If he ever felt like sleeping in and skipping his workouts over the summer, Cretin-Derham Hall senior forward Maverick Timmons needed only to think back on the last day of February and how his junior season ended.
The Raiders trailed rival St. Thomas Academy by a goal in the closing seconds of their section title game before forging a tie with 13 seconds to play. But the storybook ending eluded Cretin, as STA won in double overtime and advanced to the state tournament.
Cretin-Derham Hall senior forward Maverick Timmons had six goals and 14 assists for the Raiders as a junior. (Michael Murray / Courtesy Photo)
“That game stung,” Timmons said after a preseason Raiders practice at their home rink in Highland Park. “The whole summer, every single day, waking up early, practicing, lifting, it’s the only thing that was on my mind.”
The Raiders went 23-4-1 last season, with all of their losses coming at the hands of state tournament teams. Looking at the team that coach Matt Funk has put together for 2025-26, the keen eye will note a trio of players who are not there as much as the returning roster.
After leading the Raiders with 50 points in 28 games as a junior, and earning a scholarship offer from Colorado College, Nate Chorlton opted to spend this season with Chicago in the USHL. It’s a similar story for Max Anderson, bound for Miami (Ohio) and spending this season with Sioux City in the USHL. Defenseman Phoenix Cahill, also a Colorado College commit, is spending the winter in Prince George, British Columbia, playing Canadian major junior hockey.
For Funk, the departures are a sign of a “different world” in which players are being urged to make potentially life-altering choices about their future when they are 17 or younger.
“There’s a lot of things that go into those decisions. I stressed with them that everybody’s development path is a little bit different,” Funk said. “You’ve got to make sure you’re making the right decision for you and that it’s informed, which is hard because these guys are getting things thrown at them. All you can do is be there for the kid. They’re all doing well in the places they’re at.”
The Cretin-Derham Hall roster features a mix of youth and experience, with a relatively untested top goalie in Luca Sciara, who got just one start last season (he won it) but has the full confidence of his team.
“He’s a big-time goalie. Highly ranked as a youth hockey player, done a lot with USA Hockey, making the national camp as a 15-year-old,” Funk said. “He’s big. He’s also extremely smart in school. Like, he’s over a 4.0 student, taking AP classes. So he’s a kid that is a student of the game.”
The Raiders’ roster also features one of the more intriguing personalities in Minnesota prep hockey. In addition to being dangerous on the ice, junior forward Marcus Matyas can best be described as Cretin-Derham Hall’s international man of mystery.
“He spent his summer in Russia. He’s a native Hungarian. He grew up and spent some time in Sweden. He lived in California. He has been all over the place,” Funk said of Matyas, who averaged a point per game for the Raiders last season. “And his dad watches every practice. He’s up in the corner. He does a lot of hockey. He’s the one guy that takes his gear home every night. He skates. And so Marcus is a character.”
Cretin’s season started last weekend with a dive right into the deep end of the pool, facing Hibbing/Chisholm, Minnesota’s top-ranked team in Class A. The Bluejackets got a pair of late empty-net goals to win 6-3. Jonny Bloedow, Cretin’s top returning scorer, had a pair of goals in the loss.
The Raiders visit section rival Eastview on Tuesday night in Apple Valley.
Overall, the Raiders are young at forward and are looking for players like Bloedow to pick up where they left off last season.
“Up front, we’ve got a young team. We’ve got two sophomores that led our team last year, Brody (Ruprecht) and Jonny. They’re gonna have big seasons,” Timmons said. “We’ve got a couple of seniors up front, and then two freshmen coming on our team this year that’ll have really good starts. They’re good players.”
And while they saw some talent leave early, the Raiders also benefitted from incoming transfers, with key players coming to Cretin-Derham Hall from Hopkins, Grand Rapids and Shattuck-St. Mary’s. Timmons said new faces and all, the team has gelled quickly, with important time spent off-ice playing knee hockey and getting to know each other, which they expect will translate to chemistry on the rink.
Funk acknowledges the youth in some key areas. Then he brings it back to that season-ending heartbreaker versus STA and the lessons learned by the Raiders that night, whether or not they were on the ice.
“We have a lot of guys back, some guys that were playing with us for sections on the practice team, helping us get ready. There were guys that were up in the stands watching, a lot of guys that were on the JV team,” he said. “So I think it’s fresh, still fresh for everybody. And when you lose in double overtime, with the way we came back, to a rival, it just means more.”
While teams like Rosemount and Eastview will certainly have their say between now and late February, Section 3AA is widely expected to be a two-horse race between the Raiders and Cadets once again. Their lone regular season meeting is Dec. 27 in Mendota Heights.
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