They dominated the Last Chance Championship. They won all five games in the tournament and avenged a heartbreaking early-season loss to Trinity. It was all part of a nine-game winning streak the Elyria Catholic Panthers enjoyed for 16 days in February.

The last thing they want to do this season is repeat as Last Chance Championship champions.

“We will be in the Baron Cup,” senior forward Justin Saunders said. “Our goal is to make it to the Baron Cup.”

“To win the Baron Cup,” center Pat DeSouza added.

That brought a bit of a chuckle. Winning the Baron Cup is a huge order for any team not in the Red North division. Elyria Catholic, from the Red South, would make history if it won a Red Division Baron Cup.

The Last Chance is an event for the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League teams that did not qualify for the Baron Cup tournament.

The Elyria Catholic hockey team will have plenty of experienced seniors to lead the way this season. Some of the top Panthers include (from left) Brent Zifcak, Justin Saunders, Andrew Field and Pat DeSouza. (Photo by Bruce Bishop, The Chronicle-Telegram.)

“And (we want to) win the division,” DeSouza said.

That’s more realistic. It’s actually well within reach. The Panthers are a veteran club with 15 letterwinners and a large senior class that includes a trio of three-year lettermen. Elyria Catholic also returns more than half of its 115 goals scored from last season.

“I expect a lot,” Panthers coach Dave Phiel said. “This is a senior-heavy team with good offensive players. Defense might not be as strong, but we have Andrew (Field) in goal and he’s been outstanding over the preseason.

We returned a lot from last year and I think the others in our division probably lost a little.”

The nine-game winning streak came to an end in a third-round game at the Brooklyn district — a 5-3 loss to Strongsville. Elyria Catholic hopes the momentum of the final month of last season carries over this year. To avoid having to defend its Last Chance title, the Panthers are looking to get off to a better start than the one they had in 2008-09.

Elyria Catholic started out last season all right, winning its first three games in the Anderson Tournament in Parma before losing the title game to Brecksville. It was that loss that started the Panthers on a run of losing six of their next seven games.

The team rebounded with a championship in the Cleveland Heights Holiday Tournament, but followed with a 1-8-1 stretch to put its record at 9-14-1.

Part of what held back Elyria Catholic was a groin and thigh injury suffered by Field in the third game, against Parma. The Panthers won with a 10-goal outburst, but yielded six goals to the Blue Division rival.

“I told the coaches about it,” said Field, one of the three-year lettermen. “It bothered me a lot in the Parma game and it really bothered me in the championship.”

The injury lingered, and Elyria Catholic had problems in third periods because of it. Things picked up late and the Panthers allowed only 15 goals in their last 10 games. Not counting a 7-5 loss to Strongsville, Elyria Catholic gave up 26 goals over a 14-game stretch.

“The season turned out pretty good,” DeSouza said. “It could have been better. I could have been better.”

DeSouza is one of the three-year lettermen looking to have a banner year. As a sophomore, he enjoyed a 50-point season. Last year DeSouza scored only 16 goals and 33 points.

“I was playing with Richie Baker two years ago, and he was beyond human,” DeSouza said, mentioning probably the best offensive player Elyria Catholic has ever had.

DeSouza was the No. 3 scorer last year, trailing seniors Chris Andrews (43) and Mike Freeh (36). Junior Kevin Andrews comes back after scoring 29 points last year. Saunders (23), Brad Oravets (19) and Cody Toboz (19) also give the Panthers some offensive punch.

“We’ll be strong,” DeSouza said. “We have a lot of experience that will take us far. If we stay healthy we’ll be real good.”
Staying healthy is always a wild card. The team barely averted a big setback when Brent Zifcak, probably the best player on defense, suffered a medial collateral ligament injury two months ago.

“(It happened while) playing hockey,” Zifcak said. “It was a knee-to-knee collision. It was super-serious, but I’m back. It doesn’t bother me anymore. I rode a bicycle. I rode a bike a lot. It helped get the knee stronger.”

Zifcak is a two-year letterman, so he wasn’t on the Elyria Catholic team that posted a 27-6 record three seasons ago and made it to the district semifinals for the first time in school history. DeSouza, Saunders and Field were on that team, and hope to at least get close to what the upperclassmen accomplished that season.

“We can take it and go this year,” DeSouza said. “We’re good enough and we’ll get even better. We’ll jell and we’ll take it from there.”

Contact Steve Byrne at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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