Fairview Tigers - 1977 - 1981 - 1982 AA

Sources close to Pa Hockey have informed us that Mercyhurst Prep will not play in the PIHL for the 2002-2003 season. Class A schools have confimred that the Mercyhurst games will not be played. Mercyhurst joins Seneca Valley, Keystone Oaks, Chartiers Valley, North Catholic, Belle Vernon, and Seton LaSalle to become the 7th school to commit to a Varsity team and not be scheduled. As reported earlier this year, due to the exorbitant fees associated charged by the league, teams with long standing histories like CV and NC and some newer programs are being forced out of business.

HARMARVILLE - Coach Brian Hershberger's North Allegheny squad waltzed through the last years Fall Face-Off and won the championship and frankly made it look easy and the question was could they do it again. With tight one goal victories over Plum and Shaler, the Tigers were looking for one more win to repeat. Franklin Regional, on the other hand was looking to exercise some demons of past St Margarets and North Allegheny. The Panthers reached the finals in 1996 and 1997 only to lose to Fox Chapel both times....well that wasn't happening this time because FR extinguished the Foxes 7-3 in Tuesday's semi finals. OK ....captain Mike Roth and his linemate Jimmie Daugherty had another reason and it was the double overtime loss to NA in the second round of last years playoffs which they had vowed to not let happen again. Add on the Panther Head Coach Jim Damp was a former Tiger coach, well then there was some real motivation ! .....And it didn't take long to see that motivation as just 3:45 into the opening frame, Daugherty took the puck in the NA zone turned and ripped a slapper past Bobby Daly to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. At the other end Brandon Stallard was stoning any and all Tiger threats. Late in the period Daugherty beat the NA defense to the puck and slid a beautiful pass to Mike Roth, who made no mistake deking Daly to make it 2-0. On to the second and Franklin showed its depth as David Hopper snapped one by Daly 3-0. Luke Baughman added another tally midway through the period as Stallard looked like Ken Dryden at the other end in shutting out NA. In the third, Franklin was looking for some salt to NA's wound and Joe Ferrierro provided it to put Franklin on top 5-0. The Panthers continued pressing and the Tigers were realing. Then NA's Brandon Lied finally got his team on the board at 11:14 to make it 5-1. The Tigers scored two more goals in the games final minute by Matt Zrebiac and Bill Waldschmidt to attempt a furious rally, but Roth added an empty netter and Franklin won its first St Margarets Championship 6-3.

HARMARVILLE - North Allegheny 6 Shaler 5 - A battle of two long time AAA rivals took place in the St Margarets Semi-Finals as Shaler and NA locked horns in a battle of the last two champions of the Fall FaceOff, as the Tigers [defending 2001 champs] and Titans [2000 champs]. The upstart Titans came out smokin in the first period and took advantage of their opportunities with two power play goals from Justin Thomas. NA killed off the third power play and caught Shaler napping as Brian Maloney scored a huge goal with just 23 seconds left to cut the Shaler lead to 2-1. On to the 2nd period and Thomas completed the hat trick to give the Titans a 3-1 lead. But Shaler got a little sloppy in their own end and Maloney scored two goals in ten seconds to tie the game at 3-3 ten minutes into the middle period. Shaler answered a minute later as Chris Szczpinski drill home a shot from the right circle to give the Titans the lead 4-3. After the teams traded goals, NA's Tim Ward found Brandon Lied in the slot to tie the game at the 6:28 mark of the third period. Matt Zrebiac put the Tigers on top for the first time on the evening and NA held on for a hard fought 6-5 victory. Franklin Regional 7 Fox Chapel 3 As rivalries go, another big St Margarets tradition involve Franklin and Fox Chapel, who met in the 1997 and 1998 Fall Face Off finals, with the Foxes coming with the championship both times. In a back and forth affair, the Panthers and the Foxes battled to a 3-3 tie wehn Pat King scored seven seconds into the third period. Franklin Regional regain the lead as Mike Roth tallied a minute and a half later to give the Panthers a 4-3 lead. Then a bounce of good fortune off Roths skate at the half way point of the final period found its way past Todd Hendry and FR was now up 5-3. Jimmy Daugherty added a big insurance goal just 24 seconds later as Franklin added an empty netter to march on to the St Margarets final. The win sets up a final between NA and Franklin Regional, which will be a rematch of the memorable first round double overtime thriller of the 2002 playoffs in March, when the Tigers beat the Panthers. It should be a great matchup.

