Aquinas 9 - St. Francis 6

March 22, 2014 - In the second game at Aquinas, the Little Irish took on St. Francis (Section VI). The game was close for the first half and then Aquinas scored the first two goals of the third quarter and held the lead though the final twenty-four minutes. Senior attackmen Alex Bianchi (3g-2a) and Jonathan Olbrich (4g) led in scoring for Aquinas. Bianchi and Olbrich finished with 19 shots with 9 on cage. The game was physical throughout and concluded with 27 total penalties accruing 24 minutes of time (12 minutes per team).

The game started off with St. Francis scoring back to back goals in the first two minutes. Attack and Stefaniak scored for the Red Raiders with the latter goal assisted by Hornberger. Hornberger finished with 1g-3a to lead the Red Raiders. The first Little Irish goal was scored when Bianchi with a feed from Jamison Whitfield from behind the cage. Whitfield finished with 1g-1a for Aquinas. Less than a minute later DiPasquale scored the first of his two goals to give the Red Raiders a 3-1 lead. The first quarter ended with St. Francis leading by two.

In the second quarter the Little Irish caught up with the first two goals of the quarter. Both were scored with outside assists. The first was Alex Uhlein to Olbrich and the second was Greer Leva to Bianchi. With 6:00 remaining in the first half the score was tied 3-3. St. Francis took their first lead of the game with an unassisted goal from Hornberger. Bianchi scored his second consecutive goal (again assisted by Leva) with a feed from behind the cage to the right flank. The first half ended in a 4-4 tie.

The third quarter had a flurry of early scoring with Olbrich adding two goals in the first 3:02. The first goal was scored during a man-up situation with an assist from Anthony DePetres and the second was Leva's third assist of the game. St. Francis kept the game close. Near the end of the third quarter there was flurry of penalties which resulted in 7-on-7 play. The third quarter ended with Aquinas holding a one goal lead (7-6).

The Little Irish held the Red Raiders scoreless in the final quarter while adding two more of their own. The first was scored early in the quarter before the penalties were release and was scored man-down for the Little Irish. Leva scored his lone goal of the game with 11:29 remaining in the contest. The final goal of the game came 90 seconds later with Olbrich's fourth goal (assisted by Bianchi).

In the cage for the Little Irish, Andrew Kausch finished with five recorded saves. Defenseman Tyler Olbrich and midfielder Terrance Richards finished with six ground balls each to lead Aquinas. Liam Smith (4), Whitfield (3) and DePetres (3) also added to the ground ball count. Smith finished with a team leading three takes. Richards finished 12/16 (75%) at the face off draw.