St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Semi-Finals Mt Lebanon 3 North Allegheny 1 Mt Lebanon gained the semi-finals of the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational through the conventional manner of impressive victories over perennial New York club power Orchard Park 6-1, 9-time Maryland State Champions DeMatha Catholic 2-1 in overtime and Eastern Pa AA foe Downingtown East 6-1. Coach Paul Taibi’s club has displayed the depth and balance, that has carried the Blue Devils to the Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 ranking in Western Pennsylvania, even tough several players were in and out of the lineup in the tournament’s first two days. North Allegheny knows the feeling that the Blue Devils carry as NA held the title of # 1 for the majority of the regular season and through the playoffs as the Tigers captured the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off, Central Catholic Invitational and the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase a year ago and steamrolled through the regular season with just one loss, which carried them all the way to the Penguins Cup final before bowing to the Hawks 1-0 at the Mellon Arena in one of the classic AAA championships in recent memory. After pummeling Monsignor Bonner in the opener of the tournament, the Tigers got a rude reminder of how fragile winning and losing is as they were upended by nemesis Upper St. Clair 3-1 yesterday morning. Coach Tom Pandolfo hates to lose more than anyone and may have exorcised a few demons as the Tigers knocked off Hamilton, Ontario’s St Jean de Brebeuf, who had crushed their first two opponents in the tournament. Mt Lebanon defeated NA 3-1 as Rick Beuke and Mike Roman scored in the first period to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead. The Tigers pulled within one as Chris Simanic scored on the power play at 12:41 of the second. Max Richards kept North Allegheny in the game with 27 saves, but Matt Bartkowski iced the game with a power play goal with 8:55 left in the third to give the Blue Devils a spot in the finals. Cheektowaga 2 Bethel Park 1 (2OT) Cheektowaga has enjoyed their inaugural visit to the Central Catholic Inviational with victories and a little tour of Pa Hockey defeating host Central Catholic 5-1, 8-time Pennsylvania Cup champions Meadville 3-1 and tying defeating 2005 Flyers Cup finalist Germantown Academy 2-2. The Warriors goaltending tandem of Mike Grover and Adam Palumbo have been stellar in the tournament have been the difference in CC’s ride to the semi-finals. Bethel Park coach Jim McVay knows the importance of good goaltending as his club captured last year’s Pennsylvania State AAA Championship with the great goaltending of Bryce Merriam and the rise of many players such as Timmy O’Brien, Kenny Lehmann, Eddie Bendik, who played key roles and will be counted on to lead BP back to the promised land. The Blackhawk’s have witnessed a turnstile between the pipes but may be settling with former Woodland Hills goaltender Pete Cosentino, who is a legacy of former Churchill player Kevin Monaco of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s so to speak. Cheektowaga defeated Bethel Park 2-1 as the Hawks could only solve Warriors goaltender Mike Grover once with 40 shots. CC opened the scoring at 8:56 of the first period as Eric Osmanski scored on the power play. The Black Hawks tied the game at 4:01 of the second period as Logan Bannon scored to knot the score a one apiece. The Warriors would earned a spot in the finals as Matt Bessing scored at 9:30 of the overtime period to give Cheektowaga Central a spot in the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational Final surviving six Bethel Park power plays. 2005 Central Catholic Invitational Final Mt Lebanon 5 Cheektowaga Central 1 Cheektowaga Central has battle hard in the Invitational and head coach Steve Ferrentino has to be proud of the fact that Warriors defeated Eastern Pa AA power Downingtown East perennial Pennsylvania AAA stalwarts Meadville and Bethel Park along with a tie with Flyers Cup finalist Germantown Academy. In a whirlwind weekend tournament anytime a team can face the competition that they did and post a 3-0-1 record and head to the finals of this great event, it’s a great accomplishment. The next step would be the much heralded Blue Devils of Mt Lebanon. Any time Mt Lebanon takes to the ice, its an event this season and with Ralph and Alf not present with his sidekick Bob ‘I don’t have a nickname yet’ Behling noticeably absent from the sidelines, I enlisted the help of King Tut to assist me in finding electricity power for the Bat Computer, since I didn’t have Ralph and Alf Construction services available. I probably should have just hooked it up to the Mt Lebanon bench or possibly just the power play because this team has been electric since the start of the season scoring like a machine and yielding shots at the clip of a Tommy Maddox completion %. Murovich, Ferguson, Bartkowski, Mandic, McDermott, and the crew is just firepower in action and has blasted its way into the final with wins over Downingtown East, DeMatha Orchard Park and North Allegheny by a 15-4 margin in 4 contests. Mt Lebanon applied the pressure early and at 9:31 of the 1st Matt Bartkowski scored on a wrist shot from the right point and through traffic past Adam Palumbo to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead. At 5:23 of the Palumbo robbed Josh Mandic from point blank range as the Blue Devils held a 9-1 shot advantage. At 3:01 of the first, the ‘Terminator’ Tyler Murovich undressed the Warrior goaltender and beat him upstairs on the backhand for the games 11th shot and a 2-0 Blue Devil lead. Lebo outshot CC 17-2 in the opening period. Mt Lebanon continued to pound away on Palumbo in the 2nd period and at 12:37 of the middle period, Shane Ferguson bang home a rebound after Josh Mandic and Tyler Murrrr-O-Vitch as PA Announcer Tim Lane would suggest provided the assists. At 10:52, Tyler Murovich scored his 2nd goal poking home a rebound after a scramble in front to make it 4-0. The Blue Devils continued their onslaught on Cheektowaga with 29 shots to only 7 on Matt Vaughn, whose only serious threat was a breakaway from Steve Noworyta shot just wide with a little over five minutes to play in the middle frame. On to the third we went and Lebo continued the onslaught and at 8:40, Sean McDermott scored on a rebound to make it 5-0. With just 4:43. the Warriors finally got on the as Eric Osmanski blistered a slapshot in the upper right hand corner to make it 5-1 and the Blue Devils would run the clock out with a 36-11 shot advantage capturing their first ever Central Catholic Invitational Championship. The Blue Devils Tyler Murovich was named recipient of the William Downey Award for the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and joined teammates Matt Vaughn and Matt Bartkowski of the All-Tournament team along with Eric Osmanski of Cheektowaga Central, Kenny Lehman of Bethel Park and Brian O’Neill of Germantown Academy. Congratulations to the Mt Lebanon Blue Devils and head coach Paul Taibi for capturing the prestigious Central Catholic Invitational !