This Time, It's DCC in Division 1
March 8, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
PLYMOUTH – Detroit Catholic Central had one way in mind it hoped to finish this season’s MHSAA Hockey Finals at Compuware Arena.
And the Shamrocks had one opponent in mind to end against.
DCC wanted a rematch with Brighton, the two-time Division 1 champion and opponent that kept the Shamrocks from the title a year ago.
They got their wish – and their first MHSAA title since 2010 – with a 5-1 win over the Bulldogs in Saturday’s final championship game.
“We came in and we wanted to play Brighton,” DCC senior defenseman Carter Cerretani said. “We know we didn’t have the biggest team. But we definitely had the fastest, and we had to utilize that speed. Going in, we knew the crowd was going to be big. But we had to act like it was any normal game.”
Detroit Catholic Central (24-7) already had beaten Brighton once this season, 4-3 in the former’s second game and the latter’s opener this winter.
But the Shamrocks wanted a rematch where it counted most after falling 2-1 in the 2013 Final.
They dominated at the start, with junior Ryan Burnett and then Cerretani (off a Burnett assist) both scoring during the game’s first five minutes. Then DCC dominated on the check, frustrating the Bulldogs’ offense and allowing only 19 shots after giving up exactly twice that many in last season’s championship game.
“We had a handful of boys in the locker room who remembered that feeling,” said first-year DCC coach Doug Itami, who formerly served as an assistant. “We had a purpose.”
And the Shamrocks also capitalized when Brighton provided opportunities, scoring three power play goals and a fourth into an empty net with 2:32 to play. One of those power play goals came with a 5-on-3 advantage and another came just after another 5-on-3 ran out but before the Bulldogs had killed the second penalty.
Still, Brighton did have hope after senior Danny Bosio scored off a rebound on a power play 5:48 into the second period to make the score 2-1. The Bulldogs also had trailed Detroit U-D Jesuit 2-0 in the Semifinal before coming back to win 4-3 in overtime.
“We love to go down 2-nothing and then come back,” said Brighton coach Paul Moggach, tongue-in-cheek. “We’ve got the same attitude that we can come back. When we got that first goal, we thought we had momentum. But we didn’t sustain it the way we needed to.”
Senior Domenic Mancinelli put DCC up 3-1 with five minutes left in the second period, and then Cerretani and Burnett both added their second goals of the game to round out the scoring in the third.
Junior Mitch Ossowski assisted on three of the Shamrocks’ goals, and junior Spencer Wright allowed just the one, with 17 saves in goal. In a touching moment at the end, the trophy was presented on the ice to senior Matt Sorisho, a standout on last season’s team who was paralyzed from the waist down during a travel league game this fall.
Junior goalie Jimmy Milletics, another star of the 2013 Final, made 27 saves for the Bulldogs, who finished 23-7-1 but graduate a strong group of nine seniors who have played big parts over the last two seasons.
“It’s a loss in the biggest game of the season, and it’s not fun losing like that,” Brighton senior Aaron Sturos said. “Just being on this team, this is a heck of a team. We’re all really close, having fun out there, so it will be tough to leave.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Catholic Central celebrates one of its five goals Saturday in the Division 1 Final. (Middle) DCC athletic director Aaron Babicz presents the championship trophy to senior Matt Sorisho (18).
HIGHLIGHTS: (1) DCC’s Ryan Burnett gets the first goal of the Division 1 Final at the 3:54 mark of the opening period. (2) With a two-man advantage on a power play, Detroit Catholic Central gets its second goal of the finale from Carter Cerretani. (3) The Bulldogs got their only goal on the power play at the 5:48 mark of the second period from Danny Bosio. (4) About 6 minutes later, DCC counters with another power play goal by Domenic Mancinelli to take a 3-1 lead.
Brighton Completes Impressive Repeat
March 10, 2018
Second Half reports
PLYMOUTH — Harrison Fleming pictured himself in this moment, throwing his gloves in the air as the final buzzer sounded, getting mobbed by teammates in a wild celebration on the ice at USA Hockey Arena.
