Garden City, NY – A fantastic defensive display by the #3 Dragons earned the right to compete for a national championship with a 16-8 win over the #2 CCBC Essex Knights.
 
The Knights stunned the Dragons with the opening goal just nine seconds into the game, but Howard answered back a few minutes later as a no look pass by Chase Howard found a wide open Brian Zajac (Brookeville MD/Good Counsel) who dunked it in from close range. Howard took their first lead a minute later when a great feed by Philip Petersen (Vail, CO/Eagle Valley) was deflected into the net by Kaden Brennan (Kingsville, ON/Kingsville District). Zane Dalpe (Belle River, ON/Saint Anne) scored a couple minutes later to double the Howard lead with Noah adding another later on with a long range missile.
 
CCBC scored to close the deficit, but Max Bruno (Ellicott City, MD/Howard) dodged beautifully through the Essex defense to score in front of the net with a minute left in the first half. The Dragons had one more moment of brilliance in the first quarter as Noah was able to fire a shot home with less than a second remaining to give Howard a dominating 6-2 lead after the first period.
 
Essex scored the first two goals of the second quarter, but a huge goal by Dewey Schoenfelder (Sykesville, MD/South Carroll) stemmed the tide. Brennan Treacy (Woodbine, MD/Saint Pauls) used his infamous power move to double up Essex 8-4 midway through the second quarter while Dalpe and Noah each added to their respective tallies to give Howard a 10-4 halftime lead.
 
The defensive efforts of the Dragons really shown through in a third quarter that saw just one goal scored led by goalkeeper Chris Peterson (Saline, MI/Saline) and his 10 saves on the day. The starting trio of Jackson Loftis, Connor Gladstone (Warrenton, VA/Kettle Run), and Jimmy Connor were nothing short of stellar on the day holding the three starting attackers for the Knights to just three shots and only one point. The entire Howard defensive combining with stalwarts like Nik Pinto (Sykesville, MD/South Carroll), Jack Slack (Ellicott City, MD/Marriotts Ridge), Asher Minich (Camas, WA/Camas), Bryce Ferguson (Sykesville, MD/Century), and Evan Rogers forced Essex into 31 turnovers with Aaron Rubeling being credited with a team high four caused turnovers.
 
Howard closed out the fourth quarter with the offense finding their groove again with Dalpe, Noah, and Zajac all completing their hat tricks with Noah leading the team at six points. The Dragons face-off men were fantastic on the day with Terence Harmon (Mount Pleasant, SC/Wando) going 7-8 while Zach Wentz won 12-17.
 
The season will now come down to one last game for all the marbles as Howard will take on #5 host Nassau for the national championship on Sunday, May 15 at 1 PM. The Dragons defeated then #1 ranked Nassau at Howard on April 2 in a 21-9 drubbing.