DELAFIELD, Wis.—Cooper Nanney put the puck into the back of the net just over a minute into Kettle Moraine’s regional final showdown against the Beloit Memorial boys hockey team.
Nanney then lasered in three more goals for the Lasers before the period was through they took a 4-1 lead that gave them all the momentum it needed to down the Purple Knights 8-5 at Naga-Waukee Ice Arena.
11th-seeded Beloit (10-16-0) had advanced to the championship after knocking off Marquette 7-4 on Tuesday, but the hot start from the third-seeded Kettle Moraine forward proved to be too much to overcome.
Logan Chavez scored for the Lasers (14-7-1) and Nanney tallied another before Marcus Allen got the Knights on the board off assists from Drake Juhl and Max Allen. But Nanney secured a first-period hat trick when he scored late on a power play.
Eli Schawrtz scored back-to-back for the Lasers before Cole Rowald matched him with two-straight goals of his own. Rowald’s first shot was assisted by Jayden Piccione and Gavin Brady while the second was off passes from Piccione and Max Allen.
Up 6-3, Schawrtz got his goal tally up to four with a pair of scores in the third. Marcus Allen scored off an assist by Max Allen and Max Allen finished the scoring with a goal off a pass from Brady.
Gentry Grant made 17 saves for Beloit while Ethan Nappier made 19 for Kettle Moraine
The Knights were tacked for eight penalties compared to the Lasers’ six. Kettle Moraine scored three goals on power plays while Beloit scored on two.
The Lasers will travel to face the second-seeded University School of Milwaukee in the sectional semifinals on Tuesday.
• IHSA 1A BOYS STATE WRESTLING: North Boone’s Gavin Ekberg started off his first day at the State Farm Center in Champaign with a solid 6-2 decision win over Ridgeview’s Danny Tay (42-6).
But the 126-pounder fell to Harrisburg’s Tony Keene (42-6) in an 11-2 major decision in the quarterfinals. Ekberg (37-7) will now compete in the first round of the wrestlebacks to try and make a run at third place starting tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.
• IHSA 3A BOYS STATE WRESTLING: Hononegah had four wrestlers open the tournament with victories while four other matmen fell on Thursday.
Rocco Cassioppi, Bruno Cassioppi, Thomas SIlva and Brody Sendele all secured wins in the opening round and will compete in the quarterfinals that begin Friday at 8:30 a.m.
Freshman Rocco Cassioppi (41-3, 106) opened with a dominating 8-0 major decision win over Belleville West’s Rocky Seibel (31-5) and will face another Rocco, Sandburg’s Rocco Hayes (45-1), who advanced on a 1:21 pin. Twin brother Bruno (35-4, 113) also earned a major decision victory as he won 16-2 over DeKalb’s Kaden Kalpprodt (25-18). He moves on to wrestle Stagg’s Jaime Corrall (29-8), who opened with a close 3-2 victory.
Silva (26-4, 132) won via tech fall in a 4:44 grudge match with Lincoln-Way East’s Tyson Zvonar. The senior will face York’s Zack Parisi (47-3), who advanced on a 9-4 win.
Sendele (44-2, 157) opened with a strong 11-4 win over Catholic Academy’s Luke Hamiti. The freshman will next face Wheaton North’s Thomas Fulton (40-8), who advanced via a 4:53 pinfall.
Competing in wrestlebacks that also begin at 8:30 a.m. will be Robert Darling, Max Haskins, Connor Diemel and Kurt Smith.
Darling (29-17, 138) was pinned by York’s Frank Nitti (42-9) in 1:16, Haskins (34-9, 150) lost a hard-fought battle with Yorkville’s Jack Ferguson (42-10), Diemel (43-6, 165) was edged 5-3 by Catholic Academy’s Max Corral (31-15) and Smith (38-10, 175) was defeated 8-4 by Bradley-Bourbonnais’ AJ Mancilla (42-5).
• GIRLS BASKETBALL: BRODHEAD 55, EVANSVILLE 49: Alecia Dahl scored 21 of her game-high 32 points in the second half to help the Cardinals down the Blue Devils in both teams’ regular-season finale.
It was a low-scoring contest to start with Brodhead (16-8, 10-5 Rock Valley Rock) leading 18-16 at halftime.
The Cardinals surged on a 10-0 run that distanced themselves for good in the second half.
Yates added 14 points for Brodhead while Evansville (6-18, 6-9) was led by Brooklyn Maves and Ava Brandneburg, who each scored 15.
• BOYS BASKETBALL: LENA-WINSLOW 55, SOUTH BELOIT 24: The normally hot-scoring SoBos were silenced in a tough loss to the well-rounded Panthers (21-8) to end the regular season on Thursday night.
No additional stats were reported.
Third-seeded South Beloit (22-7) will open IHSA 1A regional play at home against 13th-seeeded Stockton (7-19) on Monday at 6:30 p.m.
• BOXSCORE:
KETTLE MORAINE 8, BELOIT MEMORIAL 5
Beloit Memorial 1 2 2 — 5
Kettle Moraine 4 2 2 — 8
FIRST PERIOD: KM, Nanney (Kitto, Chavez), 1:23; KM, Chavez (Yager), 8:38; Nanney (Duncan, Yager), 9:39 (pp); BM, Brady (Juhl, Max Allen), 10:27; KM, Nanney (Reno), 16:56 (pp).
SECOND PERIOD: KM, Schwartz (unassisted), 6:22; KM, Schwartz (unassisted), 8:02 (pp); BM, C. Rowald (Brady, Piccione), 10:54 (pp); BM, C. Rowald (Piccione, Max Allen), 16:57 (pp).
THIRD PERIOD: KM, Schwartz (unassisted), 5:11; KM, Schwartz (Yager), 8:21; BM, Marcus Allen (Max Allen), 8:52; BM, Max Allen (Brady), 14:45.
Saves: KM (Nappier) 7-8-4-19; BM (Grant) 12-4-1-17.
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