Joe Malone, Riley Ellis, Miles McQuinn and Beck Schultz provide the lamp lighters as the top-seeded 'Cats turn back the Pirates in the quarterfinals of the tradition-rich Baron Cup 1 Tournament at Brooklyn's John M. Coyne Recreation Center on Wednesday night. The Ice Cats advance to Saturday evening's semifinals, where they will face fourth-seeded University School. The puck will drop at 5:30 in the John M. Coyne Recreation Center. Saint Ignatius and University School met twice during the regular season - a 2-2 tie at the Coyne Recreation Center and a 2-1 victory by the Wildcats at The Pond.
Saint Ignatius baseball standout Dan Rowbottom reflects on his National Signing Day commitment to Illinois and we congratulate junior Kyle Berger, who has added Northwestern to a long list of major college football programs who have offered the Wildcats' All-Ohio linebacker.
HERE IS THE HOCKEY GAME STORY, FOLLOWED BY THE SIGNING DAY FEATURE ON DAN ROWBOTTOM AND THE BLURB ON KYLE BERGER.
Brooklyn, Ohio – Saint Ignatius’ outstanding head hockey coach Pat O’ Rourke ’90 and two of his mainstays – gifted senior captain Miles McQuinn and tough and talented junior forward Beck Schultz – shared the same
sentiment after the top-seeded Wildcats defeated Rocky River, 4-1, during Wednesday night’s quarterfinal round of the Baron Cup 1 Tournament at the John M. Coyne Recreation Center – that the Pirates’ eighth seed for the Baron Cup was not indicative of their talent.
Saint Ignatius, riding a strong first period and a short-handed goal in the second period that was produced by Schultz and McQuinn, turned back a spirited Rocky River team and advanced to Saturday evening’s semifinal round of a tournament that has a four-plus decade history of great performances and upsets.
The Ice Cats (25-5-3) were determined not to let the latter happen on the Brooklyn Ice last night, as they came out strong and took a 2-0 lead. Senior defenseman and assistant captain Joe Malone got Coach O’Rourke’s offense on track by scoring off an assist from Schultz with the game not three minutes old.
After Saint Ignatius killed off a Rocky River power play, junior wing Riley Ellis scored from almost dead center off a faceoff play that was assisted by junior center Brian Fitzgerald with 6 minutes and 43 seconds
remaining in the opening period. The Wildcats outshot the Pirates, 15-9, over the first 15 minutes.
“The thing about this tournament is that every team is good and every team can win the tournament,” said Coach O’Rourke, whose Wildcats are the defending Baron Cup 1 champions. “So that’s fun, that’s what you want. You want to play tough games and get playoff ready. I think we did okay, but I think we got out hustled at times. With what they call the 50-50 pucks, we didn’t sellout for those like we should have. Hopefully we’ll learn from that.”
Rocky River (23-7-1), as Schultz put it, showed up in the second period.
Although it fell behind, 3-0, on McQuinn’s short-handed goal off Schultz’s steal and assist, Rocky River outshot Saint Ignatius, 10-8, and took the fight to the Wildcats in the second period.
“We just basically ran through our system,” Schultz said of what was McQuinn’s 30th goal on the season and a huge score when you consider the emotion the Pirates were playing with. “I jumped on the guy, saw the opportunity, read the play and Miles obviously did too. I wanted to get the goalie to stiffen up so he would actually think I was shooting. I handed it over to Miles, who had that open net, and he buried it. It was a beautiful play.”
Rocky River, who Schultz described as totally underestimated, wasn’t about to call it a night.
Less than a minute after the Ice Cats pushed their advantage to three goals, the Pirates’ Kyle Kopecheck fired home an authoritative shot off a power-play opportunity and the Rocky River faithful were back in the game.
Leading, 3-1, entering the third period, Saint Ignatius turned the Pirates away with a 16 to 8 shots-on-goal advantage over the final 15 minutes. After an impressive save by Wildcats senior goalie Mike Mulach, Schultz
left no doubt by scoring unassisted in the closing seconds. The final shots-on-goal total went to the ‘Cats, 39-27.
“Positioning has been a huge factor to our success,” said McQuinn. “Once a week, the whole practice we just work on positioning, whether it’s power play, penalty kill, five on five, whatever. Positioning paid off and
I give all of the credit to Beck (on the key short-handed goal). He did the work and made it easy for me.
