By Jack Weaver ’15 | Staff Writer

On Thursday, March 12, the boys hockey season came to an end after a 4-0 loss to Brother Rice in the DII State Semifinals. Two days later, Brother Rice would go on to win the state championship game, 6-3 over Livonia Stevenson.

Coming off a strong performance in the state quarterfinal, an 8-2 win at Romeo, the Blue Devils were looking to upset the second ranked team in the state. The last time these two teams met in the playoffs was in the 2012 DII State Finals, in which Brother Rice won 4-1.

In the first period, South played a majority of the time with their backs against the wall, getting some lucky breaks and finding out just how competitive this Brother Rice team was, head coach Robert McKillop said. Despite being outshot 13-7, the team was able to escape tied headed in to the second.

“These guys couldn’t have battled any harder,” McKillop said. “It was one of those games where we were on our heels all night long, and like men against boys they kept coming all night long. Coming and coming and coming.”

After a hard fought period, Brother Rice continued to feed their high paced transition offense and use physicality on defense to knock South off the puck. With 6:25 remaining in the second, Brother Rice would finally capitalize and put together an explosive scoring spurt. In just over two minutes, they scored three unanswered goals and headed into the final period up 3-0.

“They had a really strong offense that worked well together,” Second Team All-State goalie Andy Jakub ’15 said. “We gave them a little too much time in the neutral zone, and they capitalized on their chances.”

The final period held much of the same results as the prior two. Brother Rice continued to attack and create chances, while South was unable to find a way to score. Although 1-1 on the penalty kill, the team was 0-4 on the power play, which was a catalyst for a majority of their previous playoff goals. With seven minutes left, Brother Rice would virtually finish off the game, scoring the fourth and final goal of the night

“Obviously we came up against a juggernaut tonight,” McKillop said. “That’s a quality hockey team right from top to bottom. There’s no question. Anytime you’re in a situation going up against those guys, it stinks. You don’t want to lose a hockey game like this. That’s a bunch of sad boys in that locker room, but you know what, what a season we had.”

However, a shutout loss is not the way this 2014-2015 team should be remembered. The boys went undefeated in the Metro League for the second straight year, led the Metro in GPA (3.54), had the state’s number one penalty kill and made it to their second State Semifinal game in the past four years. For a team that had very few preseason expectations, they have come a long way, Adam Pitters ’17 said.

“We started out rough not knowing what was going to happen, and then everything just clicked half way through the season,” Pitters said. “Near the end we beat some very good teams (Wyandotte twice, Eisenhower, Romeo), it was by far the best team I’ve played on. I am beyond satisfied with the season. We proved that we are a force to be reckoned with, every single player contributed, not just one or two. We won because we played as a team and that’s why I’m so satisfied with the season.”

Senior Will Barrett ’15 was another key player that bought into McKillop’s plan for success and believed that the team had all the potential to make the impressive run that they did.

“Everybody bought in to what our coach was telling us,” Barrett said. “That ‘you might not know it yet, but our team is built to win’ and it wasn’t until December that we actually believed it ourselves.”

It wasn’t just the way the team was able to win games and fight through adversity, but the manner in which they did it in. The hard work and effort put forth day in and day out, turned an underrated team into a title contender, McKillop said.

“When you’re a guy in my position it’s a sad day,” McKillop said. “I’m losing a lot of young men in there that I care about. There’s a bunch of seniors that have been with me for three years, and it’s tough. You can’t really dwell on the game itself, you just let them know how much you care about them and how much it meant to come to the rink with this group of kids, how hard they worked for me, and how much I appreciate them as people.”

Thoughts on a remarkable season will not be remembered by the statistics, the wins, the losses, but simply from the memories shared and the pride of this Blue Devils team, McKillop said.

“They should be proud of themselves,” McKillop said. “I’d be proud to call any of those boys’ numbers over my son. That’s a huge statement. It’s a sad day for me. It’s not sad because we lost, it’s sad because it’s over. I’m never going to forget it.”