Last Thursday, February 17, 2001, Jesuit Hockey came up with a huge win over rival Coppell. This monumental victory comes with the utmost importance, as most Jesuit players view Coppell as their steepest competition and arch rival. The final score, 4-3, did not reflect Jesuit’s dominance throughout the game, as the Rangers went up 4-0 with goals from Sophomore John Leflore, who scored twice, Sophomore Alex Mersch, and Senior Connor Crumblish, the team captain, who ripped a fantastic slap shot from 15 feet out over the right shoulder of the goalie. “That was a lot of fun,” he said, “but we were just glad to get a win.” The early 4-0 lead was enough for the Rangers, who surrendered three goals in the last five minutes of the game. Coppell’s final goal came with only 11 seconds to play, an inadequate amount of time for them to even have a chance to find the back of the net. 
Leflore tallied Jesuit’s first goal only 23 seconds into the second period off an assist from Nick Alexander. Mersch added to Jesuit’s total eight minutes later, with the captain Crumblish and Scott Meyer ’12 assisting. Leflore found the back of the net once again, and pushed the Ranger lead to 3-0, finishing off of a pretty display of passing featuring Hayden Meshell ’13 and Crumblish again, his second assist of the night. Following his assists, Crumblish showed he can take over and put the puck in the net himself, tallying an impressive unassisted goal only a minute later, the team’s fourth of the second period. With a comfortable 4-0 lead, Jesuit felt content to stop pressing the attack and elected to instead play defense. For the first ten minutes of the period, this tactic held out, as the Coppell Cowboys were unable to sustain an offensive attack long enough to put in a goal and narrow the margin. However, with only five minutes left in the game, Coppell finally broke through the Jesuit defensive line and was able to put a shot in the back of the net. Perhaps flustered by allowing their first goal of the game, 
Jesuit was caught flat footed shortly after, as Coppell again found a way to score only eight seconds later. The once comfortable 4-0 lead had now been cut to 4-2, and with more than four minutes to go, the Coppell Cowboys poised their first real threat of the game. The resilient Jesuit defense, however, stiffened for the next few minutes, holding off a furious Coppell attack. Finally, with only 11 seconds to go, Jesuit surrendered its third goal of the game, a harmless one that served more to testify to Coppell’s effort than to illustrate the closeness of the game represented by the final score. Dominant for two and a half periods, Jesuit was pleased to leave with a victory, with Junior Scott Meyer saying, “We were able to hold them off for the close win against our biggest rival, Coppell.” Jesuit plays Coppell again in their next game on Thursday, February 24 at 7:00 p.m. at the Dr. Pepper StarCenter in Farmers Branch.
