By Jack Weaver ’15 | Staff Writer

In its second Division II State Quarterfinal game in just four years, the Blue Devils were able to cruise past the Romeo Bulldogs in an 8-2 blowout on Tuesday, March 10.

The Bulldogs entered the game 11th in the state and in the past 17 games were unbeatable in regulation, (16-0-1). At the drop off the puck, the first period would match the pregame hype. Almost halfway in, Ian Corbett ‘15 would break the tie for South, only for the Bulldogs to respond three minutes later with a goal of their own.

However, the game expected to be a close battle all the way to the final whistle, quickly got out of hand and in South’s favor. From 13:20-10:37 in the second period, Adam Pitters ’17, Griffin Brooks ’16 and Jack Flynn ’17 (shorthanded) all contributed goals during an electric scoring frenzy. Jason Somerville ’15 capped off the lopsided period with a late breakaway goal of his to put the Blue Devils up comfortably in the drivers seat, 5-1.

“The game plan was to play our game,” Sommerville said. “We have some really good players, who score an unreal amount of goals and the same thing happened tonight. It feels good to know what we’re doing is working. We have been playing with one goal in mind all season and making it this far is good, but it’s not what we came here to do.”

In the third period, things continued to get out of control, and not just on the scoreboard. After allowing Romeo to score a minute in, South received its’ first power play of the night and took very little time to capitalize on it. 35 seconds into the power play, Flynn netted his second goal of the night to put the team up 6-2 and virtually close out the game.

“The game was great,” Pitters said. “I was not expecting a score like that, but we worked hard and won most of our battles. We had some big time players step up tonight, who really helped the team win the game.”

From that point on, the game would take a turn for the worst. Romeo was assessed 11 penalties in the third period (three cross checking infractions, three misconducts, and a game misconduct). The game lost its’ purpose when targeting became the center point of the game for the opposing team, head coach Robert McKillop said.

“This is the problem with high school hockey,” McKillop said. “I called the referee over and said ‘Is the game over? Because you can’t control it and I can’t control it.’ All my guys are doing are just trying to play hockey and these kids are trying to take their heads off. It’s sad. That’s a good hockey team, they had a great year, but you can’t act like that. Can’t act like that.”

The game misconduct was handed out to one of the state’s’ top players, Nolan Jenuwine ’16. In his past two playoff games he had accumulated nine goals, he had 45 goals and 81 points total, both third in the state of Michigan, but was held pointless by the Blue Devil defense.

“We’ve played against guys like him, just not with quite as prolific numbers,” McKillop said. “We’ve played against guys like that, so it gave us an opportunity to really be prepared for it. Just taking away time in the neutral zone was key for us.”

South would have a 5-3 man advantage for the final seven minutes of the game, with both Pitters and Zach Kohut ’15 adding goals to an already impressive win this late into the playoffs. Such an outstanding postseason performance has turned quite a few heads, even their head coach is shocked at the accomplishments they’ve been able to achieve, McKillop said.

“First of all, in my mind I owe them an apology,” McKillop said. “I give these kids a ton of credit. We’ve come a long way, not only individually, but as a team. This is nothing more than a group of kids coming together and saying ‘you know what, you’re not beating me today’, and we’re going to play the way we need to play and we’ll stay committed to doing that. There’s not a selfish kid in that locker room. It’s all about us, it’s not about me, it’s about we and the way we go. These kids deserve a lot of credit, that’s a good hockey team.”

The boys will now face top-ranked Brother Rice, Thursday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Compuware Arena. This is the second State Semifinal in four years, and at this point, rankings mean almost nothing to the 14th ranked Blue Devils, Sommerville said.

“We will come in prepared mentally and physically,” Sommerville said. “At this point in the playoffs anything can happen. Whoever wants it the most will win.”

Photo courtesy of www.mlive.com