Roman Catholic Gladiators

CRANBERRY –

      Mars (11-0-0) season in 2009-2010 has been a lot calmer under Steve Myers in his first full year at the helm for the Planets. The defending Class A Penguin Cup champions have been unchallenged through 11 games and frankly have made it look easy with the exception of a 5-4 victory over Serra Catholic. Mars is more interested in returning to a State Championship game they fell to Bayard Rustin a year ago and righting the ship of the Western Pennsylvania teams, who have lost 6 out of the last 7 Pennsylvania Class A titles to the Flyers Cup counterparts.

      Kittanning (9-0-0) was moved to Class A from Class AA against their wishes as the Wildcats have been in Class AA since 1994 and were Class AAA under the Armstrong Central banner. Jamie King’s squad has dealt with the hand given to them scoring 99 goals in its first 9 games and has been unchallenged thus far this season. The Wildcats did lose to Mars in the St Margaret Fall Face Off in October, so Kittanning was looking to see how their team measured up to the # 1 ranked Planets in a potential Penguins Cup final preview.  

          The game between these two undefeated teams was close checking in the opening period for the first ten minutes until on a 4 on 4, Mars Eliott Tisdale found Mike Mazzotta behind the Kittanning defense and Mazzotta beat the Kitanning goaltender Cory Norton to the stick side to give the Planets a 1-0 lead. The Wildcats went on the power play and Jordan Ford wheeled around the net and found Josh Miller in the slot who scored through the 5-hole of Tyler Stepke to tie the score just 24 seconds later. Kitanning took their first lead just 29 seconds after they tied the game as Andrew Contreal scored on a rebound at 3:40. The Wildcats seized the momentum in the middle of the period, but a terrific individual effort by Mike Mazzotta would knot things up again as the Mars forward unleashed a wicked slapshot that beat Norton high to the blocker side with just 35 seconds remaining in the first period.

        While Kittanning was unsuccessful on several power play opportunities in the second period, the Planets seized control of this contest as Russell Miller scored on his own rebound after a nice cross ice pass from Tyler Thomas at 13:44. Mars would take a two goal advantage at 5:23 of the period as Austin Heakins scored on another rebound goal to make it 4-2. The Planets were cruising and Nicholas Blaney beat the Kittanning defense on a pretty move and buried a snap shot high over the glove of Norton to give Mars a 5-2 lead after two periods.

        The teams traded power plays early in the 3^rd period as Kittanning could not mount pressure on the Mars defense, who played very sound fundamental defense. With the Wildcats pressing and unable to clear their own zone, Elliott Tisdale would close out the scoring with 7:19 to play in the 3^rd period gathering a Tyler Whiteford rebound and burying a wrist shot high to the stick side to put an exclamation point on a 6-2 victory for the Planets as they continued their undefeated season and march in defense of their Penguins Cup Class A title from a year ago.