By RYAN D. MURRAY

The No. 3 Bishop Hendricken Hawks are headed back to the Boys Hockey State Championship Series after sweeping No.1 La Salle Academy 2-0 during the semifinal round over the weekend.

In Game 2, the Hawks blanked the Rams 1-0 at Thayer Arena.

“It was a great team effort,” Hawks head coach Mike Soscia said. “Anytime you’re a part of a 1-0 game, it’s a complete team effort, starting from the goalie on up. Everybody bought in, but it took a little while for everybody to buy in. We took some lumps during the season, figured it out, and we’re peaking at the right time.”

The lone goal came from senior Drew Gayman, a right wing, at 10:56 of the first period, after assists from Matt Moretti and Colton Whitfield.

Hawks goalie Andrew Carr, a senior, made eight saves in the shutout.

“I feel great,” Carr said. “Just the fact that being ranked No. 3  going into the playoffs, and then facing the No. 1 seed. All of us felt going into this series that we were by far the better team, and we’ve been working on this in practice all week, and we came into this series knowing that we were going to sweep them like we did with Mount.”

And Carr is still confident as the Hawks advance to the Championship round.

“The team in front of me is probably a team that any goalie would dream of having,” Carr said. “I just feel so good with the team in front of me, our whole team in general, when you put them all together, I don’t think anybody in this state can beat us.”

La Salle goaltender Max Cute, also a senior, denied 20 shots in Game 2.

On Friday night, during Game 1, Hendricken handed La Salle its first in-state loss of the season when it defeated the Rams by a final score of 3-1.

Gayman, and John LaRose recorded an unassisted tally apiece in that game, and Aiden Pennachini also scored a goal, which was assisted by sophomore Ryan Staples.

Prior to that defeat, La Salle’s only loss came from the Xaverian Brothers on Feb. 20.

Hendricken plays East Greenwich in the State Championship Series at Schneider Arena, starting on Thursday, March 10 at 7 p.m. The Avengers finished off a sweep of Moses Brown on Monday night.

“All we’re going to do is just take care of ourselves and do what we need to do to prepare,” Soscia said prior to the outcome of Game 2 of the EG/MB semifinal series. “I’m not going to worry about who wins that game. We’ve just got to do what’s best for us right now. And then, take care of our bodies on and off the ice. Do the right things, work hard in practice, and then we’ll go from there.”