“I give a lot of credit to them (Rocky River),” Miles continued. “They’ve beaten some good teams and we’re going to see them at states (the OHSAA Brooklyn District). And I’ll bet you they’re going to come out even tougher the next time. We have to match that intensity as well.”
PRE-GAME HONORS: Before the drop of the puck on Wednesday night, Malone, McQuinn and senior assistant captain Alex McNulty accepted a special plaque from the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League that
honored Coach O’Rourke and his team for winning the Red North West Division championship.
It was a record fourth consecutive league title for Coach O’Rourke’s program.
ANOTHER TOP SEEDING: The Ice Cats have been seeded No. 1 for the annual OHSAA Brooklyn District Tournament. St. Edward, Holy Name and Rocky River are seeded 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Saint Ignatius begins OHSAA tournament play on Monday night, Feb. 18 against the Shoremen of Avon Lake.
The puck will drop at 6 bells in the John M. Coyne Recreation Center.
A Day That Was Cherished By Many
Saint Ignatius senior baseball standout Dan Rowbotttom reflects on National Signing Day
By Eddie Dwyer, Copyright February 2013
Ohio City - With his parents, grandparents and other family members in attendance, Saint Ignatius baseball standout and senior captain Dan Rowbottom signed a national letter of intent on Wednesday afternoon to further his education and athletic career at the University of Illinois.
Dan joined several of his classmates in Saint Ignatius’ Breen Center for the Performing Arts on what was “National Signing Day” for student athletes from the Class of 2013.
After members of the media interviewed and photographed many of the Wildcats and rightfully proud family members and friends took their photos, Dan Rowbottom shared with the Corner the many emotions he was experiencing on such a special day.
“It means a lot, especially to get it (his college decision) officially off my shoulders,” said Dan. “It’s really exciting, a big deal. Saint Ignatius and all of the coaches really did a great job of helping us with this. Now I can go and just play the game I love.”
And he plays it well.
Dan will be entering his third season as middle infield mainstay for Wildcats Head Coach Brand Ganor, who has now honed the skills of nearly sixty players who have or will have gone on to play at the next level. Last season, a
spring in which Saint Ignatius was the only team in Ohio to play exclusively with wood bats, Dan hit .313 with nine doubles, three triples and a home run, and combined with shortstop Mike Ruffing '12 in forming one of the strongest middle infields in the area. Dan's efforts helped Coach Ganor's Wildcats to a Division I regional-semifinal appearance.
A Sun Newspapers All-Star selection for 2012, Dan will serve as one of Coach Ganor's captains for the 2013 season. He will join senior pitcher Kyle Pluta, senior infielder Tyler Finkler and senior outfielder Conor Hennessey in that leadership role.
“It’s really exciting, because we have a lot of talent this year, a lot of talent,” Dan said. “A lot of veteran guys and good pitching again, we’re definitely going to make a run. We just have a close-knit group of guys. It's going to be a fun season, it really is.”
Dan emphasized that the best part of the day was having his family there to share his special moment.
“One of my grandparents (Sam Geraci) is in the hospital and couldn’t be here today,” Dan said. “Both sets of my grandparents are usually my biggest cheering section at the games, they come to every game. They’re great, they really are.
“My cousin got off work to be here today and of course my mom and dad went with me on all of my recruiting visits,” Dan continued. “They’re so relieved and so happy for me. I can’t thank them enough.”
Dan said that he wanted to keep his options open and not commit to a college or university too early.
“I had a couple of early offers and I was pretty set on Cincinnati to be honest,” he said. “Illinois was never a school I looked into, but it came up after I had a real good weekend at a tournament. I made a visit and I just loved it. I felt like I fit in there. I love everything about it.”
Dan said he wants to definitely major in business. “Both of my parents are doctors, so I know I don’t want to do that,” he said with a wide smile that was accompanied by laughter.
The Corner had the opportunity to congratulate most of the Wildcats during their special day, but let this old-timer just say it one more time along with a sincere Thank You for the privilege to have covered and reported on your many
accomplishments.
May God Bless You Always, Eddie
The Northwestern Wildcats are now pursuing Kyle Berger
Posted By Eddie Dwyer
Northwestern is the new name on a long list of major college football programs who have offered a scholarship to Saint
Ignatius’ gifted All-Ohio junior linebacker Kyle Berger.
The Wildcats join The Ohio State University, Maryland, Boston College, Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Michigan,
Michigan State, Penn State, Illinois, West Virginia and Cincinnati on Kyle's offer list.
I got a hunch there will be more.