Just a short two years ago, Jesuit hockey was arguably the best it has ever been, winning the state championship in 2013. The team was led by a cast of all-star players, some of which are still on the team even to this day. However, this past year was not as favorable for the Rangers as they failed to make the playoffs. On the other hand, Plano West has been in the state championship the past two years, once losing to the Rangers and the other beating Coppell and winning the state championship. Coming into this year, the Plano West team has continued its success, whereas the Rangers are still trying to “find their way,” said goaltender George McBey ’16.
The Rangers knew that in order to stymie the relentless attacks of Plano West, they would have to play to their strengths: speed and quickness. “The game started out really fast and we were definitely ready for it,” stated Cameron Bartkoski ’16. The first period was mainly a back-and-forth affair in which the Rangers would give up a break, but quickly answer with one of their own, much to the surprise of the Plano West players. Junior goaltender McBey was most certainly on his game, stopping every shot in the first period and willing his team to a one to one game at the end of the first period. “Whenever West had a chance, George was there to come out and deny it,” said Bartkoski.
The second period played out much like the first did with Jesuit executing their game plan to crisp satisfaction by stoning whatever Plano West had to throw at them. Unfortunately,  Plano West was stopping every break that the Rangers got as well. McBey commented on the game plan of the Rangers going into this game by saying, “We wanted to come out strong and match Plano West’s intensity pound for pound. Being a state championship rematch, we had  a lot of emotion put into this game and we wanted to make a statement.” Jesuit tried to wear down the Plano West defense by working the puck down low and looking for quality opportunities to expose the Plano West defense. Unfortunately, the defense for Plano West held strong and would not budge for anything. Sophomore forward Carson Platt ’17 added, “We needed to capitalize on chances we were given to just simply get pucks to the net and unfortunately for us, Plano West just was not having it.”
Things took a turn for the worse in the third period when the dreaded turnover bug came back to haunt Jesuit. A normal play from behind the net turned into Jesuit’s worst nightmare when the puck was turned over right in front of goalie McBey and resulted in Plano West’s first goal of the game. “Just a bad turnover that led to a goal for them with two minutes left,” lamented Bartkoski. Now Jesuit would have to go on the attack for one final rush to try and knot the game up at even and put the game into overtime. With under a minute left, the Rangers decided to pull their goalie in an attempt to gain the extra attacker in hopes of scoring a goal. However, Plano West was able to steal the puck and send it up ice, notching their second goal of the game, making the score 2-0 with just seconds left on the clock. This put the nail in the coffin for Jesuit’s hopes of beating current Texas State champions Plano West.
The Rangers hope to bounce back from this game by learning from their mistakes and eliminating turnovers, which ultimately cost them the game. Platt stated, “We just need to stop relying on our individual skill and, rather, use our strengths to make it more of a team game, passing rather than dangling.” With much of the season to come, the question still remains: Can Jesuit recreate the success of the 2013 state championship team? When watching this young team interact with one another, one can clearly see that the future definitely looks bright. With this newfound leadership, this Rangers team is going to turn a few heads.
