St. Thomas capitalized in the first quarter on a 2-minute un-releasable penalty late in the quarter to spurt out to an early lead and pretty much sustained that early lead throughout the game to gain a little bit of revenge for last season’s Elite 8 playoff game won by CC.  Of course, that is little consolation as the bigger stage looms in a few weeks down the line, when if form holds, they will likely see each other again with higher stakes on the line in the Round of 16.  Getting healthy had a dual meaning last night; both as an important quality win for an STA team that has suffered through an injury-filled five game losing streak to four Top 10 Florida teams, all on the road, and to national power McDonogh.  But it also means the health of the roster, as both RJ Curtin and Dillon LaGamma made their season debuts for STA and their presence was immediately felt, making STA a dangerous team going forward. Watching these two teams play each other is an interesting experience.  This is rapidly becoming a heck of a rivalry as Columbus, under Head Coach Jim DeLang, has developed a program that provides a fast-paced attack that STA tends to match when they play.  As I was watching the game two visual thoughts came to mind.  One, which so many of us are familiar with down here, is like watching two motorcycles racing up I-95, zooming in and out of lanes, scaring the heck of out of the rest of the drivers.  The other visual that comes to mind was the old cartoon character, the Roadrunner, always making life miserable for Wiley E. Coyote.  When these two teams play Wiley is both defenses and the goalies on each team. But last night Wiley got the last laugh . . . for once. In my opinion, STA goalie Ben Tobin won this game for his team with stellar first-half play.  Although he was credited with only 6 first half saves, almost all of them were on clean, close-in scoring chances that Tobin turned away with terrific positional play.  And as the game went on the CC offense pressed more and more and the turnovers mounted, including 11 in the 3rd quarter alone as STA put the game away. Which is why those who attended last night’s game should not assume a playoff match-up would be a repeat.  To continue the 60’s-70’s analogies one more time, this game has a Lost in Space Robot ‘Danger, Warning . . . ‘ reminder to it.  Which is why a re-match in April will be so intriguing, as when these teams meet the game tends to be played at CC’s pace, which STA’s players tend to have no desire to change.  But that style does have consequences and one of them was the two teams combining for 56 turnovers, and I was generous in counting them, as at times possession lasted only a few seconds before the turnover occurred, and then again occurred, and I skipped a couple of those.  In a rematch the team that takes better control of the ball will have a big advantage. But last night STA beat CC at it’s own game, and did it pretty well, most of the time.  In last year’s playoff game the shots on goal were less than half of the shots at goal.  Last night, both teams hit the cage with 50% of the shots they attempted.  That favors STA, but there were times when STA lost discipline in their offense and particularly in the second half attempted too many long range shots when discretion would have been the better option.  Of course, CC presses out, tries to run on everything and sometimes teams just get too caught up in that. Should be fun. Curtin’s return, in particular, made a big difference.  LaGamma showed a little more rust but did create chances.  I believe he hit the crossbar a couple of times too.  But either way, their return bodes well for STA, as the kids have gained their experience under fire, and they can go back to providing more options as opposed to having to carry the load entirely. Columbus did dominate faceoffs, utilizing a series of players in the dot, but were not able to take advantage on quick attempts at goal off the faceoff win. CC did open the scoring at 10:23 of the first, as Michael Bulnes picked up a loose ball on the right wing and drove in towards the cage before bouncing in a low, left-handed shot.  The teams traded possessions and shot attempts for the next 5-plus minutes until Sebi Cancio took a 2-minute penalty with a little under 5 minutes left in the period and STA pounced all over it.  