By RICHIE HALL
FISHERS – It might be hard to believe, but when the second half of the Class 2A boys state championship game began, Hamilton Southeastern was looking to slow down.
By slowing down, the Royals sped up their offense. Southeastern stretched a one-goal halftime lead into a 10-goal victory, blasting through the second half and defending its 2A state title, 17-7 over Cathedral in a well-attended game at the Royals’ TCU Field.
Southeastern had been involved in a tight first half with the Irish during the regular season, and coach Scott Beesley remembered that as HSE made its halftime adjustments.
“I really thought our offense played poised in the second half,” said Beesley. “Last time we played them, we lost by three and we were really trying to force a lot of things.” This time, Beesley said his team “really slowed down in the second half and really possessed the ball well offensively.”
The turning point of the game was actually with a few seconds left in the first half. The Royals and the Irish had been trading goals for most of the second quarter before Southeastern got one last chance in the half with the score tied at 6-6. They made the most of it, as Garrett Smith threw in a goal with 4.1 seconds left. That gave HSE a 7-6 halftime lead.
It was also the beginning of a spectacular run. Southeastern stunned Cathedral in the first four minutes of the third period, putting in four goals. Smith scored two of them, while Michael Mattaliano and Blaine Wertz both added one goal. Suddenly, the Royals led 10-6.
And they weren’t done. Brandon Sogocio scored with 6:28 left in the quarter, then Smith added his fifth goal of the game at the 4:57 mark, swelling Southeastern’s lead to 13-6. Cathedral finally broke the run with 2:06 left in the period, but that would be the Irish’s only score of the second half.
The Royals shut out Cathedral in the fourth quarter, while adding four goals of their own. Sogocio, Owen O’Rourke and Louden Sundling all got one goal. Smith finished the scoring with his sixth goal of the game at the 1:50 mark. To no one’s surprise, the senior Ohio Wesleyan commit was named the offensive MVP.
“Special player,” Beesley said of Smith. “We will sorely miss No. 4, he’s a special player. I get goose bumps thinking about just the impact that he’s had both on the field and off the field. No. 4 is traditionally a really strong number for us. Before Garrett Smith was Keegan Logan, who was an All-American, who’s here tonight. And before that was Garret Holst. Garret Holst played at Denver and won a national championship, a Division I national championship wearing No. 4. So Garrett knows what No. 4 means to this program and has worn it all four years since his freshman year on varsity, and just really proud of both him leading on the field, but more importantly leading off the field.”
“It’s amazing,” said Smith. “It’s what we worked all year long for. We’ve worked super hard for this all year long. We have the best coaches in the state and I think it showed with our game plan. Like Coach Beesley said, we were almost too prepared for this game with how hard we worked all season long.”
That preparation and poise paid off during the first half, which was a back-and-forth affair. The Irish got on the board first with a goal just a minute and a half into the game. It took six minutes for Southeastern to score, with Smith finally getting his team’s first goal with around 4:25 in the first. Blaine Wertz scored 89 seconds later to put HSE up 2-1.
The Royals never trailed again after that, but Cathedral would continue to answer, tying the score up on four different occasions. Southeastern’s biggest lead in the first half was 4-2 when Connor Ruhnow scored 27 seconds into the second period. Cathedral scored twice to tie the game again, and the back-and-forth continued until Smith’s go-ahead goal with a few seconds left in the half.
Even with the big lead, the Royals kept the same intensity throughout the entire second half.
“Once we get up by three goals, we know that we can use the clock to our advantage and milk the clock,” said Smith. “You always got to keep playing against a team so well-coached as Cathedral. They have phenomenal athletes and great coaches, so we had to go the whole 48 minutes.”
The defense did its job as well, with goalkeeper Colin Krekeler being named the defensive MVP. Beesley had many other defensive players to credit as well.
“Our three-headed monster, the three seniors that are in front of him are going to be sorely missed next year with Nolan Kneis and Aidan Hoener and Hayden Grace,” said Beesley. “And they just played out of their mind. Plus the two D-midis are also seniors, Matthew Retzner and Quincy Gray. So we really have a core of five guys, five seniors that just weren’t going to lose on their home turf.”
After Smith’s six goals, Wertz finished the game with three goals, while Mattaliano and Sogocio both scored two. Connor Ruhnow, Shane Gastineau, O’Rourke and Sundling all scored one.
GOLDEN EAGLES BOYS FALL IN 1A GAME
The Guerin Catholic boys team was dealt a tough loss in the 1A state title game, which took place at Hamilton Southeastern prior to the 2A game.
Guerin’s boys played South Bend St. Joseph, and were leading 7-4 going into the fourth quarter. But the Indians worked their way back to 7-6, then scored two goals within 13 seconds of each other to beat the Golden Eagles 8-7. St. Joseph tied the game at the 1:08 mark of the quarter, then scored the go-ahead goal with 55.5 seconds remaining.
Guerin Catholic led 3-2 after the first period and 6-3 at halftime. Cooper Navarro, Nathan Zurawski and Andrew Jachimowicz all scored two goals, with Luke Truffer scoring one.
“I love these boys and I believe in them,” said GC coach Charlie Barry. “They showed a lot of resilience. They set a very clear vision statement after a tough middle part of the section that we wanted to drive the state championship through Guerin Catholic and I think we did what we wanted to do. We just didn’t get the outcome that we wanted.”