Don Wright/The Gazette Bowie head coach Nelson Burton (right) consoles forward Chad Everett after their team's loss Monday in the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League Championship at the Gardens Ice House in Laurel.

Bowie's quest for a hockey title came one game short of fulfillment Monday when the Archbishop Curley senior forward notched his third five-goal game of the season -- this time in the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League's Tier II championship game to help the Friars win, 5-4 in overtime, sending Bowie to its only loss of the year.

"I'm not about scoring all the goals," said Jondo, who had just returned from a two-game fighting suspension. "I'm a team player and it just worked out that I got the puck and I just put it in."

Jondo's heroics rescued the Chesapeake Cup for the Friars of Northeast Baltimore, who lost leads of 2-0 and 3-2 to the Bulldogs before tying the game early in the third period and holding out for the extra session.

Bowie, champions two years removed, had difficulty in the evenly matched game because it had overmatched its competitors all season long, head coach Nelson Burton said.

Bowie had reached the championship in dominating fashion, going 9-0-1 in the regular season before demolishing Seneca Valley, 6-1, on Feb. 21 and crushing Thomas Johnson, 11-2, the next day. Its only non-win came against Roosevelt, 2-2, on Feb. 9.

"Our conditioning probably wasn't where it should have been," Burton said. "Had we had a few tougher games this season I think we might have been a little more prepared for this. But I don't want to take anything away from Richie Jondo -- he played a heck of a game."

Curley, last year's bridesmaid, jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead on Jondo's first pair of goals, a feed out front from sophomore defenseman Nick Brzuchalski at 3:31 and a rebound at 7:32 off his own wrister after senior Bowie goalie Troy Michaelis froze on the original save.

Michaelis finished with 17 saves on 22 shots.

Curley's two-goal advantage wouldn't survive the first frame as Bulldogs forward Jacob Heilig (two goals) converted five-hole on a feed from junior forward T.J. Masengale with 10 seconds left -- a goal that would give Bowie momentum coming out in the second, when senior forward Chris Trotter evened the score with a shot over prone goalie Jonathan Newcomer (31 saves).

"That's huge," Burton said of the first goal. "You like to end the period either ahead or tied, but our guys don't really get pumped up until their backs are against the wall. So they felt like they were down and that (first goal) really helped us."

The wild second period was only beginning. Thirty seconds after Trotter's equalizer, Jondo corralled a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated in alone behind the Bowie defense and rifled a shot over Michaelis's glove for the hat trick. Bowie again pulled even late in the second when senior defenseman Brian Hennings' point shot was deflected five-hole by Heilig for his second notch of the night -- and less than a minute later, Hennings lasered another puck from the blueline that slipped over the goal line amid an inside-the-crease scrum, giving the Bulldogs a 4-3 lead.

"I think we held in there pretty good," said Masengale, who had two assists. "But they just kept coming at us, and we weren't used to that."

Just 25 seconds into the third, Jondo struck again, tying it 4-4 with a wrister into the top shelf gloveside, and at 1:34 of overtime he did the same thing on a 2-on-1 with defenseman Chris Mizurak. The last goal was Jondo's 44th of the season. Brzuchalski and senior forward Brooks Norris each had three assists for the Friars.

"(Jondo) was a real shot in the arm for our team, we just got him back from a two-game suspension," Curley head coach Joe LaTona said. "Seniors win championships. We've got nine seniors on this team and he's been the leader all year long and led the team in goal-scoring."

Added Jondo: "It's unbelievable -- going out on top as a senior, scoring five goals as a senior in the final game. It's incredible."