BY ADAM RONIS
Chaminade coach Mike Gallagher said the first half was one of the worst 45 minutes he has seen from a Flyers team in many years against St. John the Baptist Thursday. He challenged his team at halftime and asked the if they had it in them to at least get a tie. The answer was resounding.
After trailing 2-1 at the half, Chaminade, the two-time defending CHSAA state champions, pulled out a thrilling 3-2 win on the road after trailing 2-0 25 minutes into the game.
"It's a great win early on in the season," Gallagher said. "It's a good win for this group."
Chaminade is the defending champs, but graduated 15 players, so this is a different group. Meanwhile, SJB lost just four starters. SJB (4-2, 1-1) has won the CHSAA regular season the last two seasons only to lose to Chaminade (4-0, 2-0) in the final both seasons in overtime.
Northeastern-bound Donald Anding, who missed time with a myriad of injuries last season, scored with 29:03 left to tie the score at 2 and scored the winner on a shot e curved to the left top corner of the net with 14:09 left in the game.
"I expect him to score goals," Gallagher said. "Most high school kids would try to blast the ball past the goalkeeper. He curved into the upper corner with finesse. It was a great goal against an excellent keeper [Brendan Lafferty]."
Brandon Seldana played the second half in goal for Chaminade and was phenomenal. He made saves, including a leaping save minutes after the winning goal that he deflected off his hand that hit the crossbar.
"This was a great win," he said. "This was a test to see where we are."
Said Anding: "It's a great confidence booster. We had a tough time in our last game. This is a turning point for us."