The Utica-Fraser Unified hockey team scored two first period goals in Wednesday’s regional first round game against the Romeo Bulldogs at Suburban Ice Macomb.

But unfortunately for them, Romeo has a guy named Drew Basha.

“I went out there and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna score.’ Like, they have a really good offense, but their defense, they’re lacking — that’s what they’re lacking,” Basha said.

Basha called his shot beautifully — the senior continued proving to be one of the best scorers in the area, notching two goals in the second period to tie the game and another late on an empty net to secure a hat trick and lead Romeo over Utica-Fraser, 4-2, in the hockey regional tournament.

“I think he’s one of the best snipers in the MAC,” said Romeo head coach Matt Burke. “I mean, he’s probably one of the most dangerous guys on the ice every time he’s out there. He’s shifty. He can fly. He’s got a great shot. So, you know, he puts a lot of pressure on the other teams’ defensemen that they got to know where 10’s (Basha’s) at when he’s on the ice.”

Coming into the game as the underdog, Utica-Fraser nailed the first goal of the game five minutes in when AJ Gorgievski beat Romeo keeper Landon D’Angelo with helpers from Nate Sheridan and Antonio Carlisi. Nearly 10 minutes later, Landen Tilney got ahead of the defense and used fancy stickwork to flip the puck over D’Angelo’s left shoulder and into the crossbar, from which the puck bounced behind the line and in.

It was exactly the start UFU head coach Evan Gizinski hoped his team would have.

“I think it was something that we really preached to the team before the game, is have a good start and really come at them quickly in the game,” he said.

“We’ve got some players on the team that really know how to capitalize in those moments, and it worked out for us in the first period tonight.”

From that point forward, it was all Bulldogs.

Burke told his team during the first intermission that, if they can continue to apply the same level of pressure they did in the first period, they’d be able to score.

He was right. Basha’s first goal — a poke through the five-hole of Utica-Fraser keeper Eli Chodun — broke the lid on Romeo’s offense, which had been getting and continued to get consistent pressure on UFU’s net.

“I got that first goal, five-hole, and then that pretty much brought the team together, you know, and looked where they could score on the goalie,” Basha said. “It was a pretty good goalie. He saw everything. The key to score on him was just to move him around and score backdoor.”

The next goal was exactly that — Seth Sarrach found Basha on a cross-pass and, though Chodun got around, he didn’t get around in time to stop Basha’s game-tying shot from close by.

The period culminated when Chase Laverell made good on a breakaway, giving Romeo its first lead of the game.

“We were still positive after the first period, and we know that, you know, we’re capable of scoring three, four goals in the period, and that’s what we did in the second and, you know, it was nice,” Burke said.

Chodun and UFU kept the Bulldogs off the board and within one goal for the rest of the game until Basha buried an empty-netter with 13 seconds left.

Utica-Fraser head coach Evan Gizinski admitted that there were likely some nerves involved.

“Going up early in the first period, it kind of seemed like everyone was gripping their stick a little tighter, and maybe there were a little bit of jitters there that we just couldn’t calm down,” he said. “But really, it was a pretty bad second period for us. We just stuck ourselves in a hole and we couldn’t get out.“We kept just telling them, ‘focus on your next shift. Let’s look in the future. Let’s not look in the past.’ So trying to keep the attitude and the emotion high, if we could, but it’s hard (not) to feel a little shell shocked when that does happen. They scored three pretty quickly.”

Gizinski praised the effort of Chodun, saying that it was more the defense not helping their goalie than the other way around.

“(Chodun’s) been very good for us all season,” Gizinski said. “He did exactly what we expected him to do today.”

The loss ends Utica-Fraser’s season with an 11-15 mark. It was their first season with the Utica-Fraser moniker after being Utica-Ford for the last several years, and that the integration of four schools into one team was partially responsible for a slow start to the year.

“That was a little challenge at first, but once we got past that and everybody became friends, it turned out to be a pretty fun second half of the season,” Gizinski said. “It sucks the way it came to an end. But, yeah, I’m really proud of it.”

Romeo’s next game will be against Chippewa Valley United, who they beat, 6-5, in December and drew 3-3 with one month ago.

They’re expecting a battle on Saturday, Feb. 22 at Suburban Ice Macomb. Face-off is set for 4 p.m.

“Great team,” Burke said. “Chip’s really good. They’ve been coached well. They got a big line too, and it’s going to be a fun game, you know. I mean, we beat them, and then we tied them this year. So we know what they got. They know what we got. It’ll be fun. I mean, they’re a really good team. We know they got a bye for a reason.”