First Round Franklin Regional 5 North Hills 3 The Indians broke out to a 3-0 lead in the first period as Mark Keyser scored the natural hat trick a little over ten minutes into the game. Franklin recieved a huge goal late in th opening period as Scott Dakan poked a puck past Casey Dudt-Mulzet to get the Panthers on the board at 3-1. FR then scored four unanswered tallies from Mike Roth, Joe Ferriero, Dakan again and Luke Baughman to breeze to a 5-3 win. The Panthers outshot North Hills 42-20 on the evening. North Allegheny 2 Plum 1 "What is North Allegheny going to do this year ?" is one of the big questions many are asking after the Tigers graduated a dozen solid players from last years squad. Well if you ask the NA faithful, the answer is keep winning ! Plum's Robbie Tunon broke a scoreless tight checking game at 4:42 of the second period to put the Mustangs on top 1-0. NA's Bill Waldschmidt tied it at 10:41 of the middle frame. In the third period, Tim Ward scored on a wrist shot past B J Schreib to give North Allegheny a 2-1 lead it would never relinquish. Fox Chapel 8 Hampton 4 The Foxes broke open a tight 4-3 contest in the third period with four goal outburst to win 8-4. Eight different players scored for Fox Chapel as Todd Hendry turned away 18 Talbot shots including 9 in the third period. Fox Chapel got three point nights from Jason Kreps, Kyle Misour, Paul Puskarich and Matt Quigley leading a balanced attack which could surprise alot of AAA schools this season. Shaler 6 Pine Richland 3 If the first three minutes were any indication of how this contest would turn out Pine Richland would have been looking for a running clock in the second period. Shaler's Ed Stotts turned away 11 of 12 Ram shots to keep Coach Spike's Titans in the game at 1-1 after the opening frame. Enter Chris Szczypinski, the Shaler captain, who scored three unanswered goals to thwart Shaler to a 4-1 lead. The teams exchanged goals in the third period as the Titans rolled to a 6-3 victory before a wild Shaler home crowd at Harmarville.

Greensburg ~ SEMI-FINALS ~ Plum 4 Fox Chapel 1 Fox Chapel's Keith Kearney and Plum's Stu Relnick have similar concerns heading into the upcoming 2002-2003 season. Both will look above them in the standings and see a bright future for their young hockey clubs respectively. The Mustangs expect to battle Gateway and Franklin and retain their division crown from a year ago while the Foxes vow to challenge Central Catholic for the North title. Both schools have playoff aspirations for the upcoming season. After a scoreless first period, Plum broke out on top as Aaron Arnold scooped up a rebound and beat Todd Hendry at 10:48 to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead. At the 5:34 mark, the Foxes Chris Wehrle beat B.J. Schreib on the wrist shot upstairs to knot the game at 1-1. Plum came right back at 3:40 as freshman Johnathon Smith banged home a Travis Senchur rebound past Hendry to give Plum a 2-1 lead heading to the break. Senchur and John Kalichuk added insurance goals in the final period and the Mustangs marched on to their 2nd consecutive GCC Invitational final as they outshot FC 23-13 including 7-1 in the last period. SEMI-FINALS ~ Greensburg CC 3 South Park 2 So its only October and a game between South Park and Greensburg CC in a battle of two potential contenders in Class AA for the 2002-2003 season. A good time to give the younger players an opportunity to see what they can do. The Centarians coach Joe Dytka started Kent Weaver, while # 1 goalie Jake Genes was paricipting in an overtime playoff soccer match for GCC. And while all that was going on.....Bob Juha's South Park Eagles were in Kittanning defeating Latrobe 6-4 in the opener of this weekends tourney. Pre-Season is all about fun. Well GCC found out in the first period that South Park never took their skates off as the Eagles swarmed the Centarians with 18 shots while only surrendering one. Weaver looked like a young Tom Barrasso as he thwarted several opportunities early on. The Eagles Bobby Cagna fired home a rebound at 10:44 to open the scoring. Then, South Parks towering Matt Slogan would not be denied with just :04 left as he picked up a rebound from the point and deposited it to give his squad a 2-0 lead. The second period was a little different story as Greensburg CC carried the play to South Park outshooting them 10-3. The Centarians could not buy a goal as Ian Artim kept them off the board. On to the third as the Eagles were looking for the knock out punch as they outshot GCC 11-3 through the middle of the final period, but Weaver kept the Centarians alive making several key saves. Finally, with 4:09 remaining Matt Ward took a beautiful cross ice pass from Colin Ludwig and GCC was on the board at 2-1. They weren't done yet as Josh Chiado blistered a shot through a screen on the far upper corner past Artim and all the sudden the game was tied at 2-2 with 3:24 left. Greensburg CC completed the improbable comeback just 24 seconds later as John Kennedy crashed the net and poked a rebound past Artim to give his team a 3-2 victory and a spot in the finals against Plum. South Park outshot GCC 36-18.