Three-Peat: Spalding Ice Hockey Claims Another Crown

Archbishop Spalding’s Rob Trantin knows Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) ice hockey history.

Trantin, who is in his 11th year as coach, points out that it's difficult to win three championships in a row.

He rattled off Calvert Hall capturing three titles two decades ago and Mount Saint Joseph doing the same thing in the 1990s.

The 2025 season presented Archbishop Spalding with the same opportunity.

“There’s pressure and it just builds and builds,” Trantin said. “It’s very hard to do. It’s one misstep, one poorly executed play, one mistake by the coach, or one bad matchup. And if any of those things happen, it’s a loss.”

None of those things happened to the Cavaliers. They joined the select company of their two heated rivals and edged Mount Saint Joseph, 4-2, in mid-February at the Gardens Ice House in Laurel to garner the MIAA A Conference crown. Michael McGuire, Grant Christiansen, Zach Holley and Caleb Young scored for the winners.

“The first emotion is relief,” said Trantin, whose teams have won eight titles since 2012. “You must contemplate what you and the team have accomplished. You do not know if it will happen again. All the hard work we did from July all the way to mid-February – it validates everything we did.”

Spalding pulled off the three-peat with a much younger team — about half the roster was underclassmen — than the 2023 and 2024 squads. Though, this year’s Cavaliers were arguably as good as if not even better than those teams.

“This year, I think we were more connected in the locker room,” said Spalding junior Carson Gloman, a Severna Park resident. “It was just a more tight-knit group. It gave us an edge. It was one of our biggest strengths.”

Trantin added, “We had more talent than we had seen in more than a decade. They showed that in the championship game.”

The defense also helped the Cavaliers to the title. The proof? Spalding held Mount Saint Joseph to no goals in the final two periods of the championship. Brothers and Severna Park residents Christian and Carson Gloman, Sawyer Fox (Severna Park), Patrick McGuire (Annapolis), Alec Moeglein (Severn) and Blake Barton (Severna Park) comprise the unit.

“The strength of our team is the defense,” Trantin said.

The offense can’t be overlooked, though high-scoring wouldn’t be a way to describe it.

What the offense did: score clutch goal after clutch goal. Senior Grant Wanner (16 goals, 19 assists) led the Cavaliers in scoring. Also ranked among the team’s scoring leaders are Millersville resident Corey Burcham (nine goals, seven assists), Michael McGuire (nine goals, six assists) and James Jones (nine goals, two assists).

Severna Park resident Finn Pasko and Arnold resident Caleb Young also contributed to the offense.

“We won a lot of games by a goal,” Trantin explained. “The way we scored was timely and opportunistic.”

The underclassmen had an impact, too. It gave the team great depth.

“Last year’s team was older with a lot of seniors,” said Pasko, who plays forward. “This year, we had younger talent, and they were fun to play with.”