St Joseph's Prep Hawks

ROSTRAVER - Radnor entered the Pennsylvania Class A State Championship as the favorite to win its first State Championship. The Raiders averaged nearly nine goals a game during the regular season, while only giving up a little over two. The top line of John Brennan, Ed Devine and Chris Brennan scored a staggering 229 points in 17 regular season games and carried the Raiders to the Flyers Cup Championship. Serra's coach John Mooney knows a little about scoring as the first player in Pennsylvania High School Hockey to score 100 goals in a season in 1989 for the Eagles. You see, the Eagles have won the past Class A State Championships and while many may count out this team, the 'Moon Man' says 'hey never count out my Eagles'. So the guys with little size and not alot of speed, but a bunch of great big hearts vs an offensive machine ....an interesting matchup for 2002 Pennsylvania's Class A crown ! Radnor came out flying in the opening minutes and Timmy Johnson continued his hot goaltending stopping Ed Devine in the opening minute from the bottom of the circle. The Raiders held an early 8-4 shot advantage and Dan Brillman's shot glanced off the crossbar at 7:49 as the score remained 0-0. Then at 4:52, Dustin Songer took a Steve Leppo pass in the slot an beat Jim Danner down on the ice to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. So Radnor, was now in a position it had rarely been in the 2002 season, would have to respond and this time it was a mental mistake as the Raiders were guilty of too many men on the ice at 3:58. Serra made them pay as their quiet leader, Steve Leppo beat a Radnor forward at the blue line and walked down the slot and beat Danner upstairs on the stick side at 2:51 and all the sudden it was 2-0 Serra. Radnor opened its scoring at 12:39 of the second on the power play as John Brennan beat Johnson on a wrist shot from the slot to get the Raiders on the board. The Danner made a key save stopping Leppo on the breakaway at 11:59. Then at 9:47, John Brennan showed why he is one of Eastern Pa's finest as he took a pass in stride faked a shot to manuever around the Serra defense and fed linemate Ed Devine cross-ice, who made no mistake and tied the game at 2-2 and Radnor was back in business and looking to take control of his game. That's one of the Serra's Eagles Joey Manning said 'not so fast' to Radnor as he took a Steve Kolbe pass, slid the puck past a Radnor defenseman and lofted a backhand past Danner and those pesky Eagles were back in the lead 3-2. At 5:01, it was John Brennan again finding a loose puck and feeding brother Chris Brennan on a beautiful cross crease pass, who tied the game at 3-3. C.J. King's slapshot while falling down beat Danner with 1:35 remaining as Serra regained that lead 4-3. Then a break for Radnor put them on the power play with just 33 second left in the 2nd. Off of the faceoff, Corey Shilcock-Elliot took a wrist shot through traffic and Ed Devine somehow got a stick on it to re-direct it past Johnson and in a wild second period the game was tied at 4-4 with just 26 ticks left. Serra took a bad penalty at the end of the 2nd and it almost cost them early in the third, but Timmy Johnson stoned John Brennan at 14:06 to keep the score tied. Radnor was coming in waves and dominated the third period, but Johnson and the Eagles kept them out Johnson made key saves at 7:10 on Brennan and another flurry at 4:20. Serra was holding on for dear life and got the puck into the Radnor zone to take the heat out of the Eagle defensive zone. Now John Mooney, in his infinite wisdom late in the season benched Devon Kane, who sat out the early part of the season on suspension from last years State Final and the coach was sending a message to his junior forward that if your gonna be an Eagle, your contribution is on the ice and boy did that pay off for Serra Catholic. With 3:10 remaining, a Radnor defenseman made one of hockey coaches nightmares, a clearing attempt up the middle of the defensive zone and there he was, Devon Kane, positioned to pick off the clearing attempt and in one motion, Kane mad no mistake beating Danner and giving Serra a 5-4 lead and sending a huge Eagle contingent into a frenzy of believing this threepeat was a reality ! These Eagles, who had been counted out and no one believed in except themselves, were on their way. Radnor was not done and Brennan and company were all over Serra outshooting the Eagles 12-3 in the third, but Johnson and these Serra kids dug down deep and when C.J. King made a great defensive play to clear the zone with a half a minute left Serra never let the Raiders get close again and the cardiac kid Serra Eagles pulled it off with a 5-4 heartstopping third straight Pennsylvania Class A championship.