The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Gilmour outlasts US to win Cleveland Cup title
The reclamation project of the winter got a proclamation Feb. 10 in the Cleveland Cup final:
From worst to first, Gilmour is back from the depth with an eye for the pinnacle.
Freshman Charlie Tuggey’s goal 57 seconds into overtime gave the Lancers a 3-2 victory over archrival University at Strongsville.
It marks the first Cleveland Cup title for the Lancers (25-7-3), first city championship tournament crown because they didn’t win a Baron Cup in their old Red Southeast days and second win all-time over US — both Gilmour goaltender Duncan Nichols-Delay, center, flanked by Dominic Casamatta, left, and Evan Enrich, hoists the Cleveland Cup.
this season.
The goal that made that all so came in the first minute of OT. Matt Mangel dug out a puck from the back boards and hit Tuggey in front of the crease, who popped a wrister in then took quite a pop — from a US player trying to deny the shot and then from his teammates in a dogpile.
“That was a great play by Mangel and (John) Treppo, just controlling the puck at the end,” Gilmour coach John Malloy said as his players took pictures with the Cleveland Cup on the ice. “Tuggey gets in position — he’s a gifted freshman, and he was able to get loose just for that split-second, get the pass and put it up and over the goalie. That was a heck of a goal.”
Tuggey has been a rightplace, right-time type of forward since coming up from JV, netting the gamewinner in a 1-0 GLHL regular-season finale win over Holy Name and, now, his biggest goal to date.
“Mangel and Treppo were in the corner, and Treppo got in a battle,” Tuggey said. “Mangel picked it up for him, went for the pass in front and I just tapped it in.
“It was awesome. I won’t forget that any time in my life — at any point. It’s something I won’t forget. It meant a lot to me.”
Malloy quipped he was a bit concerned for Tuggey after the Preppers’ check and being on the bottom of a celebratory pile.
“I remember one year at (Cleveland) Heights, we won a game that I think won a tournament, a kid got jumped on after he scored the winning goal, broke his wrist and was out for the rest of the year,” Malloy said. “So I think we’ve got to practice how to celebrate. We really haven’t had to do that for a while.
“But it’s kind of nice — we were the worst (Great Lakes Hockey League) team last year and the first-place team this year. That’s kind of nice to go worst to first.”
The Lancers built a 2-0 lead after two, getting goals on a wrister at 10:40 of the first from Sebastian Herlong and a power-play tally at 3:20 of the second on a nice redirect by Kessel Richards.
US (20-7-3) answered in the third, first on a wrister from distance at 7:57 from Trip Gorman, then a tying goal from Beau O’Sickey with 1:56 left. The Preppers logged 15 shots in the third, but couldn’t light the lamp the third time it required.
“I like the way we lost in a way — as much as you hate to lose, it’s just that we had such a great effort,” US coach Andre Lacroix said. “Nobody quit. After the second period, I said, ‘Guys, we’re going to come back. We can score some goals against them.’ And we did, so I am very proud of my guys. Very proud.”