On a gloomy mid-December afternoon, Madison-St. Joe did little to add to the St. Aloysius Flashes’ holiday cheer.

Will Cobb scored three goals, including two in the first 10 1/2 minutes of the game, Michael Chapman added two more tallies, and Mark Trifone had a goal and two assists as Madison-St. Joe (10-3, 2-0 Division 3-1A-2A-3A) routed St. Al 8-1 on Thursday.

Madison outshot the Flashes 16-1 in the game, and didn’t allow them to penetrate deeper than the 18-yard line on the offensive end.

&#8220Madison-St. Joe is just a strong team. It’s hard to play against somebody that good,” St. Al forward Bray Jones said. &#8220We’re missing our seniors from last year, we lost a lot of starters that were good. We’re kind of rebuilding. (St. Joe) has nothing but seniors and juniors.”

Midway through the first half, several young fans began tossing around a football in the stands. It seemed a more entertaining option than the football on the field.

Madison scored four goals in the first 21 minutes of the game, three of them in a six-minute span. Cobb tapped in a cross from Mark Trifone to start the outburst 8 minutes and 19 seconds into the contest, then put in another cross from Quintin Walker two minutes later to make it 2-0.

Chapman headed in a free kick from Taylor White at the 14:20 mark for the Bruins’ third goal. Trifone and Will Spencer each added a goal before halftime as St. Joe took a 5-1 lead into the break. Cobb, Eric Ryan and Chapman ran up the score with second-half goals.

&#8220It was a little bit of flat play by (St. Al). They were being sucked to the ball too much. We were just hanging onto the far post, coming over the top and just sitting there waiting for it,” Cobb said.

Stephen Mazzanti did get St. Al (5-3-2, 0-1) on the board two minutes before halftime when he lined a shot into the left side of the net from 25 yards out, but it was literally the only offensive highlight for the home team.

Mazzanti’s shot was the only one St. Al put on goal in the game. And other than a few boomballs and errant passes, the Flashes did not advance the ball inside St. Joe’s goal box.