland and Richard Smith were placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 20 while the school district investigates allegations, the specifics of which have not been made public. McClelland has since resigned.
After Liberty had the first of two apparent goals waved off because the net came off its mooring, Moore opened the scoring when he beat goalie Caleb Ross with 4:38 left in the first period.
Scharfenberger and Vincent scored in a 1:08 span early in the third to make it 3-0.
The star of the game was Fansler, who has split time in goal with junior Bren Gronbach.
“I’ve been going back and forth with both goalies,” Grenier said. “I think we have the two best goalies in the (CHC), which is tough for them because they both deserve to start every game, but I’m comfortable and confident in either goalie to put in.”
After having another goal waved off when the net came off its mooring, Liberty closed to 3-2 on goals by Andrew Leonard and Jake Buchas in a span of 39 seconds.
St. Charles sealed the win on Danny Roncone’s empty-net goal with 25 seconds remaining.
“This team doesn’t quit,” Liberty interim coach Jonathon Falvo said. “We went down 3-0 and we got two quick ones, we started to get the momentum, but Fansler stood on his head. We shot everything but the kitchen sink at him and he had an answer for everything, so I have to tip my hat to a hot goalie.”
Ross had 26 saves but was pulled for Thomas Morgan after allowing the third goal. Morgan finished with six saves.
“This one definitely hurts, but we’ll always be able to look back at all the memories, and the state title will definitely stick out as one of the better ones,” Liberty senior P.J. Weiss said.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: OHSAA hockey: St. Charles beats Liberty for regional title
