Mounties Top Rebels In Overtime

Mount St. Charles junior Ben Handanyan scooped up a bouncing pass across the crease and drilled the top left corner of the net with 51 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Mounties a 10-9 win over South Kingstown High Tuesday at Curtis Corner Middle School.

“It was a great game, we’re very excited about the way we played and we knew that South Kingstown was a very good team,” Mount head coach Dave Roderick said.

Handanyan’s goal came after a furious scramble from the Rebels to tie the game and force overtime.  Trailing 9-7 with less than five minutes to go South Kingstown senior Cam Ormiston scored on an assist from senior Tanner Duggan to cut the deficit in half.

“Our focus was to not panic,” South Kingstown head coach Thomas Duggan said.  “When you get down and the clock is ticking the temptation is to really push too hard, so we tried to get the guys to settle down.”

The Rebels had a series of opportunities to tie the game over the next four minutes before Duggan finally broke through with a goal with 40 second remaining in the game.

South Kingstown appeared to have momentum clearly on its side, but it changed in the blast of a whistle when the Rebels were called for a penalty that forced them to play a man down for one minute with just 1:20 remaining in the game.

This set the table for Handanyan’s goal, as the Rebels’ disadvantage in numbers allowed him to get a clean look at the net.

“It is a tough loss, but Mount is a very good team and we knew that they were going to be good,” coach Duggan said.  “We got behind early and kept clawing back, and it was nip and tuck game for the rest of the game.”

Rebels’ goalkeeper junior Noah Jenckes, who was in good position on the play and was just beat by a great shot, had a good day in net with eight saves.

As good as Jenckes was, however, his counterpart senior Mike Rocchio was even better for the Mounties, making a number of fantastic saves on his way to 18 total stops.

“I think Mike Rocchio is the best goalie by far in our division,” Roderick said.  “He’s tough, he’s physical and he’s grown up a lot from last season.”

Handanyan and senior Alex Erban combined for six goals to lead the Mounties, while Ormiston, Duggan and senior Ben Murray combined for all nine of South Kingstown’s goals.

The Rebels (4-2 Division-II South, 6-2 overall) will look to rebound from the loss Thursday at 3:30 p.m. when they face Lincoln High at Lincoln High School.

“We sometimes want to fix too much, and I don’t think it is much fixing too much as it is doing a better job of executing,” coach Duggan said. 

Mount (4-2 Division-II North, 4-5 overall) will be back in action Thursday at 4 p.m. when they host The Prout School.

“This win was absolutely huge, especially coming off a year where we lost eight seniors,” Rocchio said.  “It’s a huge confidence booster that we can win with such a young team.”