FRAMINGHAM – The stature of 5-foot-3 St. John’s of Shrewsbury sophomore Nico Santella is far different from that of 6-foot-3, former Dream Team forward Daniel Menyalkin (Bowdoin College).
And yet, a year after Menyalkin’s two golden goals powered the Pioneers to the Div. 1 state final, Santella’s state tournament legacy is also growing.
With a third-period hat trick in Wednesday night’s Div. 1 state quarterfinal, in which he tied the game, took the lead, and added an empty-net insurance goal, the first-year varsity player sent a raucous student section into a frenzy as No. 8 St. John’s dethroned reigning state champion and top-seeded Catholic Memorial with a 4-3 upset win at Loring Arena.
Returning players from last year’s loss to the Knights wanted this rematch. And despite trailing 2-1 after the first two periods, they’re moving on to the Final Four for a second straight year.
When considering Santella’s golden goals in each of the Pioneers’ first two state tournament wins, how does head coach Michael Mead sum up that third?
“Nico Santella,” he said. “First-year varsity player, has stepped up in almost every big game we’ve had. And he continued to do it again. But it was resilient. As we said coming out of the locker room between the second and the third, that team has lost twice all year. … We knew we were capable of doing it and we just were able to prove it again tonight.”
Mead says every game leading up to this one was a building block, but an earlier comeback win over CM in the regular season – also down 2-1 – was a big confidence boost to pull off the upset.
And they did.
Both goalies and defenses had been stellar, as Knights freshman Jaxson Fleming (19 saves) and St. John’s’ Colin McCarthy (26 saves) limited the damage. Carter Richard tallied the game’s first goal for the Pioneers late in the first, only for Christian Hinckle to immediately respond, and for Will Alves to give the Knights the lead.
St. John’s came out with a fury in the third, though, which Fleming staved off initially. But a perfect feed from the corner from Jaydon Wrzosek to Santella at the backdoor post with 7:56 left tied up the score at 2-2. Santella was admired by a sea of red in the student section when he jumped into the glass in celebration less than two minutes later, after giving the group a 3-2 lead on a rebound goal in front with 6:09 to go.
Santella wasn’t expecting to make this kind of impact in his first year, but has proved clutch with now three game-winners for St. John’s so far this tournament.
“It’s just win or go home,” he said. “You never know when it’s going to be your last game, your last practice with this team. I’ve built a brotherhood (with) these guys and you never know when it’s going to be your last one.”
Composure was further tested of the group with 2:03 left, as a penalty eventually set up about 1:30 of 6-on-4 for CM.
McCarthy made a couple saves, and Santella netted an insurance goal on an empty net before CM scored again with 10 seconds left.
“(The win) is great,” Santella said. “Had to come back down 2-1, and just battled back the whole game. Feels great to knock these guys off, they lost to them last year in the state championship. It feels good to keep going.”
