Despite being the regular season’s No. 1 team, BC High entered Saturday night’s deciding matchup against Central Catholic just one game away from ending its season as victims of an enormous upset.
The top-seeded Eagles wanted no part of that story line, taking a 5-3 victory over Central Catholic at Chelmsford Forum to advance to the Super 8 semifinals against St. John’s Prep. The Eagles won the final two games of the best-of-three series.
BC High’s Ian Murphy got the scoring started with two quick goals at 2:12 and 2:51 of the first period.
After Central Catholic’s Robert Ferreira matched Murphywith two scores of his own, the Eagles clamped down on defense, allowing only seven shots on goal the rest of the game.
Senior Kayser Raei punched in the go-ahead score with 12 seconds left in the first period, swinging momentum in BC High’s favor.
“That was a huge goal at the end of the period,’’ said BC High coach John Flaherty. “[Billy] Roche did a good job of getting the puck to the net, and Kayser just did a good job to put it away.’’
Raei scored just 1:14 into the second and senior Thomas Kramer added an insurance goal later in the frame.
“We gave them as much as we could. For us, it was a great season,’’ said Central Catholic coach Mike Jankowski.
“We showed resiliency, we fought back like we did all year. I’m happy about that.’’
Malden Catholic 4, Austin Prep 0 — After coming out flat in Game 1 of the best-of-three series, the Lancers bounced back with a 4-1 win on Thursday then made the comeback complete, cruising to a win over the Cougars on Saturday.
Malden Catholic advances to the semifinals Wednesday against Pope Francis.
Malden Catholic broke the ice at 7:28 of the second period on a goal by Sean Wrenn. After Nick Botticelli scored on a penalty shot a few minutes later, Wrenn added his second goal of the night to stretch the lead to 3-0.
Tom Sullivan added the final goal with three minutes left in the game.
Malden Catholic is in the semis for the sixth straight year. The Lancers have won four of the last five Super 8 titles.
“None of us are happy with losing,’’ said Austin Prep coach Louis Finocchiaro. “But there were a lot more positives in this season than that one game. It’s over now, but we’ll reflect on the season well. We’re a young team, we have nine 14-year-olds. We’ll be back.’’
