Hoop, Kennedy Loom Large for Lumen Hockey

Lumen Christi Catholic High School goalie Matt Hoop, center, held the old leather skate trophy following a 4-0 win over Jackson United on Friday.  Photo by Jeff Steers, JTV Sports.

By Jeff Steers
JTV Sports

Both Matt Hoop and Kavin Kennedy are listed at 5 feet, 8 inches tall on the Lumen Christi Catholic School hockey roster.

But both juniors stood tall in a rivalry win over Jackson United Hockey on Friday night at Optimist Ice Arena.

LCCHS scored three goals in the third period to pull out a 4-0 win against the Vikings.

The Titans improve to 2-0, while Jackson is 0-2 on the young season.

“I kept telling our guys he (JU goalie Barrett Roe) is stopping the first shot,” LCCHS Coach Mike Wartella said. “We had to look for rebounds and move him a little bit.”

Kennedy did just that scoring with 4:44 in the second period on his own rebound for a 1-0 LCCHS lead.

Roe was outstanding, according to Wartella and JU Coach Matt Grimes. The Michigan Center senior plays for JU stopped 18 shots in the first period to keep the Vikings in the contest.

JU opened the second period with a 5-minute power play following a major penalty on the Titans. But Jackson could only muster three shots against LCCHS and Hoop.

“We have been working on our offense all week,” Coach Grimes said. “It wasn’t our night.”

Kennedy scored the second goal of the game to open the third quarter. He was assisted on the goal by Andrew Varner and Caidan Kelly.

The Titans opened up the contest nearly 10 minutes later on a goal by Jacob Kosnik with an assist from Matt Mogle.

Kosnik tallied his second assist of the night on the Titans’ final goal by Matt Mogle. Joey Papiersky was also credited an assist on the Mogle goal.

Lumen outshot the Vikings 39-19 as Hoop stopped all 19 shots for the Titans.

The junior played at the varsity level as a freshman, fell back down to the junior varsity level last year when a senior goalie joined the squad, but is back at the varsity level this season.

“My teammates kept telling me to keep my head in the game and get the shutout,” Hoop said.

The game almost didn’t happen as winter season was pushed back due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“I was scared for a while that we were not going to have a season,” Hoop said. “After finally hearing we were going to have a season, it felt great.”

JU goalie Roe finished with 35 saves on the night.

The two teams are expected to meet again on Feb. 27 at Optimist.