Fairview Tigers - 1977 - 1981 - 1982 AA

MEADVILLE - The 'House of Chills' in November was packed to the rafters for the big showdown between the # 1 ranked Ramblers of Cathedral Prep and the Dawgs of Meadville. Coaches Nels White and Jamie Plunkett were looking for signs of progress from their respective teams. The atmosphere was electric as the teams engaged in a fast paced opening minutes. With no score and Meadville killing a penalty, Brian Bahurinsky got an opportunity in front but was stopped by Rob Allison at 8:39. Cathedral Prep struck first as Jon Merriott walked off the near boards and beat Danny O'Sharuk on the glove side upstairs to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. In the second period, Prep stud Jeff Dionosio nearly made it 2-0 after a big center ice hit by Kyle Rogers at 12:35. Meadville's Jeffrey Holabaugh banked the puck off Allison from behind the goal line to tie the score at 1-1 at 10:13 of the middle frame. Prep had an opportunity to regain the lead but O'Sharuk stopped Mike Boling on the breakaway at 6:30 and the the Dawgs still had the lead. Then Dionosio scored an unbelievable goal as whle being upended in front of the net he scored in one motion on the short side and all the sudden the game was Prep 2 Meadville 1. Just a minute later it was Bahurinsky beating the Rambler defense and creating a 2 on 1 and then slipped a pass to Phil Siverd who deflected the puck past Allison at 3:29 to tie the score at 2-2. Then the Dawgs got that big goal with just one second remaining in the second period as Justin Wehrle intercepted a clearing attempt and walked down the slot and beat Allison on the stick side to make it 3-2. On to the third and the next goal would be huge and the Bulldogs got it as Bahurinsky scored on the breakaway at 13:24 to make it 4-2. Then Rick Thomas blasted a shot from the point at 6:39 to add a big insurance goal and pace the Bulldogs to a 5-2 lead. Prep kept fighting back and scored at 8:04 as Dionosio got behind the Meadville defense and scored on the rebound. O'Sharuk had to come up with a big save on Kyle Rogers at 4:10. Rogers came right back and beat O'Sharuk at 3:25 through the five hole to cut the lead to 5-4. Prep pulled their goalie for the extra attacker and Holabaugh scored on a 150 foot clearing attempt to finalize a 6-4 victory for the Bulldogs.

MONROEVILLE - Please do not adjust your cursor or try to scroll to the top of the story because this line is the first line of the story. You can look at the 3 inches above this story in one of two ways.....one would be the Golden Mile Parking lot covered in snow or the other would be what happened in the first two periods of the Class AAA showdown between Gateway and Central Catholic. .......And for Viking coach Kevin Zielmanski, that would just be fine because he probably figured that the more boring the game is the better. Coach Dan Serakowski's Gateway club has put it on some teams this season and has the explosive kind of offense that can snatch victory from defeat as it did against Baldwin in its first game. So coach Z had to like the 0-0 tie after two periods. The most excitement was the near misses by the Vikings Zach Crisafio, who fanned on an opene net at 9:50 of the 2nd and the Gators Zach Flora, who fanned on an open net at 5:29 of the second. At 12:09 of the third period, Central Catholic went on the power play an they would cash in at 10:12 when Crisafio redirected a Michael McGurk pass thorugh the legs of David Himes to give Central a 1-0 lead. The Vikings continue to carry the play to Gateway and with only 1:33 to play Matt Urso scored on the deke past Himes to give CC a huge goal and a 2-0 lead. Urso added an empty netter with :08 left to salt away a 3-0 victory an a shutout for Bryan Adamczyk.

CRANBERRY - {Special to Pa Hockey} Bethel Park outshot North Hills 38-9 on the evening but the only score came off the stick of NH's Tyler Cummings, who scored with :02 left in regulation to give the Indians a 1-0 victory over the three-time defending Pa State AAA Champions.

HARMARVILLE - CC INVITATIONAL SEMI-FINALS Upper St Clair had surprised alot of people with their performance in the 2002 Central Catholic Invitational by reaching the Semi-Finals. There is no question the Panthers will be a strong team in the upcoming years, but they will have to add a little discipline to their resume. Kip Guenther's young squad took a penalty at 6:22 of te first period and Dunbarton's Jay Brookings scored at 8:34 to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead. Then another penalty late in the first period resulted in a Dunbarton power play goal with just :19 left by Brent Dalliday to give Dunbarton a 2-0 lead after one. On to the second and the Panthers rebounded outshooting Dunbarton 13-3 and pelting Spartan goaltender Bryan Scott, who was equal to the task until 5:18, when Anthony Sirabella scored to cut the lead to 2-1 at the end of two periods. In the third period, USC carried the play but could not beat Scott, who preserved his team's lead. The Panthers became frustrated which resulted in a double minor which put the lethal Spartans on the power play and they made USC pay with goals from Matt Fettes at 2:38 and Mike Tantsis at 3:48 to break open a tight 2-1 game and give Dunbarton a safe 4-1 lead. Matt Wyles added an insurance tally as Dunbarton, from near Pickering Ontario advanced to the CC Invitational Finals.

TJ mounts big comeback in OT ! HARMARVILLE - 2002 CC INVITATIONAL - SEMI FINALS Central Catholic was looking to capture its first Invitational in 14 years and came very close last years final losing to Bethel Park in the finals 2-1. Thomas Jefferson, who captured the title in 1998, was looking to capture some past glory and return to the coveted finals again. After a scoreless first period, just 45 seconds into the second period, Michael McGurk gave the Vikings a 1-0 lead. Then after killing off a Thomas Jefferson penalty, Matt Urso chipped the puck past the Jaguar defense and beat Bryan Adamczyk on the forehand to extend the CC lead to 2-0. Central was coasting and an errant clearing attempt found its way on the stick of Daryl Nath who buried a wrist shot at 2:34 to get TJ on the board 2-1. The Jaguars tied the game with a little over ten minutes remaining in regulation as Andrew Olmstead scored to make it 2-2. The game went into overtime and Olmstead caught the CC defense pinching which created an odd man break and he threaded a perfect pass to a streaking Derek Kelly, who buried a shot at 8:33 of the OT and sent the Jaguars to the Finals.