Different sport, same result. Almost three months after Santa Margarita Catholic defeated San Jose Bellarmine Prep to win the Division I State Championship Bowl in football, the Eagles and Bells played again for another state title.
In ice hockey.
And , Santa Margarita was holding the hardware after the final horn, a 4-1 winner over Bellarmine at the Honda Center on Sunday.
The action-packed weekend for the ice hockey club—it's not an officially sanctioned California Interscholastic Federation sport—included victories over JSerra, 8-0, Cerritos Valley Christian, 7-2, and the first of two wins over Bellarmine, 2-0.
Santa Margarita, playing its first season since strength and conditioning coach was killed in June, outscored its four opponents, 21-3 as the Eagles got outstanding goaltending from senior Connor O'Brien.
Yet even if O'Brien hadn't been superb, stopping 27 of 28 shots, the Eagles offense might have had enough to carry the day. They got goals from Mike Kilkuts, Kyle Speirkel, Logan Borzansky and Kyle Conway.
The Eagles will now have a short layoff period before they head to Kearns, UT, for the USA Hockey National tournament, March 21-25.
Editor's note: The original version of this story included information about another student named Connor O'Brien who played football; he is not the same Connor O'Bren who plays hockey. Patch regrets the error.
