Bombers ousted by Warriors

KENT » Kenston coach Tom Fritsche paused for a moment Feb. 21 after the Bombers’ Kent District quarterfinal outside the locker room, with the door slightly ajar.

Those are the times when the faces staring back are the toughest to look in the eye. It means, much to their lament, there is no more hockey left this winter.

Kenston took a 2-1 lead out of the opening period, but was done in by a three-goal second period by Walsh Jesuit in the Warriors’ 6-3 win.

Walsh (19-9-5) will take on Mentor, a 3-2 upset winner over Gilmour, in a district semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at Kent State.

The Bombers (26-8-1) were hoping to replicate the magic the Cardinals had shown in the early game as a Red North squad against a Great Lakes Hockey League foe. Kenston hung for stretches. But on this night, it wasn’t to be.

“It seems, when we play really good teams, we can come out and we can skate with them for a little while,” Fritsche said. “We have the lead and then we relax a little better, or we lose a little bit of steam when we only have three lines and four (defensemen). So a lot of it is, we’re not deep enough to really just keep going with them on the energy it takes to beat a team like that.”

After falling behind, 1-0, 100 seconds in on a Steven LeVasseur goal for the Warriors, Kenston responded with a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead into intermission.

John Barto lit the lamp at 3:12, then Bennett Wenger slotted a wrister at 7:06.

Unfortunately for the Bombers, that was the high-water mark, as Walsh enjoyed a 22-8 shots advantage and threw a lot of speed against Kenston’s backcheck.

Max Miotke, Jonathan Gabriel and Sacha Trudel found the back of the net in the second for Walsh to grab a 4-2 lead after two.

Val Carriero scored with 8:31 left to give the Bombers a glimmer of hope at 5-3, but Trudel scored for Walsh (19-9-5) with 1:37 left for the final margin, off a nice crossice feed from Miotke.

The Warriors have won five of six meetings with Kenston all-time, the lone Bombers’ win coming Jan. 17, 2016, at the Cleveland Jesuit Classic.

“It sucks to see them upset,” Fritsche said. “Just because, we had a great year. Yeah, it’s tough. It’s definitely tough, but we let them know that we’re there for them, and if they need anything, we’re there.

“We had a great year. There’s a lot of highlights. Once they get over the initial shock of losing, they’ll realize it was a good year.”