St Joseph's Prep Hawks

St Edwards 2 Mt Lebanon 0 2007 Meadville Bulldog Invitational MEADVILLE - After Mt Lebanon lost to Sylvania Northview 3-1 in the 2007 Meadville Bulldog Invitational opener, head coach Paul Taibi called a midnight practice with his team to remind them the commitment it takes when you are defending Pennsylvania Class AAA State Champions. After the Blue Devils lost to Bethel Park a week ago, coach Taibi was less than satisfied with the effort of his team, but turned it around in three days and earned a 2-2 tie against the Blackhawks. Consistency is one of the toughest feats for a team who aspires to be champions. And while everyone is entitled to a bad game here and there, there is no excuse for lack of effort and coach Taibi has a tradition at Mt Lebanon of hard working and well prepared squads and he sees the potential for the Blue Devils to make noise in March. A coining process after Lebo’s impressive 2-0 victory over a very good Gilmour Academy team limiting the Lancers to just 10 shots on goal. So Lebo 66 who won the Bulldog a year ago is now Lebo 49 a/k/a Lebo 46, who are not half the team they used to be. Whatever percentage you would like to assign, Mt Lebanon is working toward defending their title, both at the Bulldog and the Pennsylvania Class AAA crown they earned a year ago. St Edwards from Cleveland is a perennial power of Ohio Interscholastic Hockey winning 10 Ohio State Championships. Head coach Rob Whidden is in a battle in Cleveland for supremacy with defending Ohio champions Padua with the goal of ending in Columbus the second week in March. The Eagles rebounded from an opening loss in the Bulldog Invitational to upend Sylvania Northview 2-0 and the bracket is now wide open with the winners of Saturday’s contests advancing along with LaSalle and Toledo St Francis to the semi-finals. St Edward’s opened the scoring at 11:56 of the first period on a goal by Charles Wisniewski to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead, which they held through the first period. Mt Lebanon went on the power play at 8:24 of the 2nd period, but the Eagles killed it maintaining a 1-0 lead. St Ed’s went on the power play at 6:27 and could not score. Mt Lebanon would have another chance at 4:10. The Eagles seized control of the hockey game at 7:40 as Charles Wisnewski’s shot from sharp angle beat Robbie Behling on the short side to give St Ed’s a 2-0 advantage. Lebo 46 was now in an uphill climb needing 3 goals over the games final 7 ½ minutes, which has been the Achilles heel of the Blue Devils and a favorite Sunday Conversation of Dr Denton (off on assignment in Cleveland) and King Tut. With 3:33 to go the Lebo power play would have one last gasp and St Ed’s goaltender Everett Graves made two nice stops of Jon Wilen with 2:23 to play. The Blue Devils penalty shortly thereafter was the death nail for Lebo as St Edwards would now advance to play Toledo St Francis in tomorrow’s semi-finals and LaSalle will face Sylvania Northview. Mt Lebanon outshot St Ed’s 23-18. The loss will bring an end to the two year run of Mt Lebanon and LaSalle meeting for the Bulldog Invitational title.