After his hat trick in the quarterfinals, Concord sophomore Brooks Craigue was scoring again just three minutes into Wednesday night’s semifinal against Bishop Guertin.
“I like to play in big games,” Craigue said. “I get pretty excited, so I just came out ready.”
Craigue stayed ready all game and finished with a goal and an assist, Kevin Jones was excellent in net with 27 saves and Concord skated to a convincing 4-1 win against BG. That brings Craigue and the Crimson Tide (15-2-0) to the last big game of the season – Saturday night’s championship against Salem. The Blue Devils beat Bedford in the other semifinal, 2-1, in overtime.
Concord also won in the semifinals last season, but the coronavirus pandemic canceled the championship. Now, the Tide can finish what it started.
“This is where we left off last year,” said Concord junior Ryan Philbrick, who was a rock on the blue line. “We really wanted to get another chance on Saturday, and we played well (against Guertin), and now we get that chance.”
Philbrick said those stakes had the Tide had a little anxious as they waited for their 7:45 p.m. start time at JFK Coliseum in Manchester. But Concord didn’t show any nerves once the puck dropped, and Craigue’s goal 3:09 into the first wiped away any lingering jitters. Colin Nelson’s shot rebounded off BG goalie John Casey to Craigue in the high slot and the center wristed one inside the left post.
“The puck squirted out and it was a pretty open net and I just finished,” Craigue said. “It was good to get on the board early, that helped us.”
It was Nelson scoring off a Craigue shot that put Concord up 2-0 with just :34.5 left in the first. The puck was headed out of the zone when Craigue gathered it around the blue line and flipped it toward the net, but before it could get there Nelson redirected past Casey to double the Tide’s lead.
It went to 3-0 when Noah Drew buried a shot from the bottom of the left wing circle on a nice find from Joey Ala 4:55 into the second period. The Cardinals responded with pucks on net and physical play, but Jones and the Tide were up for it and took their three-goal lead into the third.
“They were a lot more physical than other teams we’ve played, but it didn’t really affect us where we couldn’t make plays,” Philbrick said. “But definitely more physicality than we’re used to.”
Jones was called on again in the final period when Concord took three penalties in the first three minutes of the third. That gave BG, in essence, fives minutes of power play that included two stretches of 5-on-3. The Cardinals capitalized with a goal 2:53 into the period when Daniel Woodford scored from Quinn Cepiel, who was dangerous all game, but that was all they would get.
“We kept taking penalties, and they were penalties, we got our sticks caught under skates and tripped a few guys, and it’s scary when they make it 3-1 and we’re on 5-on-3 again, but our guys dug deep and did a great job,” Concord coach Dunc Walsh said. “Jonesy was good and once we got to 5-on-5 I thought we played well in the third. And when we got that fourth goal it was game over.”
That came from Zach Drew, who scored off a rebound from a Colin O’Brien shot with 3:34 left on the clock.
“I thought we played well, and our best players really stepped up, Philbrick and Craigue were so good,” Walsh said. “But the whole team played well, and played hard. This was a good win for us, and now we’ve got two days of practice to get ready for Salem.”