St. Edward Falls to St. Francis in Hockey Championship Nailbiter  

In the OHSAA State Championship Hockey Game, the St. Edward Eagles fell to Toledo St. Francis by a score of 2-1.  

The Knights started out the scoring midway through the first period off a shot from St. Francis forward Devon Homier.  The scoring opportunity came off a powerplay for the Knights.  Though St. Francis held St. Edward scoreless through 2 periods, St. Francis goalkeeper Jackson Smalley made a combined 18 saves during these two periods.  

Going into the third period, the Eagles still had no score on the board, but just 1:41 into the third period, junior Jack Mansour finally tied the game.  The game tying shot was assisted by Ryan Dunn and Jack O’Sullivan.  With momentum on their side, St. Edward looked to potentially take the lead, but penalties prevented this from happening.  At 5:39, The Knights had a 1 man advantage due to a roughing penalty.  Just 12 seconds into the power play, St. Francis scored off a long range shot.  The Knights then held St. Edward scoreless for the remainder of the game, thus securing their program’s 3rd state championship.  

As for the St. Edward Eagles, head coach Tim Sullivan said, “Not the outcome we wanted, but I’m super proud of this group.”  In a pandemic year, St. Edward and many other teams in Ohio seriously questioned the possibility of a winter season.  Coach Sullivan emphasized, “The lessons that they’ll learn from this year, all the stuff that they did and had to do to get out and play the game: that’s winning right there.”  Coach Sullivan’s message will surely resonate to teams across Ohio, especially because all winter and spring sports concluded prematurely last year due to the pandemic.  

Both St. Francis and St. Edward will lose key seniors next year, but each team still has a great foundation to build on, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see a second chapter to this story in Columbus next season.