At 4:28, Revin Koss took RJ Curtin’s top side feed right in front of the goal as STA was able to work a hidden ball deception and Koss scored all alone.  At 3:40 it went to 2-1 as Koss found Curtin on the right side of the net and Curtin placed it low to the short side.  Just 17 seconds later Evan Schimek took Tobin’s outlet pass off a save and and took off straight down the field, beating his defender and hitting the left side of the net and STA had scored 3 EMO goals.  STA kept the pedal to the metal and at 1:36 Louie Yovino took Koss’ left wing cross-field pass and fired a 10-yard right wing shot to the upper left corner to make it 4-1 and with 0:25 left Matt Sweeney took Curtin’s left wing feed as he cut off goal line extended and hit the short side to make it 5-1 after one. In the second CC cut the lead at 10:14 as #14 (sorry, I don’t see the name on the roster so if anyone has the name or if the number is wrong let me know and I’ll correct it) worked a left wing dodge to the middle of the field and hit the high corner, far side for 5-2.  STA then scored two straight to lengthen the lead out.  At 7:47 Jimmy Harrington curled out from behind the left side of the net and shot home a tight angle low shot and just 46 seconds later Curtin scored unassisted, working the left wing and firing from about 7 yards out with the right hand.  CC then responded just 11 seconds later as Cody Braes took the re-start and took off down the right alley before finding the top left corner to make it 7-3 at halftime. STA took complete control of the score board in the 3rd, out scoring CC 4-1 to make it 11-4 after 3.  Alec Cumella started the run at 8:57, scooping up Curtin’s left wing feed on the right side and placing it low with left hand and 32 seconds later Sam Khalil, also returning from an in-season injury, picked up a loose ball 5 yards out and fired left-handed to the low left corner and it was 9-3.  CC got one back on EMO at 7:04 as Danny Rancano fired home a step-down from the right wing after receiving Nicky Quintaros’ right GLE pass.  But STA came back with two late goals, both unassisted Curtin tallies to end the period.  At 2:44 he scored on a left wing face dodge and then at :41 he showed his versatility as worked his way out from right GLE and instead of driving, faded back to create space and placed a left-hand bounce shot between CC goalie Jon Nickas’ legs to end the period. CC tried to make a run in the fourth and pulled within 11-6 after scoring twice in the first minute of the period.  Cancio lured his defender out on the right wing and beat him to the middle, scoring left-handed to the right side of the cage at 11:13 and just 12 seconds later Bulnes picked up a loose ball off the faceoff, cut down the right side and bounced one to the low left corner. But STA responded with two of their own a few minutes later to return the lead to 7 as Khalil took Yovino’s right wing feed as he cut down the middle to make it 12-6 at 8:39 and 40 seconds later Curtin ended his day unassisted, taking on two defenders and firing high.  Cancio got one back for CC at 6:11 unassisted as he split the defense up top, placing it low left with the right hand.  Cumella then closed out the scoring at 1:45 as he took Bailey Rosen’s left GLE feed to the middle. Engines revving down now. Back to the garage until mid-April. As befitting the game, a very good-sized crowd too.  And as I’ve said before, the best hamburgers of any school I visit.  For $2 each.  Keep them coming!  And a shout-out to the announcing team for helping out with names and rosters!   Team Statistics Faceoffs:  CC 16 -8 Shots:  STA 46 – CC 38 Shots on Goal:  STA 23 – CC 19 Turnovers:  STA 27 – CC 29 Penalties:  STA 2 – CC 4   Individual Statistics   STA RJ Curtin  4G/3A Alec Cumella  3G Revin Koss  2G/1A Sam Khalil  2G Louie Yovino, Jimmy Harrington, Matt Sweeney and Evan Schimek  1G each Bailey Rosen  1A   CC Michael Bulnes and Sebi Cancio  2G each Cody Braes, Danny Rancano and #14  1G each Nicky Quintaros  1A   Ben Tobin with 12 saves for STA and Jon Nickas with 9 saves for CC   Thanks to Coaches Crowley and DeLang for spending time with me before and after the game.  Also got to spend some time with Terry’s son JP before the game and wish him well with his injury recovery! STA returns to action next weekend, hosting Georgia power Milton while CC hosts Boca Raton on Tuesday in another fascinating match-up of styles.