The San Juan Dragons defeated Whatcom 13-6 at home Saturday to clinch second place in WHSBLA Division II and advance to the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
Boys Division I and II state quarterfinal play gets under way May 21. The 31st boys state championships take place May 30 at Memorial Stadium near the Seattle Center.
The Dragons finished the regular season 8-4, surpassing their 2008 record of 5-5. Junior attack Forest Dayton finished fourth in Division II in goals (38). Junior goalie Calen Mehrer finished ninth in Division II in saves (125).
Saturday, senior attack Isaac Taylor and Dayton each scored three goals to lead San Juan to the win over Whatcom.
Whatcom struck first as Daniel Hernandez connected for his only goal of the game at 7:26 of the first. But San Juan retaliated just 23 seconds later as senior midfielder Dylan Galligan won the following draw and marched in on Whatcom goaltender Curtis McFadden to knot the game at one.
San Juan connected again with just 24 seconds remaining in the first on an unassisted shot by Dayton.
In the second, Dayton scored again, connecting just 11 seconds into the period for the first of a three-goal run by San Juan. Following a Jake David net at 5:54 for Whatcom’s second goal, Taylor connected at 3:23 to give San Juan a 6-2 advantage at the half.
Following the intermission, San Juan got down to business scoring two goals within the first 1:28 of the second half. But it was junior defenseman Michael Ausilio that fired up San Juan, setting the tone for the remainder of the game.
After grabbing a ground ball in the Whatcom zone, Ausilio rumbled up to midfield and dished the ball off. When the ball came back to him, Ausilio charged in on McFadden, beating him on the right non-stick side for his first goal of the season.
“That really fired up the guys. It was really the capper,” San Juan Coach Rob Cuomo said. “At that point, we said, ‘No penalties. If we play smart we’ll be OK.’ ”
Whatcom retaliated with three goals of its own to narrow San Juan’s lead to 9-5 but never got any closer as Dayton connected for his third of the night to round out the quarter and San Juan went on to score three of the fourth quarter’s four goals to put the game out of reach.
Cuomo credited the success of the San Juan offense to junior goaltender Mehrer, who stopped 14 of 20 Whatcom shots, including nine in the first half.
“Calen played the angles so well today. He stopped a lot of goals with his body. He was in the right place at the right time. When he’s playing well, they know they have an ace in the hole.”
Scoring
Whatcom 1 1 3 1 — 6
San Juan 2 4 4 3 — 13
Highlights
Forest Dayton, S.J., 3 goals, 4 assists; Isaac Taylor, S.J., 3 goals, 1 assist; Ryan Guard, S.J., 2 goals; Calen Mehrer, S.J., 14 saves; Patrick Cassidy, W, 2 goals; Eli Davis, W, 2 goals; Curtis McFadden, W, 7 saves.
