Oregon boys major players in Knights’ state championship

State championships are rare, but it was not the biggest surprise when St. Francis defeated Lakewood St. Edward, 2-1, to win this year’s hockey title.

The Knights, which finished the year 28-3-2 and won the Northwest Hockey Conference Red Division title (12-0), got some help from our side of town. 

Oregon residents Jon Jaros and Brendan Booth were joined by Rossford resident Will Sherer in making the championship happen. It capped off a 22-0-1 run to end the season for St. Francis.

St. Francis has been district champions and gone to the frozen four six times in the last seven years and was a state participant four times in the last six seasons. Overall, St. Francis has reached the state frozen four 13 times with three state titles and three state runner-up finishes.

“It is a great program. It has really helped me develop as a player and as a person overall with great morals and values. Coach (Chris Varga) has obviously done an excellent job this year because we won the state championship,” Sherer said.

Our side of town has helped St. Francis win state titles before, even scoring the winning goal in the state championship game. This year, the Knights had to overcome even more adversity — making up for last year when they qualified for state but did not get to play because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It was a great feeling winning especially after what happened last year to us — we had it taken away,” Jaros said.

Jaros and Booth are wings, and Sherer is a defenseman, and all three are juniors. Jaros and Sherer both received Red Division honorable mention accolades. Jaros scored 12 goals with seven assists on 65 shots, Booth had five goals and five assists on 30 shots and Sherer had two goals and nine assists on 49 shots. When they were on the ice, St. Francis was a combined plus-56 goals.

“They are huge contributors to our team,” Varga said. “The way they played was unbelievable in the playoffs and in the regular season. They are the guys we counted on to do their job and they did their job the best they could, and we could not ask any more from them.

“Jon Jaros played unbelievable getting points and scoring goals for us in the playoffs and all season. Brendan Booth was a grinder with an edge that was getting us points, too, and that’s a great thing. Will Sherer was definitely steady on the back playing defense and was unbelievable in the playoffs and all season. I mean, I cannot say enough about all three of these guys.”

Sherer knows his role well — making sure goals get scored and the defense does its job.

“I think I’m a pretty big playmaker,” Sherer said. “I look for people who are open on the other end, try to get the puck in, or get it on net and maybe try to get a whistle. Also, playing good defense and not let anybody near the crease.”

St. Francis had lost once and tied once with St. Ed’s during the regular season, so for the Knights, ranked second in the state, to knock off the top ranked Eagles (26-4-1) was no small task. St. Ed’s outshot St. Francis 28-15, but the Knights’ defense was up to the task. 

“It took a team effort, especially with our goalie Jackson Smalley, giving us some good opportunities to keep winning, especially in the district final game (5-2 win over Sylvania Northview),” Jaros said. “It was kind of an ‘iffy’ feeling because one bad bounce shot could have gone in, but he put it on himself and basically saved face for us.”

Varga added, “We had a definite defensive style and that is what won us the game. Our special teams were unbelievable.”

Devon Homier and Luc Kuhr scored the St. Francis goals, Riley Box, the NHC Red Division Player of the Year, had two assists, Nick Mack had one and Smalley, a first team All-Red Division goalie, had 27 saves. Kuhr scored the winning goal with 5:51 remaining to break a 1-1 tie.

Sherer said as the clock wound down the final seconds, he felt like he was in a different, almost surreal reality.

“It was all kind of like a blur. When the buzzer hit, I didn’t even realize what was going on. It was just all in the moment. It was all really crazy,” Sherer said.

In the state semifinal, St. Francis defeated Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit (17-10-3), 7-2, despite just a 32-25 shot advantage. Box had a three-goal hat trick, Homier scored twice and Kuhr and Jake Myers had one goal each. Mack had four assists and Sherer, Kuhr and Gordon Hunt had one assist apiece.

Sherer, who like his teammates has been playing hockey since he was 4 years old, says it took years of day-to-day training to get to this point.

“It definitely took a lot of hard work, putting time into practice and getting all the penalty kill, power play and all of our systems right and correct. It takes a lot of training, a lot of shooting pucks, and all the fundamentals,” Sherer said.

Why do these guys put in all the time and effort? They love the game, that is why.

“I just love the feeling of carving my blade on the ice and using my stick to handle the puck,” said Sherer, who added that next year’s goal will be to defend.

In addition, the St. Francis junior varsity team won an eight-team invitational dubbed as the JV state championship and three local players were involved — Ed Flores, Dayton Amborski and Mikey Kozina. The JV team finished 19-3-1 and 5-0 in the NHC Red.

(Photos courtesy John Meyer/SFS Knights.com and Sherri Barefield).