By Brian Jeffers ’22

The Brother Rice Crusaders took on their Catholic league rival St Rita on Thursday, Oct. 7, at Southwest Ice Arena. The Crusaders started off their season with a spectacular win over the Mustangs 4-2.

The Crusaders came out firing as senior Brian Jeffers scored the first goal with 11:08 left in the first period with an assist by junior Cooper Wainwright. The Crusaders had lots of momentum entering the period. The next goal was scored for the Mustangs by Sophomore Joey Rodriguez with 4:58 left in the first and was assisted by Sophomore Brendan Harkins.

The next period, senior Sean Curtin scored the second goal for the Crusaders with 3:53 in the second period, with an assist by Senior Blake Mayer. While the second period was narrowing down, senior Brett Jones fired one in the net on a breakaway with 11 seconds left, and was assisted by senior Blake Mayer. This goal gave the Crusaders their momentum back from the beginning and gave them a 3-1 lead going into the third and final period.

Curtin said, “It felt good to put us back in the lead. Blake Mayer gave me a great pass in the center of the ice, then I made a move and scored.”

Jones said, “Blake found me open for a breakaway, and I scored with seconds left in the period to give us a two goal lead heading into the third.

With 13:57 left in the third period, sophomore Nolan O’Malley put a goal in assisted by senior Jake Jana to make the score 3-2. The Mustangs were making their way closer to tying the game up with the Crusaders. However, junior Charlie McClorey put in a game winning goal that was assisted by sophomore Jack Keaty to seal the win for Brother Rice.

McClorey said, “It was a 1 goal game, and I was skating up the ice and got an excellent pass from my linemate, and I just fired one at the net and scored.”

The Crusaders moved on with a 1-0 record, while the Mustangs were 0-1. The Crusaders go on to play the Notre Dame Dons on Thursday, Oct. 14, at Oak Lawn Ice Arena.