He envisioned this even when his status on Brighton’s hockey team rarely had him in the crease on game nights.
“Honestly, I kind of did,” Fleming said. “I told myself I wanted that. I didn’t want to ride the bench any more. So, I did whatever I could to start. I’m just glad it came out that way. Hard work pays off.”
It paid off for Fleming and his Brighton teammates in the form of a fourth MHSAA Division 1 championship in the past seven seasons. The Bulldogs repeated as Division 1 champs with a 5-2 victory over Saginaw Heritage Saturday night.
Fleming started only two of Brighton’s first 16 games until starter Robert Pegrum, last year’s varsity backup, got injured. Fleming, the junior varsity goalie last season, played well enough to earn the No. 1 spot for the playoffs, even when Pegrum returned.
Fleming allowed more than two goals only once in 13 starts, a statistic that is even more impressive considering nine of those starts were against state-ranked teams.
The 6-foot-2 junior turned aside 21 of 22 shots in a 2-1 victory over top-ranked Detroit Catholic Central in the Semifinals before stopping 23 of 25 shots against seventh-ranked Heritage.
“It’s unreal, but I couldn’t have done it without all them,” Fleming said of his teammates. “They played their butts off for me. That’s all I can ask for. Great outcome.”
Fleming went 6-0 in the playoffs with a 1.20 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage.
Fleming’s first big start of the season came Jan. 30 against Hartland. The Bulldogs lost, 2-1, but he played well enough to open the eyes of the coaching staff.
That Hartland team, which is Brighton’s biggest rival in Livingston County, won the Division 2 championship eight hours earlier. The quality of hockey in the county is a source of pride.
“I played with a lot of people on the Hartland team,” Brighton defenseman Brody White said. “Jake Gallaher, (Josh) Albring. I’m happy for them, just as happy as for us.”
“I’ve got a lot of friends on that team,” Brighton defenseman Sam Brennan said.
White and Brennan are rare four-year varsity players, coming in together as freshmen in 2014-15 and leaving together with two MHSAA championships and a runner-up finish as sophomores.
“It’s amazing,” White said. “I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else, that’s for sure. It’s definitely been the best four years of my hockey career.”
Heritage did its best to dispel the notion that the Semifinal game between perennial powers Brighton and Catholic Central was the de facto championship game. After surviving a 3-2 overtime Semifinal against Traverse City West, the Hawks had plenty in the tank to push Brighton for the full 51 minutes.
“It went down right to the end,” Heritage coach J.J. Bamberger said. “After the game, for a few minutes, I reflected. For anyone who said it was a shame Brighton and C.C. weren’t playing in the championship game, I hope they watched what our boys did, because our boys played their hearts out and were in that game the entire time.”
The Hawks (22-5-3) were only the second team from Saginaw to reach an MHSAA Final. Saginaw Nouvel lost 6-0 to Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett in the 1990 Class B-C-D title game.
It was a one-goal game until Evan MacDonald poked the puck into the net while breaking up a pass in front of the Heritage goal with 5:07 left in the third period.
“He was coming up the middle,” MacDonald said. “He was going to make a pass to the guy on the stretch side. I just put my stick down and it ended up bouncing in.”
Will Jentz put his second goal of the game into an empty net with 57.7 seconds left.
“They’re a quality team,” Brighton senior Adam Conquest said of the Hawks. “We were not expecting it. We knew they had skill. We knew they could score. They had us the first two periods, but we pulled it out. It was a really good hockey game. I give them all the credit in the world.”
Brighton (24-6-1) jumped out to a 2-0 lead by the 12:22 mark of the first period on goals by Mathew Kahra and Jentz. Heritage cut the deficit to one goal on a power-play goal by David Helpap with 2:47 remaining in the period.
Following a scoreless second period, freshman Nate Przysiecki temporarily gave Brighton some breathing room by scoring with 15:49 left in the third. The Hawks kept pushing, getting back within a goal on John Michael Watson’s power-play score with 12:27 left.
PHOTOS: (Top) Brighton players celebrate their second straight Division 1 title. (Middle) Brighton and Heritage players work for position in front of the Hawks’ net.