With four ties and two lead changes over the course of 48 minutes, it would be hard to blame anyone following the Classic 8 Conference – Red battle between Catholic Memorial and Franklin to lose track of who was leading when.
Once Catholic Memorial senior middie Colin Stein got going, however, the winner wasn’t up for debate much longer. On a frigid May night on Franklin’s Sullivan Field, Stein got hot just in time to score the Crusaders’ 10th, tying and winning goals to lead Catholic Memorial to a 12-11 victory in double overtime.
“We finally got patient on offense, and everybody was scoring,” Catholic Memorial coach Mike Hoffmann said. “Then Colin got real hot at the end, scoring a couple goals that put us right back in it.”
Stein brought the victory home for Catholic Memorial (6-4, 1-3 Classic 8 Red) as Franklin was running out the clock in the fourth quarter. He scored his first goal with 1 minute, 19 seconds left in regulation to bring the Crusaders within one. About a minute later, he scored again to tie Franklin (5-6, 2-5) at 11.
The Sabers and Crusaders went scoreless in the first overtime period, but Stein finally scored the game winner with 1:23 left in the second OT.
“We knew from the beginning they were going to cover some of our best players like Derek Gostomski and Logan Akre, and they had them locked in all game” Stein said. “So we just started moving the ball more as a team, and we were getting shots and just making more dodges as a team.”
Catholic Memorial jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead by the 6:43 mark in the first quarter. Franklin scored four unanswered goals to close out the first, led by junior middie Mitchell Kaye, who scored two of his three goals in the run.
The Sabers took their first lead of the game with 31.9 seconds left to play in the first half on sophomore middie Teddy Marion’s first of three goals for the game. They would extend their lead to 11-9 with 5:24 left in regulation when Marion scored off a pass from Kaye.
“We’ve got a young team, so we’re learning how to win some of these close games,” Franklin coach David Diehl said. “The talent is there — it’s just about learning how to put it together for 48 minutes.”
Junior attack Matt Moen also scored three goals for Franklin. Catholic Memorial junior goalie Dominic Hoffmann saved 13 shots, as well.
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