An ambitious schedule prepared St. John’s Jesuit for the postseason, and a regular-season loss to Ottawa Hills planted the seed for revenge.
The Titans got their retribution on an unseasonably warm evening on Thursday, defeating Ottawa Hills 8-5 in a Division I, Region 5 quarterfinal. The victory avenged a 10-5 loss to Ottawa Hills on April 22.
“It felt really good to come out here and show what our team has been through,” St. John’s midfielder Jude Dzierwa said. “Losing to them the previous game, [this] felt really good.”
No. 7 seed St. John’s (11-7) advances to the regional semifinal where it will play second-seeded Rocky River on Tuesday. The site is to be determined.
The Titans withstood a furious fourth-quarter rally by Ottawa Hills, which trimmed a 6-3 deficit to 6-5 with less than four minutes left. Jack Perozek scored the second of his two goals, and a Sam Petro goal cut the St. John’s lead to one, sending Niedermeier Stadium into delirium.
The Green Bears had a few more chances to tie the score, but St. John’s made game-changing defensive stops. An Ian Maloney goal with less than two minutes remaining gave the Titans a two-goal cushion.
“That’s a great team, so we expected them to get a shot to come back,” St. John’s coach Andy Smith said. “We told our guys at halftime to expect it, and that it was gonna happen at some point. It would be how we responded to that pressure that determined how the game ended.”
St. John’s won the opening faceoff and quickly went to work, scoring the first two goals of the game. Ottawa Hills goaltender Adam Fizer made his first of several point-blank saves in the first minute, but Quinn Wiklendt and Jude Dzierwa responded with back-to-back goals that set the tone.
Three times the No. 6 seed Green Bears (11-6) got within a goal and, on all three occasions, St. John’s answered. Goaltender Ian Horner made multiple split-second saves.
The Titans never trailed.
“We knew their team is enormously physical and, if they were able to get a lead early, they could really take their time and stretch the clock out,” Smith said. “We were fortunate to get a few early goals, so we could do that to them instead.”
The teams combined to score three goals in the final minute of the third quarter. Alexander Speer of St. John’s put the Titans up 5-2, a deflating but short-lived blow as Ottawa Hills’ Reece Hill — Ohio’s all-time leader in career goals — scored a few seconds later.
That euphoria, however, was also short-lived because the Titans scored almost immediately, Dzierwa’s third goal of the night.
“It was really exciting just to come out here and do my best and support my brothers,” Dzierwa said. “It’s not just me that had a good game, it was everyone around me.”
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