The Brother Rice varsity soccer team holds the championship trophy after defeating Catholic Central. (Photo Credit: Patrick McIntyre)

by Evan Petzold

PONTIAC, Michigan - It did not take long for Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice to find the net and snag a quick lead, which eventually led to a 2-1 win over Novi Detroit Catholic Central.

With the victory, Brother Rice took home the A-B CHSL Championship, their first since 2012 and deprived CC a chance to repeat.

Brother Rice scored a minute and a half into the game, when forward Ryan Washeleski fired a shot to give the Warriors (8-3-3; 3-3 CHSL) an early lead. With 25 minutes left in the first half, Marcello Rea converted a beautiful cross from Michael Burwell for the Warriors’ second goal.

Brother Rice showed how dominant they were with solid defense to end the first half against the Shamrocks (14-1-2; 6-0-2 CHSL). The defense, however, faltered to start the second half, but eventually returned to good form.

“We have a strong defense,” Rice head coach Barry Brodsky said. “We have a strong keeper. It was frantic at times. Scoring a goal in soccer is tough. If you have to get one and the other team knows it and we can all defend, sometimes that’s good enough, and tonight it was.”

Jack Fitzpatrick started in net for the Warriors and made multiple key plays to keep the Shamrocks to just one goal. Fitzpatrick was injured with five minutes left to play, but returned just two minutes later.

With 3:16 to play, Catholic Central senior midfielder Ben Sargent fired a free kick into the top left corner from about 25 yards out for the Shamrocks’ goal.

The Warriors defense locked down the Shamrocks’ offense the rest of the way, led by Shaun Bach and Jack McConnell.

“(This loss) doesn’t define us,” the Catholic Central coach Gene Pulice said. “We’ll come back and see you in the state finals.”