In a battle of the #1 and #2 teams in the latest Washington Post Top 10, the top-ranked DeMatha Stags held off a late rally from Gonzaga to defeat the Eagles, 5-4, at Laurel on Wednesday afternoon.

DeMatha’s Alvon Barard opened the scoring with the first of his two power play goals at 10:36 of the first period. Wyatt Hinkson picked up the only assist on the play. Gonzaga roared back with two goals from Connor Tait. Cole Vallese assisted on the first tally at 7:58 and exactly three minutes late, Connor O’Leary assisted on the second.

Lincoln Norton’s goal at 3:47 of the second period leveled the score at 2-2, but Gonzaga again went up a goal when John Cardellicchio scored at 10:39, with an assist from Will Jervey. The Eagles’ Will Rosen was in the penalty box for slashing when Teddy Whitehead assisted on Barard’s second power play goal to bring the score to 3-3 at the end of two periods.

DeMatha took charge in the third with two goals a little over two minutes apart. Jakob Kaplan scored unassisted at 7:47 and assisted on Lee Yang’s goal at 10:31. Gonzaga’s Connor Tait completed his hat trick with a goal at 11:50, but after pulling their goaltender with a little over a minute to play, and Tait missing a breakaway chance in the final minutes, the Eagles could not put the equalizer past Stags’ netminder Andrew Takacs.

Gonzaga outshot DeMatha, 41-33, with Takacs making 37 saves and Eagles’ netminder, Dominic Basse recording 28 saves.