Trinity Catholic senior Mike Marchionda (left) tangles with Lowell Catholic's Shane Guarino on his way to four goals, including the game-winner with two seconds left and his 100th career point, last night at Watertown's Ryan Rink.
By Justin A. Rice/Daily News correspondent
The goal was the Trinity Catholic senior defenseman's fourth of the night, the Falcons final score of a 5-4 victory, and Marchionda's 101st career point.
At the start of the period, Marchionda - who had 97 points going into the game - completed a hat trick to reach the century mark. That goal gave his team a 3-2 advantage, which eventually slipped away and seemed lost forever. That was until Trinity sophomore defenseman Kyle Manning tied the game, 4-4, with 1:28 to play and Marchionda won it 86 seconds later.
``Unbelievable, it's the best feeling ever, I can't say anything else about it,'' Marchionda said after his team improved to 5-6-3 on the year. ``It's just an experience that's probably never going to happen again.
``I was thinking: I don't want to lose my 100-point game, we need to win this.''
Before his miraculous game-winning goal, it seemed like Marchionda's third score of the evening might be the most timely of the game. After scoring consecutive goals to put his team up 2-1, Trinity gave up the tying goal in the final seconds of the second period.
It didn't take long for Marchionda to get it back. With 12:07 to play in the game, he netted his 100th point on an assist from junior forward Chris Nickerson.
``I didn't even know it was the 100th (point),'' he said. ``When I got on the bench (one of the coaches) congratulated me and I was like: `For what?' Now that I know it, it's a pretty special goal and I'll always remember it.''
The game was not stopped, but the milestone was announced over the public address system. There wasn't any fanfare heading into the game either. Trinity Catholic coach John Devaney purposely didn't tell Marchionda he was three points shy of 100.
``I just didn't want to let him know,'' Devaney said of Marchionda, who has 36 of the team's 55 goals this season, including two five-goal performances in the last four games. ``(I wanted to) let him play his regular game. The points will come.''
Marchionda's first two points of the game didn't come so quickly, however. After a scoreless opening period, Lowell Catholic (4-6-3) got on the board first with 13:26 left to play in the second stanza. Marchionda finally put the Falcons on the board with 2:08 left in the second period. The goal, which was also assisted Nickerson, opened a flurry of offense.
With 47.2 seconds left in the period, Marchionda got his second goal, this time unassisted. But the Falcon defense broke down and let in the equalizer with 14.5 seconds left in the second period. The goal was scored by sophomore Jake Santorelli and assisted by eighth-grade forward Joe Santorelli.
``I came in the locker room and said `Keep you head up, keep working hard, we're still in the game - it's only 2-2,''' Marchionda said. ``They stayed with me. We have a young team this year, so there's nothing I can really do except keep their hopes up and make them better players.''
Halfway through the final period, Lowell Catholic tied the game for the second time when Joe Santorelli beat TC goalie Sean Moccia.
About a minute later, freshman defender Adam Beckwith got what looked to be the game-winning goal for the Crusaders after taking a pass from another eighth-grader, Aaron Crandall, to go up 4-3 with 5:49 to play in the game.
But late in the third, Lowell Catholic was called for roughing. And about a minute later, Manning came through with his game-tying slap shot on the power play.
``I was ready to take a slap shot and it hit off the goalie's pads,'' Manning said. ``Then I think it took a bounce off someone, and then when it went in it was just crazy. Then when Mike scored the game-winning goal, it was amazing.
``It's just ridiculous. That's all you can say about that.''
Both Manning and Nickerson played the entire game as the Falcons only have 13 players, including two goalies.
``I'm speechless,' Nickerson said. ``That was a great goal. We all played our hearts out.''
Devaney said that in his 14-year tenure with the Falcons, they have never scored a game-winner like last night's.
``We had tying goals, but we haven't had a winning goal (like that),'' he said. ``That was just a great high school hockey game. There's a lot of ties in our league, and a lot of one-goal games in our league. The competition is great. In our league, things are pretty tight.''
Things could not have been tighter in the final seconds last night when junior forward Steve Simmons passed to Kevin McAdam, who poked the puck to Marchionda at the blue line.
``I skated in thinking: What move am I going to do to beat him?'' Marchionda said. ``I didn't know if I was going to shoot it or deke him. I just went with the deke.
``I can't believe I scored.''
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