The University School boys’ hockey team lost to Homestead 3-1 in a Sectional 8 Regional final of the WIAA state tournament Thursday at USM. The loss ended the Wildcats’ 2012-2013 season.

The Wildcats gave up two power play goals and an empty net goal while scoring one power play goal in the close, fast-paced game that went down to the wire.

“Homestead is the best seventh seed in the state tournament,” said Cal Roadhouse, USM’s head coach. “We had our chances. We out shot them 32-22, but we couldn’t score. We had a good season; unfortunately it ended too early.”

Homestead opened the scoring with a first period power play goal at 12:12. From the Homestead zone, Ryan Mezera sent a cross-ice pass to Adam Connolly in center ice. Connolly and Thomas Fazio went into the USM zone on two-on-one break. As he neared the low slot, Connolly slid the puck to Fazio who sniped a shot into the net at 12:12.

USM eventually tied the score on their own power play early in the third period. The Wildcats set up in the Highlanders’ zone and systematically moved it around. Duncan Brown gained control of it and sent it to Ben Walker on the right boards. Walker moved the puck to Joey Judge at the center of the blue line. Judge blasted a shot past the shoulder of Homestead’s goalie Killian Martin at 2:43.

Homestead scored the game winning goal on a power play at 8:29 when Mezera won a face off draw back to Fazio at the USM blue line, and Fazio fired the puck past USM’s goaltender Bryan Botcher.

Mezera added an empty net goal with 10 seconds left in the game to give Homestead its margin of victory.

It was another winning season for USM. Since Roadhouse became head coach of USM in 1997, the Wildcats have never had a losing record. They finished the 2012-2013 season with a 15-8-2 record while playing against one of the strongest slates of opponents in the state. Roadhouse said, “I’m proud of this group of guys. I enjoyed coaching them this year. They’re a hard working team of players. They had good leadership and stuck together through some tough times. They gave it their all; they never gave up.”