FILE PHOTO
St. John’s Prep head coach Kris Hanson said Saturday’s game turned when Austin Prep closed to within a goal.
By SCOT COOPER
NORTH BILLERICA — Defenseman Evan Rago, a sophomore from Saugus, blasted home his second goal of the night with 4:02 gone in the first overtime to give Austin Prep a 4-3 win over St. John’s Prep Saturday night at Chelmsford Forum.
Rago scored his team’s first and last goals, with his overtime winner putting the Cougars ahead for the only time in the game.
Austin Prep, which was knocked out of the Super 8 after losing to Marshfield in the play-in game, will move on to the Division 1 North semifinals against Andover.
There were anxious moments for the top-seeded Cougars most of the night. St. John’s had a 3-1 lead before the Austin Prep began ramping up its play late in the second period. Rago said his team wasn’t worried, and that he knew it would fight back.
“I knew we could come back,” he said. “This team never quits,” Rago said.
The winning goal was set up when Nick Cafarelli won a battle down low, won a one on one, and bumped the puck out to Rago.
“I got off a good shot,” he said. “I think it deflected off of one of their guys. We’ll take it. As long as it finds the back of the net we don’t care how it goes in.”
The game certainly didn’t start off in Austin Prep’s favor, with the Eagles burying one 41 seconds into the game.
Ryan Farrow scored the first of his two off a pass from Kyle Hentosh. Farrow moved in from AP goalie Dylan Regan’s right and whipped a backhander by his blocker.
The Cougars tied the game at one when Rago scored from the point from Richard Lyons and Jake Thain. Rago’s blast hit an Eagle leg in front of goalie Cam Ludwig and went in.
St. John’s its lead 2:19 into the second period when Farrow wristed one by Regan from the left faceoff dot. Hentosh and freshman Brian Carrabes had the helpers.
Justin Dalton put the Eagles up by two when he jumped on a rebound of Christian Kukas shot and banged it in.
Austin Prep closed out the second period with goals by Kevin Urquhart and J. J. Harding setting the stage for Rago’s heroics in OT.
“This is a good win for us,” said Austin Prep coach Lou Finocchiaro. “We’re so young — only three seniors — but we’ve been resilient all year. We’ve been looking for our identity all year, and maybe tonight we found it.”
St. John’s (11-8-2) coach Kristian Hanson said his team, played hard, but Austin Prep kept coming.
“I thought we carried the play in the first and second, they kind of took over in the third and into overtime,” Hanson said. “Things started to flip when they made it 3-2.”
