St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Quaker Valley 6 Sewickley Academy 3 CASTLE SHANNON – Quaker Valley (22-1-0) and Sewickley Academy (16-8-0) are schools that are less than a mile apart and both schools are also looking for their first trip ever to the Penguins Cup finals. The Quakers have been more of a bridesmaid as this is their 3rd consecutive trip to the Penguins Cup semi-finals losing to Somerset in 2004 and again to Bishop McCort a year ago in 2005 in a tight 2-1 contest. Sewickley would probably like to forget last year’s trip to the semis as they were defeated soundly by Serra Catholic. This season for QV has been a dream defeating both Bishop McCort and Serra late in the season to capture the # 1 seed, but Kevin Quinn knows that this journey is one step at a time and Sewickley is quite capable of knocking off the Quakers. Probably for the first time which must seem like eternity, coach Erik Hoolihan can look down the bench and see more than 10 players as the Panthers will dress 15 skaters for this evenings game, which has to be a relief for the SA fans, who watched their team skate as little as 7 skaters late into the season. Sewickley scored a huge 3-2 win over McCort during the final week of the season. So the Academy and QV would square off before a packed house at Ralph and Alf’s House of Chills for the right to meet Serra in the 2006 Penguins Cup final at Mellon Arena on March 25th. Quaker Valley played opportunist in the games opening moments as at 13:49 George Jackson picked off a clearing attempt and roof a wrist shot over the stick side of Steven Tehovnik for a 1-0 lead for the Quakers. Then at 10:08 Tim Hall found Colin South alone in the slot, who buried a snapshot low to the stick side to give QV an early 2-0 lead. The Panthers would have the first opportunity on the power play at 8:37 and SA capitalized as Jason Limbach buried a beautiful feed by brother Scott at 7:42 to cut the lead to 2-1. QV went on the power play at 6:08, but could not convert, then with 2:41 QV took two penalties to Sewickley’s one for a Panther man advantage, which the Quakers killed. Shots in the opening period were Sewickley Academy 11 Quaker Valley 8. Action continued into the second period as Scott Limbach beat the QV defense to the puck at 13:50, but was stopped by Zac Zinger on the breakaway. The Panthers turned up the pressure in the QV zone and forced a penalty and another power play for SA at 12:42. An ill-advised penalty on QV put the Panthers on a 5 on 3 with 12:01 to go and a 1:20 man two man advantage and a golden opportunity for Sewickley. With 11:04 remaining, Furman South made a terrific play and effort to beat SA to the puck and forced an interference penalty, which was a huge turning point and broke the Sewickley Academy momentum. Then it happened, after a great play to outmaneuver the QV defender in his own zone, Scott Limbach carried the puck into the Quaker zone and waited patiently before shooting the puck sharply on Zac Zinger and Conner Blood picked up the rebound and buried it low to the stick side at 4:15 to tie the game at 2-2. Quaker Valley lost it’s composure and put Sewickley on the power play at 3:53 left in the 2nd. With 1:44 remaining in the 2nd, a errant pass ended up on the stick of Colin South, who rifled a slapshot high over the glove side of Steve Tehovnik to give the Quakers a 3-2 lead, which QV took to the ice cut. Shots on goal in the 2nd period 19-9 in favor of the Panthers. On to the third period and Quaker Valley struck quickly as Furman South found a streaking Tim Hall, who scored on a shot just inside the post with 14:21 remaining in regulation and giving the Quakers a 4-2 lead. QV went on the power play at 13:43. Zac Zinger made a nice leg save on Richard Thornburgh at 12:41 and the Quakers came right back and scored on the power play as Tim Hall fired a slapshot from the left point high over the stick side of Tehovnik to give QV a 5-2 lead. The Panthers came back as Conner Blood’s cross ice pass was deflected by Brad Watts with 9:03 up under the crossbar to cut the lead to 5-3. The Quakers answered as Furman South scored with 8:27 remaining on a pass from Tim Hall to push the lead to 6-3. The Quakers took control of the game as the clock winded down on Sewickley’s season and Quaker Valley finally found redemption after frustration to finally earn a trip to the Mellon Arena with a 6-3 victory over the Panthers.