St Joseph's Prep Hawks

CORAOPOLIS – The state of Class A hockey is this…..gone is Deer Lakes, Johnstown, Steel Valley, South Fayette, Somerset, Blackhawk, just to name a few over the past two seasons. Waiting in the wings is Quigley and possibly Conemaugh Valley or Ferndale, which seem to hang on every year. What was once a pride of High School Hockey in Western Pennsylvania is now a mix of have and have-nots and may explain why the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championship trophy reads …..2005 – Penncrest – 2004 Radnor – 2003 – Radnor. Yes indeed Serra Catholic [in 2002, 2001, and 2000] was the last Penguins Cup champions to win it all. So out of the twelve teams in Class A, Quaker Valley and Sewickley Academy were the canon fodder for the annual Bishop McCort – Serra Catholic Class A Penguins Cup, which has been the case 4 out of the past 6 years, with the Westmont Hilltop visit in 2003 and Somerset short stay in 2004 being the only exception. Quakers coach Kevin Quinn in many people’s opinion has the best team on paper in Class A entering the season and is off to an impressive 4-0 start including a 4-1 victory at the Cambria County War Memorial over 2005 Penguins Cup champions Bishop McCort. Sewickley Academy is coming off its best ever season a year ago and looking to better itself from a Penguins Cup semi-final appearance and loss to Serra Catholic. Coach Eric Hoolihan had the whole summer to ponder his goaltending woes in the playoffs, which ultimately lead to his teams demise and exodus out of the playoffs. Steve Tehovnik is now the SA man between the pipes and will have to be the answer if this team hopes to contend this year and take it one step further. A 3-0-0 start for Sewickley is expected given the opponents faced. The first big test would come tonight before a jammed packed Airport Ice Arena of ‘Concerned Citizens of both Quaker Valley and Sewickley’, which both happen to reside in the same place as the high school building are less than a mile apart, so we’ll classify this one as a rivalry. At 13:04 of the first period, the Quaker Valley faithful were treated to a customary Furman South goal on a rebound to give QV a 1-0 lead. The Panthers were given an opportunity at 11:41 of the opening period on the power play and after a scramble for the puck, Benji Brozanski kept the puck alive in the zone and Chris Behrer found the rebound and deposited a backhand past Zac Zinger at 9:47 to tie the score at one apiece. Zinger made two nice saves on a delayed penalty called at 6:59 and the Panthers went back on the power play and could not score as the QV goaltender stopped Brad Watts twice prior and after the penalty expired. The Quakers lack of discipline resulted in a SA power play at 2:02, which resulted in another kill by QV. At 14:26, an innocent looking play behind the Sewickley net ended on the stick of Cody Scott, who jammed home a shot past Tehovnik to give the Quakers a 2-1 lead. End to end action took this game by storm in the middle of the second period. Zinger made a great save on Alex Echavarria at 7:19 and another on Brad Watts at 6:39. The Panthers kept on working and earned another power play at 4:08, but it was the Quakers who capitalized as Mikail Lemieux stole the puck at the blue line and buried a wrist shot high over the glove side of the SA goaltender at 3:15 for a shorthanded goal. With 44 seconds remaining in the period Zac Zinger robbed Brad Watts again to keep his team in front by two. On to the third period and if there was a big play for the Panthers in this game it came at11:48 as Richard Thornburgh lugged the puck out of his own zone and carried it into the QV zone and hit a streaking Conner Blood in the slot , who was stopped by Zinger, but scored on the rebound low to the stick side to cut the lead to 3-2. The Quakers came right back at 10:55 as Colin South banged home a rebound to give QV a 4-2 lead.SA maintained the pressure in the QV end, but could not beat Zac Zinger. Mikail Lemieux scored an empty netter with 2.9 left for a final count of 5-2, in a game, which was a lot closer than the score as the Panthers outshot QV 30-19, but the Quakers came out the victors on the scoreboard.