Alpena Downs Marquette in Regional Final

ALPENA, MI – In an absolute battle of a game, the Alpena Wildcats rallied in the third period to hoist the Division 2 regional championship trophy in front of a sold-out home crowd on Wednesday night.

Anden Marceau came out swinging in the first period. He got Alpena on the board first, but Marquette’s, Joe DeMattia, responded quickly with a goal for the Redmen. Entering the second period with the game tied, Marquette picked up the pace early. Caleb Beerman added an unassisted goal to give Marquette the 2-1 lead.

In the final period, the Redmen remained aggressive. Jacob Garrow tallied another goal for Marquette to extend the lead to 3-1. With a little over four minutes left in the game, the momentum shifted for the Wildcats. Cam Young trimmed Alpena’s deficit to 3-2. With just a 1:30 left in the third, Alpena stunned the packed crowd of Northern Lights Arena with another goal by Young.

With the crowd reaching decibels ears cannot comprehend as the clock hit 30 seconds, the Wildcats fed off the momentum scoring almost immediately with a shot by Marceau. The senior’s second goal of the night secured the comeback win for the Wildcats.

In an absolute thriller of a game, Head Coach Ben Henry, remained calm and collected from behind the bench as his team rallied for the comeback. “After we scored the game tying goal,” he said. “I told them to just go out there and do your job. Understand what we can do right now and take care of business right now.”

This is the third straight year that Alpena hoists the regional championship trophy, and the Wildcats set a program record for most wins in a season. Alpena travels to Gaylord on Saturday to face Saginaw Heritage in their quarterfinal matchup at 1 p.m.