SCS Unified Hockey falls in regional finals, ends storybook season

ST. CLAIR SHORES — As St. Clair Shores Unified freshman goalkeeper William Young attempted to score in full pads during a shootout at practice on Feb. 27, his teammates cheered him on every step of the way.

The best part: Young wore a captain’s hat that is given to the “player of the game” after each matchup, and he was more than deserving, facing 46 shots and earning a .957 save percentage in SCS Unified’s 3-2 win over Grosse Pointe South.

“We were going in as the underdogs,” Young said. “I don’t think anyone in the rink except us thought we were winning, but you just take it period by period and minute by minute. It was a fun game.”

SCS Unified (13-15) completed their tour of Grosse Pointe, earning a 6-3 win over Grosse Pointe North in the first round of regionals.

While SCS Unified would fall to Warren De La Salle Collegiate in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 2 Regional Finals, their success this season brought excitement back to high school hockey in St. Clair Shores.

“I had two brothers on the team, and I had seen those games, and they were awful,” senior defenseman Owen Storbeck said. “To finally kind of give back to the program and finally bolster it up, I think it’s great we’ve been doing that.”

Storbeck, alongside seniors Ben Cornwell and Landon Klein, led the veteran leadership for a young SCS Unified team that featured five freshman and six sophomores.

It was a major shakeup after only being a year removed from a team of 11 seniors, but SCS Unified’s mixed-bag roster rose to the occasion every chance they had.

Only trailing De La Salle 3-2 late in the second period, and midseason improvements that shaped the team’s season towards the right path, SCS Unified coach Nick Radjewski said he was impressed with his squad’s performance this year.

“All of it was positive,” Radjewski said. “They should look back and say, ‘Hey, they were a pretty good team and we hung with them.”’

Talent wasn’t a question coming into the year, but rather how the young core would mesh coming into the varsity season.

SCS Unified’s 8-17 season last year left plenty of questions on what the team would look like, but Storbeck, Klein and Cornwell stepped up as veteran leaders. Klein was second on the team in points (31) and tallied a team-high 18 goals on the year while Cornwell (27) was third on the team.

“It’s fun being the leader,” Cornwell said. “I’ve been here since my sophomore year, and I’ve always looked up to the older kids. It’s kind of cool being the older kid and being the one people look up to now.”

Klein was sidelined for the rest of the season in early February due to injury but continued to serve as a veteran presence despite his absence on the ice.

Radjewski said Klein translated his on-ice impact to a mentor role.

“Even though he can’t get onto the ice, he’s at all the practices and the games,” Radjewski said. “His contributions aren’t overlooked. He’s a big part of it.”

While the seniors carried the weight of the leadership, the underclassmen flexed their muscles through the entirety of the season.

Led by sophomore Brennen Lenk, who led the team in points (33) and assists (20), SCS Unified’s youth not only helped this year’s squad but also left excitement for next season.

Freshman Zach Delmonte was fourth on the team in points (25), while freshman Gavin McKee (25) and sophomore Vaughn Zmijewski (23) both collected over 20 points this year.

Radjewski said there were high expectations for the young core this season.

“They all come from a pretty good pedigree,” Radjewski said. “They played at a pretty high level before they got here. Also, we’re not afraid to give them minutes off the bat. We’ll throw them in the fire.”

Winning back-to-back games three times all year, including their 3-0 start to the season, SCS Unified went through its trials and tribulations all year.

Going through a 1-7 stretch during the season and failing to see anything click, Radjewski said he was exhausting every resource.

“It was hard,” Radjewski said. “There were times where us coaches would talk about things where we didn’t have answers and were just pushing every button to see if it worked. It was a lot of one-on-one conversations.”

But when it mattered most, SCS Unified turned everything around to reach Radjewski’s first regional finals game since joining the staff 10 seasons ago.

Now, sporting a strong sophomore and junior core next season with soon-to-be seniors Austin Brown and JJ Tackett at the helm, SCS Unified finally has some solid ground to build off of.

Expectations will be higher and the regionals will no longer be unfamiliar territory, but more importantly, the team chemistry is at an all-time high.

“The nucleus is close, they care about each other, they’re friends away from the rink and hang out with each other all the time,” Radjewski said. “It’s what you want as a coach.”