Holy Angels had the lead, and Sam Turner was assigned the unenviable task of protecting it.

This meant carrying the ball back and forth behind the St. Thomas Academy goal. This meant taking repeated whacks to various body parts. This meant being on the business end of a stick to the ribs, the blow delivered courtesy of punishing St. Thomas Academy senior J.R. Riley.

“You just have to deal with it and deal with it and do what you have to do to get the win,” Turner said Tuesday night about his late-game run-in with Riley after the Stars held on for a 9-8 win at the Holy Angels StarDome. 

The 6-foot-3 Riley, who has committed to play at Duke, eventually was whistled for crosschecking in the final minute. The penalty might not have been called last year, but offseason rules changes intended to reduce violent collisions led to several contact-related calls. During one sequence early in the fourth quarter officials emptied the flags from their pockets and then tossed their hats in the air to signal more penalties.
  
“It is definitely going to change the style of the game, I think,” St. Thomas Academy coach John Barnes said about the rule changes.

The dramatic finish was the third in as many meetings between the arch rivals. The teams split one-goal games last season, with St. Thomas Academy winning in the regular season opener and Holy Angels returning the favor in the section semifinals. 

The rivalry between the teams goes back to grade school for many of the teams’ players, Barnes said. He said Faithful Shepard Catholic School in Eagan is an example of a school that supplies both high school programs with players.

“It’s great playing these guys,” Turner said. “It’s always a one-goal, back and forth game. Always high intensity. 

“It’s a great way to start the season.”
 
If Holy Angels could win just one game this year, Stars senior midfielder Jeffrey Patrias, who scored twice, said this would be the one.
 
“This one game is the most important game of my senior year,” Patrias said. “It’s the one game I wanted to win.”

First Report

Jeff Patrias scored what proved to be the winning goal early in the fourth quarter and Sam Turner took a beating in the closing minutes, doubling as a human piñata as he helped Holy Angels run out the clock on a 9-8 victory over arch rival St. Thomas Academy on Friday at the Holy Angels StarDome in the season opener for both teams.

Patrias, a senior midfielder, scored 2 minutes, 54 seconds into the fourth quarter to put the Stars ahead 9-7. St. Thomas Academy pulled to within 9-8 on a goal by Mike Smilanich with 3:50 remaining, but the Cadets struggled to gain possession in the closing stages. Turner, a senior attackman who scored three goals, did most of the grunt work deep behind the Cadets’ net, holding the ball despite the best efforts of Duke commit J.R. Riley, St. Thomas Academy’s hulking all-state and all-american midfielder. Riley took a slashing penalty with 50 seconds remaining after whacking Turner in the midsection.

The 6-foot-3 Riley held Scott McNamara, Holy Angels’ all-state junior midfielder who has committed to play at Marquette, to two goals. But the Stars got two goals from Patrias and one each from Tommy Kraus and Max Farmer.

It was the third one-goal game in what has become an increasingly intense series. St. Thomas Academy beat Holy Angels’ 6-5 in last season’s regular season opener, and the Stars returned the favor with a 15-14 triumph in the Section 6 semifinals.