Saturday, March 4, 2023
By Scott Hennen
shennen@cbussports.com

For the past two years, Upper Arlington ended the season for the Olentangy Liberty hockey team. The Patriots wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again.

Top-seeded Liberty scored three goals in the first 3 minutes, 54 seconds of play en route to a 10-1 win over the second-seeded Golden Bears on March 4 in a regional final at OhioHealth Ice Haus.

It was the fourth regional championship and the first since 2017 for the Patriots (37-1-1). The margin of victory was the largest in a bracket involving central Ohio teams since the postseason moved to a four-region format in 2000. The next closest was Beavercreek’s 8-0 win over Centerville in 2002 in the Sylvania Region. It was the most lopsided final since the region moved to Columbus in 2006.

UA defeated Liberty 3-2 in overtime in a regional semifinal in 2021 and again last season 3-2 on a deciding goal with 4.9 seconds left in the third period.

“I think this year was a revenge game.” Liberty senior defenseman Vinny Rengel said. “We lost to (UA) last year in this game, in this exact arena. 

“The energy for our team was through the roof. I think if you come out and you want to win more than the other team like we did today, I don’t think anyone is going to stop us.”

Senior defenseman Jacob Kempa put the Patriots ahead for good with just 2:44 in, scoring a goal that helped literally break the ice. Liberty fans celebrated the score by pounding on the plexiglass surrounding the ice. One sheet on the west end dropped to the ice, taking a slice out of the playing surface and bringing about a delay of more than 50 minutes to replace the plexiglass and repair the ice.

“It was awesome to see us go up 1-0 because I know everyone was nervous so that little bit helped,” Kempa said. “ I could tell we were all nervous and scared to go down but. But I could tell that it gave us more confidence and as you could see we kept rolling.”

Just 34 seconds after play resumed, senior forward/defenseman Charles Hughes scored and sophomore forward Jake Bachus hit the net 34 seconds later to give the Patriots a 3-0 edge with 11:06 left in the first. They scored twice more in the first seven minutes to give Liberty a 5-0 lead, which they carried into the second period.

“Our biggest thing was to get fuel, sit down, take a rest and talk about the game plan,” Hughes said. “We knew they would want to come out and kill us after a one-goal game (2-1 Liberty win Feb. 3). We weren’t going to let them come back.”

The Patriots cruised through the Capital Hockey Conference, going 16-0 to become the first team to finish the regular season without a loss or a tie since the league began in the 2003-04 season. Teams finishing without a loss but did have some ties were Dublin Coffman (13-0-1) in 2004-05, UA (13-0-1) in 2005-06, UA (11-0-1) in 2006-07, Coffman (15-0-1) in 2008-09, Liberty (15-0-1-1) in 2012-13, Olentangy Orange (13-0-2-1) in 2013-14 and UA (15-0-1) in 2019-20.

“We have been waiting for these guys to show up like that,” coach Kevin Alexander said. “That was a runaway train to a man. These guys wanted this so bad. We have had such a great season and they didn’t want to be denied.”

Sophomore forward Jake Struck scored two twice and had five assists, sophomore forward Andrew Leonard added three goals, and Hughes had two goals and three assists. Kempa had one goal and two assists. Senior defenseman Carson Reynolds scored one goal and had one assist, and senior forward Eric Bauermeister and junior forward Brian Savage both had two assists. Junior defenseman Jack Hamilton had one assist, and junior goalie Robbie Cook notched 11 saves.

Senior forward Ben Walkerly scored for UA (23-13-1), and junior forward Zach Teague had an assist.

“They outplayed us and they out-competed us. They earn it, and they are moving on,” UA coach Hamish Baird said. “I’m proud of this team. We overachieved a little bit this year. Our goal was to get back and win it. … They are a good team and I don’t see anyone beating them.”

Second-ranked Liberty advances to battle top-ranked Cleveland St. Ignatius (27-6) in a state semifinal at 12 p.m. March 11 at Nationwide Arena.

The winner plays in the championship at 12 p.m. March 12 at Nationwide against Hunting Valley University School or Sylvania Northview.

“We get the giant,” Alexander said of playing St. Ignatius. “No. 1 plays No. 2 now. It’s what we have been waiting for.”

Despite being a senior, Hughes is in his first high school season after playing his first three years with the AAA Blue Jackets club team.

“It’s great. The atmosphere is nothing like I have ever seen,” Hughes said. “We have been playing in front of a bunch of students and our friends and family, It’s not like anything I have done before. I have never had more fun.

“We’re going up against St. Ignatius, who we have wanted to play all year. We’ve had this on our calendar. We knew this (regional final) is the game we had to get through to get to them.”

Kempa is happy the Patriots final burst through to the state semifinals.

“We had our struggles getting past this game for the past two years, and it’s great to finally do it,” he said. “The whole school will be behind us. We can’t wait.”