SHP opens with rivalry win

“Really disappointed with the defensive effort (in the second half),” said SHP head coach Brian Kreutzkamp after his Gators opened the season with a 16-8 victory.

“We led 9-2 at halftime and only outscored them 7-6 in the second. We gave up six goals in the second half. … If we play like we did in the second half (in the upcoming South Coast Tournament), it will be an absolute blowout.”

SHP received the No. 5 seed in the prestigious, 32-team South Coast Tournament in Southern California, which features the top teams in the country.

While Kreutzkamp admits he’s nervous about this weekend’s tournament, his counterpart, Jack Bowen, was encouraged by his team’s play in the second half — something he thinks his team can build on going forward.

“I said to my team at halftime, ‘That wasn’t the level we’ve been playing at. We’ve taken a quarter step back.’ … You can’t spend a half adjusting to the other team,” Bowen said. “I was happy that we did step up. … That third quarter was one of the best quarters we’ve played (this season).”

Bowen said SHP’s length and ability to cover so much water had his young team struggling to put passes together in the first two quarters. Bowen said the Gators are so fast that their zone defense can resemble a man-to-man tactic because of how quickly they can move.

“You don’t expect that,” Bowen said.

But in the third quarter, the Knights gained some confidence, scoring a pair of goals in the opening three minutes. Calvin Barad scored off an assist from Lincoln Bott, who took advantage of a SHP turnover near midpool and turned it into a Barad breakaway.

A little more than a minute later, Hunter Coleman coverted a one-timer in front, off an entry pass from Alex Stoffel.

Nelson Harris stopped the Menlo run with a goal off an assist from Oliver Marcin, but Barad came back with his second goal of the period to close to 10-5.

Trailing 11-5, Menlo opened the scoring in the fourth period, as well, with Coleman scoring on a breakaway after Clay Carrington’s shot ricocheted off the goal frame out to midpool, where the Knights corralled the loose ball and turned it into a goal.

Down 11-6, there was some thought the Knights might yet make a game of it.

But two goals inside of a minute pushed SHP’s lead back 13-6 with just over half the period left to play. Marcin scored a power play goal, followed by a 5-meter penalty-shot conversion.

“Playing a team like Sacred Heart … if you make a mistake, they make you pay,” Bowen said.

Not surprisingly, SHP got off to a bit of a slow start as the Gators, literally, got their feet wet against a regular-season opponent for the first time in 2024. While they managed eight shots in the first period, only half were actually on frame. Marcin, who is the starting set for youth national team, opened the scoring with a goal from the set. He made it 2-0 when he converted an alley-oop with 4:52 left in the opening period.

Menlo struggled even more getting shots off, managing just two on frame, but Coleman cut the Gators’ lead in half, converting a goal on a quick restart. Carrington’s first goal of the match gave SHP a 3-1 lead after one period.

In the second, the Gators found their shooting range, as they scored on their first four shots of the quarter and scored on six of seven attempts as they turned a 3-1 lead into a 9-2 advantage.

Marcin drew a kickout that led to a Jake Reinke strike, the first of two goals in the period for the senior. It was the first of four unanswered goals for the Gators. Harris added a pair of goals in the quarter, with Carrington and Ryan Parr rounding out the scoring in the half.

“We haven’t played (a game until Tuesday), so I knew there would be some rustiness,” Kreutzkamp said. “I thought Menlo did a good job of not giving up.”