Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Andrew Schrauder’s overtime goal gave the Clay hockey team a 2-1 victory over Bowling Green in the district championship, helping the Eagles set up a third consecutive regional semifinal appearance against St. Francis on March 5.
The Knights won 9-1 last year and 7-0 the year before, and those results have placed added motivation for this year’s Clay squad. St. Francis has made it to the state semifinals each of the past two seasons.
“St. Francis is one of the best teams, if not the best team in the state,” Clay’s fourth-year head coach E.J. LeMay said. “You look at their record and who they’ve played and the level of competition they play … they play Michigan schools, they play all the Catholic schools from around Ohio, and they just play a heck of a schedule. They're a heck of a squad. Coach (Chris) Varga over there … (I have) just a ton of respect for him, what he's able to do year in and year out.
“It absolutely adds some motivation, right? I mean, they've knocked us out the last two years. They've come out of our region the last two years. They had one nail biter against Northview this year, but nobody from around here has really been able to challenge them. I'm definitely looking forward to the opportunity.”
This year Clay has produced a 25-10-2 record, which includes a perfect 8-0 record in league play, which gives the Eagles three consecutive Northwest Hockey Conference (NHC) White Division titles. They defeated Beavercreek 2-0 in the district semifinal round before taking down Bowling Green in the championship.
LeMay said that his program took its non-conference strength of schedule this year to a level it hasn’t seen before, including matchups against University School, St. Ignatius (the defending state runner-up), Northview, Upper Arlington (the defending state champion), and Dublin Jerome (a top 10 team in the state).
“A lot of people don't see or realize that with our out of conference, especially our competition that we played this year, we really took it to a level that Clay's hockey program has never seen,” LeMay said. “Some of our losses are against some pretty premier competition, and we're okay with that. We wanted to play the best. We wanted to play the better competition to get us ready for playoffs and to just keep growing and pushing the program in the right direction.”
Clay returned eight starters from last year’s team, while bringing in 14 new players.
Among the squad are five seniors: 6-2 defenseman Xander Kert; 5-8 forward Grady Minnick; 6-2 forward Lucas Titgemeyer; 5-8 forward/defenseman Sean Beavers, Jr.; and 5-8 forward Andrew Schrauder.
“They've been around since I've been around,” LeMay said. “We kind of come into the program together. They've done just an amazing job and just really amazing things — three NBC White Division championships, but also the last three district championships. We've gotten to this point three years in a row now, and really all the credit (goes) to them.”
Kert is the reigning NHC White Division Player of the Year. Despite being a defenseman, he has 38 goals and 31 assists this season.
“He’s probably the most talented kid we have on the team, a defenseman that can score,” LeMay said. “He'd have a few records himself if not for Andrew. Xander's going to play hockey after high school, and that's saying something. He's that kind of a talent, a pretty household name.”
Meanwhile, Schrauder has registered 46 goals and 45 assists this year. He’s the school record holder for career points (298) and goals (158). He was a First Team All-NHC selection a year ago, and he scored both of the team’s goals against BG.
“He's our goal scorer for sure,” LeMay said. “He just knows how to put the puck in the net.
Minnick, the program’s all-time assist leader with 146, has 33 goals and 57 assists this season, just one point behind Schrauder for the team-high in points. He was a Second Team All-NHC selection last year.
“He's been a leader for us for a number of years,” LeMay said. “He’s great on face-offs and does all the little things. He's gritty.”
Titgemeyer has 10 goals and 17 assists this year, while Beavers Jr. has three goals and eight assists.
LeMay, who is 104-39-9 in three-plus seasons in charge at Clay, said that junior defenseman Gavin Minnick – Grady’s younger brother – is also a standout — a “rock solid defenseman.” He has 10 goals and 10 assists.
Among a large sophomore class are players like defenseman Russell Myers, who has 14 goals and 26 assists, and forward Brady LeMay (E.J.’s son), who has 26 goals and 33 assists.
“Myers has a rocket shot, and Brady's got like 60 points as a sophomore, which is pretty remarkable,” E.J. LeMay said. “They've all done a nice job, but really that sophomore class is just a big group effort. It's a big class.”
Another sophomore, Billy Plomaritis, and a freshman, Brennan Pryzybylski, have tag-teamed the goalkeeping duties this year. Plomaritis was in goal against BG.
“They pretty much split time,” LeMay said. “They're neck and neck. Day in and day out, they're neck and neck.”
With the roster he has, LeMay said one of the key factors in his team’s success this season has been on the defensive side.
“We're not an overpowering offense by any stretch,” he said. “We’re just not, but when they choose, they can really clamp teams up defensively. You look at the game against Bowling Green we just played. To take a kid like Nolan Winger from Bowling Green, who is the co-player of the year in the (Red Division) and hold him off the stat sheet is pretty remarkable. He's a special player.
“We played Perrysburg three times early in the year and they scored one goal on us the first game. They scored two goals on us the second game. We beat them all three times, and this team really has the ability to slow teams down and to keep the game low scoring. That’s had a huge impact on us in the win-loss column.”
Despite the records and all-time greats among the senior class, LeMay is excited for what the rest of this team will provide even after this season.
“When you look at our roster, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, you know, the Kert’s and the Schrauder’s and Minnick’s, they've been around forever.’ Yeah, they have. They have for four years, (but) when you look at our roster, we actually have more underclassmen than we do upperclassmen, so it's kind of interesting to see post this season. We’re losing those three go-getters. Those guys pretty much have every school record we have to offer. But at the same time, we return the vast majority of our players. It's pretty exciting.”
Another huge step forward for the Clay program is the addition of a JV squad for the first time.
“When I took the job four years ago, there were a lot of folks that didn't think that Clay would have a varsity program today, four years from that point,” LeMay said. “We hovered around the 16 or 17 total player mark, including goalies. And this year we got up in the mid-20s, and it's so critical if you want to really grow as a program, if you want to keep taking those steps.
“It's so critical because in a varsity game, not everybody gets in, right? It's just like any other varsity sport. Not everybody plays every game. It makes it challenging from a growth and development standpoint when kids are on the bench. This JV team we had this year, it just really gives an opportunity for kids to play a lot of minutes in game-like situations.
“You cannot simulate game-like speed in practice. You just cannot, especially all the kids you practice with. From a growth and development standpoint, it is absolutely critical.
“It's not writing a kid off to put him on JV. It's all about growth and development. I think we can continue that. With the JV team, we're going to continue that for the next few years at least. It's huge. It just comes down to getting the kids in Oregon that play hockey to play for Clay. I think that's been a struggle in the past, where kids would rather play elsewhere, play travel, or whatever it might be, and getting these kids to play for Clay. It's just so important."
Should Clay defeat St. Francis, they would face either Northview or Findlay on March 7 for a trip to the state semifinals. Both regional rounds are at BGSU’s Slater Arena.
