TOWN AND COUNTRY – CBC senior Charles Schellhardt sits among the area leaders in goals scored, but when he looked over the defense employed by Lindbergh on Tuesday, he let another aspect of his game shine.
“I had to adapt and play a different style,” Schellhardt said. “Assists are worth the same as goals to me. I just want to win.”
Schellhardt dished out four assists in the second half and junior Joe Bolten led a smothering defensive effort as CBC pulled away from Lindbergh for a 13-9 victory Tuesday at CBC.
CBC (8-5), which won its fifth consecutive game, received goals from eight different players, led by a hat trick from sophomore Bryce Horner.
Horner became the beneficiary of Schellhardt’s vision and unselfishness midway through the fourth quarter with CBC clinging to a 10-9 lead.
Briefly escaping the ball-denial defense of Lindbergh sophomore Henry Yenzer, Schellhardt accepted a pass on the perimeter and looked to drive but found additional Flyers sliding to help.
Engulfed in a double-team, Schellhardt whipped a pass through the teeth of the defense and found the stick of Horner, who launched a shot past Lindbergh goalie Gabe Wiltse to open a two-goal cushion.
“I was just trying to find space, I knew (Schellhardt) would do most of the work, I just had to put myself in the best position,” Horner said.
An excellent kick save by CBC sophomore goalie Carson Hierholtzer and the slick capture of a bouncing ball by Bolten set up Horner for his third goal of the night to increase the Cadets’ lead to 12-9 with 3 minutes 44 seconds remaining.
Moments later, freshman Phil Jakubowski deposited Schellhardt’s fourth assist of the second half to secure the victory.
Schellhardt, who ranks third in the St. Louis area with 48 goals, scored one goal on only three shot attempts on Tuesday.
“He has really embraced the role as a facilitator and frankly that’s what we’ve asked him to do,” CBC coach Mike Liebreich said of Schellhardt. “Everyone knows he can score, but to win games down the stretch, we needed to open up his ability to facilitate our offense and he’s really stepped up.”
The CBC win avenged a 9-8 overtime loss suffered last season to Lindbergh in a game which the Cadets led by four goals heading into the fourth quarter.
“We were thinking about that game,” Schellhardt said.
Schellhardt entered Tuesday as the second leading point-producer in the St. Louis area after a school-record 16-point outburst against Marquette on April 26.
The leading point-producer was on the other sideline wearing green and gold.
Lindbergh sophomore Luke Wolfard had scored at least four goals in nine of his previous 12 games, including a school-record 11 goals and 14 points in a 19-8 victory over Louisville duPont Manual on March 7.
“Everybody knew (Wolfard) was going to be something special, but I don’t think anyone knew it was going to happen this early,” Lindbergh coach Corey Paffrath said.
After five different goal scorers helped CBC build a 5-2 lead, Wolfard displayed his excellence in an impressive two-minute flurry.
First, he disengaged from two CBC defenders who were spying him near the goal crease, received a pass and scored.
Parked in a similar location moments later, Wolfard accepted a feed from senior Eli Preheim and whipped a smooth, behind-the-head shot that entered the net before anyone realized it had exited his stick.
Wolfard completed the trifecta by intercepting a pass at the midline, turning on the speed and scoring on a breakaway to trim the deficit to 6-5 at the midway point of the second quarter.
As a freshman, Wolfard scored 25 goals in 18 games and had three hat tricks. On Tuesday, he scored his 57th goal and notched his 11th hat trick of the season. He also ranks third in the area with 27 assists.
“He’s really benefited from the talented group around him,” Paffrath said. “He doesn’t have to be a one-man show. He can rely on his guys off-ball to find space, get open and bury it on the other side.”
Preheim and junior Drake Johnson scored late in the half for Lindbergh, and despite serving several penalties in the opening 24 minutes, the Flyers trailed only 8-7 at intermission.
“Honestly, I thought we executed the game plan in the first half,” Paffrath said. “We came out banging, and we had them right where we wanted them.”
CBC reserved its own space in the penalty box in the second half. The Cadets served four penalties before the midway point of the third quarter, but an excellent defensive effort led by Bolten and a brilliant right leg save by Hierholtzer kept Lindbergh off the scoreboard.
“In the first half, we had a different mindset. We thought they were going to play a little differently, but in the second half, we got it together. We had more communication and started working better as a team,” Bolten said of the CBC defense.
When the Cadets finally escaped the penalty box, Schellhardt went to work. Twice he drew defenders to him, sent soft, catchable passes through traffic and found senior Kyle Price to help the Cadets build a 10-7 lead heading into the final frame.
The CBC parade to the penalty box continued early in the fourth quarter, and Lindbergh capitalized with a pair of goals on the man-advantage to slice the deficit to 10-9, but the combination of Schellhardt and Horner helped the Cadets pull away at the end.
Lindbergh (10-7) completed its regular season with its third successive, heartbreaking loss after surrendering a fourth quarter lead to Vianney and losing in overtime to Priory in its previous two outings.
“Three tough ones in a row,” Paffrath said. “It stings, but I feel like our guys are locked and ready. They’ll use these tough losses as fuel for the fire heading into the postseason.”
CBC, which is averaging 18.5 goals per game in its last four contests, has three games remaining on its schedule including matchups with the top two teams in the state according to Lax Numbers – MICDS and De Smet.
“The difference between last year’s team and this year’s team is that we’ve been able to be more balanced offensively and that makes us a lot more dangerous of a team,” Liebreich said.
Schellhardt added, “Sometimes we have to do solo ball, but when we get the tic-tac-toe going, it gets real nice.”
