HAMILTON-WENTWORTH CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
Celtics Rally to Win Junior Hockey Championship

Golf ace Jett Metaxas proved to be a driving force for the Bishop Ryan Celtics hockey team Tuesday(May 6).

The Grade 10 centre scored two goals as BR came from behind to defeat the St. Mary Crusaders 6-3 at Mohawk 4 Ice Centre.

Photo by Richard Andoga

That result marked the second consecutive undefeated championship season for Bishop Ryan in the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic junior high school hockey league.

In addition to Metaxas' pair, BR got goals by Mason Hunks (on his birthday), Ethan Zivanovich, Gavin Barricelli and Luke Della Maestra.

Lucas Hall, Ben Lamb and Nick Napoleone replied for St. Mary.

The teams were tied 2-2 at the end of the first period and BR held a 4-3 advantage going into the third.

"Jett led our team in scoring this year," Celtics coach Justin Cannon said. "He's been having an unbelievable season in everything. He was an OFSAA golfer (for the second-straight year) and he was on our varsity hockey team that went to OFSAA, as well."

Leading into the various high school golf competitions last fall, Metaxas excelled by capturing all seven bantam division events on the Hamilton-Halton Junior Golf Tour.

"My goal is to get a D1 golf scholarship in the states and go professional," Metaxas said.

With that in mind, he and his golf coach travelled to Cambridge every Sunday during the winter to practise at a golf course simulator.

"This was my last year playing organized hockey (rep)," Metaxas added. "I'm still going to play varsity. But I'm officially just a golfer now. I want to focus more on golf."

After falling behind 2-0, the Crusaders struck for three consecutive goals to pull ahead early in the second period. The Celtics remained confident, however. Said Metaxas: "We had almost two periods left. I knew we could come back. We have a good bunch of guys who all want to win."

St. Mary had a power-play advantage for the final two minutes of the third period but couldn't mount a dangerous threat. The Crusaders also pulled their goaltender in favour of a sixth attacker before defenceman Della Maestra slid the puck into net with seven seconds remaining.

"I thought we did a good job of bouncing back from two down to take that lead," St. Mary coach Jason Kokoski said.

"Mistakes definitely hurt us, though. They capitalized on our turnovers. When we made a mistake they jumped on it."

St. Mary qualified for the final by downing the St. Thomas More Knights in a semifinal, while BR got past the St. John Henry Newman Cardinals.

"We won a bunch of games, so hopefully we can take that into the fall," Kokoski said.

The insurance goal for Bishop Ryan was scored with 10 minutes remaining on the rush by defenceman Barricelli.

Cannon said the win was special for his players and the team prevailed despite at the last moment not having the services of its second and third-leading scorers.

"So coming into this game we knew scoring might be a bit of a challenge for us," Cannon said. "The guys that stepped in today battled and played excellent defence."

Leading by one goal during the second intermission, Cannon said the strategy was to "shut it down" in the third period.

"We pulled our forwards back and tried to play defence," Cannon said.

Other members of the 2025 Celtics included Carter Brennan, Nicholas Groppo, Luca Moretuzzo, Cameron Costa, Nolan Pond, Krishan Perusin, Tavio Veysey, Owen Snider, Jake Debski, Austin Black, Taylor Charlton, Rocco Pingue, Jack Boyd, Liam Tocher, Matteo Caroscio, Boston Strauch, Henry Barrett, Ethan Bechamp, Ethan Boyd, Connor Lavell, Jack Racine, Danie Skolnik, Lincoln Harron, Paul Fitzpatrick and Madisyn Rilett.