The StC Frosh claimed the season's first championship trophy with a stirring 7-6 win in the title game of the Christian Brothers College "Brothers in Arms" Tournament in St Louis this weekend.
All season, this group has won overtime thrillers and rallied to win close contests. But on Sunday, they faced a 5-1 deficit late in the second quarter against an opponent, the Mary Institute Country Day School (MICDS) Rams, who had outscored foes 37-3 in Saturday's first round and ousted two strong squads in Sunday's quarter- and semi-final games.
"Usually, you hope for miracles at that point," said one player. Instead, they started making their own.
The rally started with Chris Forsell intercepting a long goalie clear and scoring from the wing. Then, Chris
found Jared Spenard on the left wing, and Jared rifled a shot home to make
it 5-3. Moments later, after Brandon Coulter had won yet another faceoff, Andrew Collins fed Jared from the X
for his second goal and a 5-4 score.
The StC attack was just getting warmed up. With Paul DeBord at the point, the offense worked the ball around, patiently looking for its shot. Nick Campana hit Jared on the wing
and his third-straight goal tied the
game with 1:34 in the third. Then Alek Szmajda fed Andrew at the X, and he again found Jared on the wing for a quick underhand shot and, remarkably, a 6-5 StC lead with less than a minute in the third.
But they weren't done yet, as Jared again took a pass from Andrew at the X, and again twisted through traffic to unleash another scoring shot. Five straight scores in a six-goal StC run, and it was now 7-5 to close the third.
MICDS opened the fourth with a score to tighten it to 7-6, one of the rare clean shots allowed by a pressuring StC defense anchored by longpoles John Ziegler, Nick Smith, Stephen Cowperthwait and Will Mallory. The Rams would have other chances, but Goalie Blake Chamberlain refused to give one up.
His keeping had been stellar all weekend, allowing just 10 scores in five games to that point (including one shutout and one near-miss, with the sole goal coming with 10 seconds left). The Rams peppered the net,but Blake held fast; in fact, he was holding the ball when the siren sounded to signal StC's championship victory.
And it was truly a team victory. When you play six games in 28 hours, including three in a row on Sunday, it takes more than the ten starters. Particularly when Coaches Charlie Feuerstein and Peter Steele has the attack riding hard, and the middies and defense contesting every pass and zeroing in on every ground ball.
Until Jared's Final heroics gave him a total of 12 goals, the scoring had been evenly shared: Alex Thompson and Brandon Coulter had five each (with an Alex hat trick in Game 3); Chris Forsell had four; Andrew Collins and Paul DeBord had three apiece; Nick Campana and Alek Szmajda had a pair, and Alex Chapman and Nate Nesbit both had one. D-poles Stephen Cowperthwait and John Ziegler scored, too.
They also serve who scoop and steal: Nick Smith had 11 ground balls and four takeaways; Cedric Hermann had 6 and 2, and Will Mallory had a steal (and logged serious minutes in relief of an injured Nick Smith in the Final).
Thanks to Coaches Feuerstein and Steele, who volunteered to lead the StC squad, and to Board members Kevin Chamberlain and John Spenard, who made all the arrangments and, with Jeff Forsell, chaperoned the trip. Thanks as well to parents Tim Coulter, Glenn and Kelly Collins, and Paul's Grandma Betty, who provided the cheering section.

Goalie Blake Chamberlain (30) and Attack Jared Spenard hoist the hardware.