Cathedral Tops Dodge County In Consolation Bracket

The Cathedral Crusaders will play for the consolation championship after topping Dodge County 7-3 Thursday at Mariucci Arena.

Senior defenseman Griffin Sturm started the scoring for the Crusaders with a power play goal at 3:16 of the opening period, his 19th of the season.

Dodge County answered on a Gabe Coshenet power play goal at 14:13 of the first, his 29th of the year, but Cathedral had a quick answer. Bo Schmidt found the back of the net at 15 minutes of the first period, giving the Crusaders a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.

Sturm started the second period scoring with his 20th tally of the season coming at 3:01 to give the Crusaders a 3-1 lead. However, Coshenet scored again for the Wildcats at 12:59 to make the score 3-2.

Crusaders sophomore Trevor Hall tallied his second goal of the season at 14:37 to give CHS a 4-2 lead at the second intermission.

Talen Ruprecht scored for Cathedral at 8:30 of the third period, his sixth of the year, to make the score 5-2 in favor of the Crusaders, but Coshenet completed a hat trick for Dodge County at 12:07 of the final period to keep the Wildcats in the game with the score 5-3.

Dodge County pulled their goaltender with about two and a half minutes left in the third period, which enabled Sturm to fling a puck into the empty net to complete the hat trick and make the score 6-3.

Senior Payten Russell capped the scoring with his first varsity goal at 16:32 of the third.

Cathedral is now 18-12 and will face the winner of Mankato West/Northern Lakes in the consolation championship game on Saturday morning at Mariucci Arena.