St Joseph's Prep Hawks

VALENCIA – Pine Richland (20-0-1) has been on a joy ride in Class AA since January 5th of 2006, which is when the Rams the last time PR dropped a regular season contest to Thomas Jefferson at Rostraver. Coach Bob Kennedy inherited a pretty confident group that captured the 2006 Pennsylvania Class AA title with a win over Haverford 4-0 earlier in the spring and the 2006 – 2007 version has swept through the regular season with relative ease with convincing wins over # 2 seed Latrobe and # 3 seed Thomas Jefferson, so excuse the casual and loyal fan from Pine Richland, if they feel no one can walk on the same pavement as their team or more importantly share the same ice. The one consistent factor this season is that when the Rams face a decent goaltender, namely Ryan Homanics of Greensburg CC, Shane Bickar of South Park, Michael Cole of Elizabeth Forward or Matt Skoff of Montour, or Matt Wynn of Moon they have struggled a little to bury their respective teams and in the playoffs as they say sometimes you will run in the ‘hot goaltender’, which sends you home for the playoffs. Mike Mastracci of Peters Twp is long forgotten by most people, but almost pulled it off in the Class AA Penguins Cup Semi-Finals until the Rams rallied in edge out Peters in the turning point of the 2006 playoffs and Haverford’s Jim Hazleton almost did it to them in the State Finals. Confidence is a great thing, but overconfidence can spell disaster. Franklin Regional (14-6-1) is one of the teams in Class AA, along with Thomas Jefferson, Latrobe, West Allegheny, Montour and Elizabeth Forward has been playing some great hockey in the season’s second half. These teams have vaulted themselves into interesting playoff positions in the seeds and ALL are considered darkhorses at best due to Pine Richland’s domination. The Panthers, after a 1-4-0 start, have gone 13-2-0 since and look to be a team coming together, which could create problems similar to what the Moon Tigers did falling to the Rams 3-2 in overtime. As it turns out Franklin and Moon will end up with the 4th and 5th seeds pending the outcome of this game and the Moon-Latrobe finale on Tuesday. If you ask FR Head Coach Jim Daugherty, he is pretty excited with the fact that finally after 21 games, his whole team is healthy and seems to have worked out the travel commitments for March, so that Franklin Regional can compete with a full squad in the upcoming Penguins Cup playoffs. When the Panthers are all together, they can do some pretty good things as they took Class A State Champions Quaker Valley to double overtime in the PA Hockey Scholastic Showcase semi-finals before losing to a Mikhail Lemieux goal in the 2nd overtime, which doesn’t mean much to some people, but Pine Richland, who was in the same tournament, didn’t advance that far, probably because some of their players were missing and really could care less. One thing is for sure, when the playoff bell rings next week, all of the teams will be playing for one goal and that is to go all the way, which is why Latrobe, Thomas Jefferson and Moon coaches and reps were in attendance last night! The opening period was kind of uneventful as both teams played tennis volleying the puck in each other’s end with limited scoring opportunities. Franklin Regional awoke the intimate gathering of Panther and Ram fans as Pa Hockey top 5 freshman choice Steven Shirk picked up a loose puck in the slot and buried a snapshot high over the glove side of Stoney Hildreth to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. Pine Richland has the ability to strike quickly and often and they displayed that explosiveness in the second period as Kyle Adams scored on a rebound of a Reed Loney shot with 8:30 to go to tie the game at one apiece. The Rams seized the lead in the hockey game as Dylan Trombetta streaked toward the net and brother Phil threaded a perfect back door pass for a goal and a 2-1 Pine Richland lead with 6:16 to go in the middle frame. Franklin goaltender James ‘Bobby’ Orr stood tall in goal for the Panthers keeping Pine Richland at bay and keeping the score 2-1 at ice cut. Franklin was still in this game and looked to be pretty fresh using three lines and five defensemen to counter the Ram attack and really from a standpoint of territorial play skated with Richland stride for stride. The other interesting thing that happen was that Panther defensive unit Turner Andritz and Timmy McDonough along with excellent backchecking by the forward lines, were able to keep the line of Trombetta-Trombetta-Saad limited in scoring chances and zone time for a better part of 45 minutes, which in my opinion is the key to beating Pine Richland and will certainly be a strategy of whoever faces them, and as I write this as Moon, Latrobe,Thomas Jefferson, and let’s not forget Franklin, the interested ‘Concerned Citizens’ in attendance scratched on their note pads a few thoughts for the upcoming playoffs. While all of this was going on, ‘Here’s Johnny’ Cecere walked down the slot with 11:03 to play and roofed a wrist hot to tie the hockey game at 2-2, which really got a lot of people interested in the outcome of this game, who were in attendance. Before Pine Richland could even think about mounting a response Brian Buckley stole the puck from the Ram defense and raced 80 feet to the net and beat Stoney Hildreth to give Franklin Regional a 3-2 lead with 8:59 to go. Moments later at 7:49 James ‘Bobby’ Orr toned Phil Trombetta on the backhander and ended up with a power play. The Panthers dug in and killed it off. Pine Richland stepped up their play over the final five minutes and Franklin took the jabs like a heavyweight contender, Tyler Deal’s backhand rung off the crossbar with 2:30 and FR held the 3-2 lead. The Panthers, to their credit did not sit back and ‘Here’s Johnny’ Cecere almost put the nail in the coffin as his backhand hit the crossbar behind Stoney Hildreth and the score remained 3-2. The puck headed down into the Franklin end and Tim McDonough gave chase with Phil Trombetta, and with the puck behind him McDonough rattled Trombetta to the boards, impeding his progress to the puck, which is obstruction and McDonough was whistled to the box by referee Jim Koch, who made the right call for interference. Emotions got were running high and FR sensed the upset and Pine Richland was now on the power play with 1:02 to go. Franklin, who took an untimely unsportsmanlike penalty in the Director’s Cup semi-final, had arguably their best defenseman in the box (who also got a 10-minute misconduct penalty) and a minute to kill with the # 4 seed, home ice and a bye on the line. Turner Andritz, Carl Richter, Eugene Mack, Johnny Cecere and Brian Buckley, along with goaltender James ‘Bobby’ Orr and the rest of the Panthers, who are not household names, nor illustrious travel players, completed their tasks, made their checks, cleared the loose pucks and got one more than the other team as they clock ran out. This game was familiar territory for the Panthers, in their dressed rehearsal against Quaker Valley in December. The opponent is the # 1 ranked in the State of Pennsylvania, # 1 in the Post Gazette in Western Pennsylvania, previously undefeated this season and for a season and a half, and a prohibited favorite to defend and win the 2007 Pennsylvania Cup, but this was the Pine Richland Rams, and this time they who were beaten by the ‘not under the radar anymore’ Franklin Regional Panthers 3-2 in a thriller at the Infection Connection and it counts. Maybe a squirrel finding an acorn? Well the snow is melting and for the Panthers and the rest of Class AA, they’ll be looking to gather more and Pine Richland will have to earn it now!