Mike Marnell helps St. Anthony's beat Vito Anteri

In a 5-0 hockey game it's hard to say much about the losing goalie, but St. Mary's sophomore netminder Vito Anteri deserves the recognition. Anteri made a number of fantastic saves and stopped 48 of 53 shots against St. Anthony's Wednesday night, but the Friars were too strong for the Gaels and came out on top at Cantiague Park.

Anteri kept his team in it as St. Mary's (0-1-1) only trailed 1-0 heading into the third. Anteri saved all 19 of the shots he saw in the second period and had 29 total saves through the first two frames. However, St. Anthony's (3-0-0) finally turned it on late by scoring four goals in a short six-minute span in the third period, proving again why it has dominated the CHSHL over the last two seasons.

"We were on our game in the first and second periods but they trapped us in our zone in the third and it killed us," Anteri said. "I took my angles and went out there and stood on my head but they're a great team and the best in our league so we played well tonight."

Junior forward Mike Marnell led St. Anthony's with four points on two goals and two assists, as the Friars controlled the puck for the majority of the game and frequently maintained possession in the offensive zone.

Marnell set up sophomore Tyler Hall for the Friars' first goal in the first period, and joined Hall in assisting Nick Nici to start the onslaught of goals in the third. With 9:42 left in the game, Hall sent a sharp pass to Marnell from the far point to the near circle, where Marnell quickly one-timed the puck back across ice to Nici at the far post for an open-net tap in, making it 2-0.

Marnell said the Friars offensive surge was the result of switching from a "laid back" 1-4 forecheck to a more aggressive 2-1-2 style in the third period.

"We just started putting more pressure on them," Marnell said. "[Anteri] made it difficult to score, I'm not going to lie, but we finally found a way."

After Nici's goal, Marnell scored on the power play by backhanding a loose puck in front of the net over Anteri's shoulder with 6:58 remaining. Christian Habberstad netted the Friars' fourth goal with 4:30 left to play off passes from Brendon Hurley and Chris Calandra, and Marnell scored the final goal with 4:03 left off Hall's second assist and third point of the night.

"We had good chemistry on our lines today," Hall said. "We were making good passes to each other and taking good shots the whole game and at the end we started putting it the net."

St. Anthony's next plays at Fordham Prep at 4:15 p.m. Saturday in upstate Rye. St. Mary's will take on Monsignor Farrell at 7:15 p.m. Sunday in Coney Island.