Malden Catholic wins second straight Super 8 title

By Craig Forde, Globe Correspondent

Trailing 1-0 after one period, the defending Super 8 champions Malden Catholic dug deep, grinding out a 3-1 victory over BC High in honor of their head coach Chris Serino, who has been battling throat cancer and was unable to lead the team from the bench all season long.

Sam Topham gave BC High a quick 1-0 lead when he flew down the left wing and tossed a shot on net from a tough angle, but the puck found a slice of space between goalie Connor Maloney and the post to put the Eagles up 1:58 into the game.

The Lancers offense picked up in the second period and fired 17 shots on BC High goalie Peter Cronin, who was more than up for the task, stopping all but one.

The one that Cronin couldn’t contain came off the stick of Malden Catholic captain Brendan Collier who collected a pass from Ryan Fitzgerald on the left side of the net, faked Cronin down to the ice and took it backhand on the right side to knot the game, 2-2, which is where it would stay heading into the third period.

Nick Rolli made a big play stepping up into the slot to shuffle a pass down to Mike Iovanna who backhanded the puck home on the left doorstop for a 2-1 MC lead with less than seven minutes to play in the third period.

Casey Fitzgerald closed out the scoring with an empty-netter and Serino joined his team on ice as the Lancers picked up their second straight Super 8 crown.