NO. 3 CBA GRADUALLY FINDS ITS LEGS, EDGES NO. 2 DON BOSCO, 3-2

Josh Scharf’s junior year didn’t exactly go as planned. After trying out for the team last winter, he was sent home, but instead of calling it quits, he put in the time and effort to make sure it didn’t happen again entering his senior season. He called coach Ryan Bogan asking him if he would get another chance in tryouts. The response was a yes, as long as he was going to go out there and give it his all. Scharf did just that and worked his way into the Christian Brothers lineup and Wednesday night it paid big dividends. Just 22 seconds after Don Bosco had tied it early in the third period, Scharf found himself in the right place at the right time. “It was a 2-on-1 and I went for a pass off the blocker,” he said. “It just trickled in. It was a lucky break, but we’ll take it.” The goal with 13:26 to play in the third was not only his first career varsity goal, but it stood as the game winner in a 3-2 victory for Christian Brothers, No. 3 in the NJ.com Top 20, over No. 2 Don Bosco at Jersey Shore Arena in Wall. “He’s always been a smart player,” Bogan said. “We knew that in JV. He was just a little undersized. He has deceptive speed and he doesn’t necessarily always use it, but he always seems to be in the right place.” It was the third time in the game Christian Brothers had taken a one-goal lead. Don Bosco did everything it could to find the tying goal, but Jake Brown and the defensive unit in front of him was solid, particularly while killing off an interference penalty in the final three minutes. In all, Don Bosco fired 41 shots at Brown, but he turned aside 39. “Jake Brown has been playing stellar,” said Giovanni Crepaldi, who scored twice. “He really bailed us out tonight. They had plenty of opportunities and he was right on his game and it helped us pull off the win.” Many of those saves came in the first half of the game, when Don Bosco was carrying the play. He turned aside Tyler Sedlak and Robbie Greenleaf on separate breakaways in an 18-save performance in the opening frame. “We were probably nervous with a lot of young guys in the room,” Bogan said. “We really weren’t skating that well. First period if it wasn’t for Jake we should’ve been behind. Once we started to get the game to go 5-on-5 and things settled down I thought we started to play more of our style of hockey.” Crepaldi broke the scoreless tie with 6:49 remaining in the second, as he took the pass from Peter Vallebuona and snapped a shot from the face-off dot that beat Max Schwarz on the glove side. “That’s when the butterflies start coming,” Crepaldi said. “You’re going and going and going and it feels great inside. They tied it up but I told the guys to keep playing and the opportunities were going to come. I got a second opportunity on the power play and put it in.” Thomas Schweighardt tied the game 1:54 after Crepaldi opened the scoring after finishing a great play by Sedlak, but Crepaldi struck again 2:06 later. He took the puck in nearly the same spot and ripped a perfect shot off the crossbar and in for a power-play goal. After being outshot by 13 in the opening period, Christian Brothers found its game in the final two, only getting outshot 23-22. “We told each other we had to play man-to-man a little tighter in the zone because we were letting guys on the back door loose,” Crepaldi explained. “Once we started covering them we turned our chances in the defensive zone into odd-man rushes for us in the offensive zone and it worked out.” CJ Cummings and Patrick McHugh each added an assist. Schwarz stopped 24 shots in the loss for Don Bosco, which suffered defeat in a regular season game for the first time since February 1, 2017. Liam McLinskey tied the game 72 seconds into the third period on a terrific individual effort up the left wing. Sedlak also assisted on that goal. McLinskey collected the secondary assist on Don Bosco’s first goal of the game.

NO. 3 CBA GRADUALLY FINDS ITS LEGS, EDGES NO. 2 DON BOSCO, 3-2

Photo Credit: Don Bosco Prep Athletics