Livonia Churchill's resurgent hockey team registered another impressive victory Saturday when it nipped host Brighton, 4-3, in a KLAA cross-over encounter.

Charger Nolan Cioch broke a 3-3 deadlock with a goal just two seconds before the second intermission. The final 17 minutes were scoreless as both teams locked down on defense.

Churchill coach Jason Reynolds said a triumph over a team as talented as the Bulldogs will only help his team going forward.

"We have tremendous respect for Brighton," Reynolds emphasized. "This is usually one of those games when we put the shots-on-goal tracker away and just focus on keeping it close. Tonight was special because our boys weren't content with just competing. They wanted to make a statement."

"Brighton plays a very high-tempo game. It was probably fortunate for us that we just played another high-tempo game against Salem earlier in the week, so I thought we really came out on our toes. Even after they scored the first goal, I was really impressed with how we responded."

Brighton scored first less than three minutes in when Sam Brennan filled the net off an assist from Ben Peterson.

Churchill countered quickly with back-to-back first-period goals from Conor Burnette (from Cioch) and Spencer Kovacs, who was assisted by Michael Papioannou and Joe Wozniak.

Brighton's Lee Pietila tallied the equalizer at the 10:47 mark of the high-scoring first stanza.

The Bulldogs seized their final lead of the game mid-way through the second period on a goal from Peterson, who was assisted by Brody White.

Josh Friend's net-finder (from Cioch and Danny Carey) then made it 3-3 before Cioch's game-winner capped the scoring.

Brighton outshot Churchill, 33-28.

"We wanted to avoid getting into too many foot races for the puck against Brighton," Reynolds continued. "That's a dangerous route to take against such a fast team. We knew if we could slow things down in the neutral zone, we could keep it close. I thought we did a great job of reading their pressure and avoiding too many odd-man rushes. At times when they did get by us, Drew (Broyles) came up big for us in net.

"Simply put, I've challenged the boys to reach higher every game. Even though we're a young team, our goal is to compete with any team in the state. Tonight was important because it shows that the boys believe."