St Joseph's Prep Hawks

2007 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships Class A – Freeport Yellow Jackets (18-3-2) vs West Chester Henderson Warriors (18-5-2) April 7, 2007 - Ice Works – Aston, Pennsylvania West Chester Henderson 4 Freeport 1 ASTON - West Chester Henderson lost in the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League South Division Championship to Kennett it's final two games prior to the Flyers Cup. Prior to that, the Warriors have been on a terror since mid-November, only losing to Lower Merion and racking up a lot of goals. When Henderson dispatched a very solid Hershey squad in the Semi-Finals 6-2, it opened some eyes and then they were able to defeat the number one seed and Division rival Kennett in the Flyers Cup final 4-2. The Warriors are looking for their 2nd State Championship in school history to go with their lone title in 1982 over Baldwin, which was a 7-6 victory at the Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown in the Class AAA championship. While the original school district has grown in size and now sports three high schools including West Chester East and Bayard Rustin, the Henderson program remains a very strong part of the history of the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League and is looking to capture it’s first Pennsylvania title in 25 years for Head Coach Art Marcellus. One of the quiet success stories of this season has been Freeport, who has won some pretty big hockey games this season over Bishop McCort, Mars and Serra Catholic. In their only meeting prior to the Penguins Cup with Quaker Valley, they were thrashed 11-0 and one factor is that Zach Hepler, Beau Zack and Tim Zahumensky did not play in that game was a huge factor when the teams met again in the final. Freeport knocked off Westmont Hilltop 4-1 and Mars 3-1 before shocking the defending State Champion Quakers in the Penguins Cup finals 4-1, in one of the biggest upsets in Pennsylvania High School Hockey playoff history. Coach Dave Hepler, the former University of Pittsburgh punter from the late 1970’ & early 80’s , has led a group of 14 boys, a majority of the teams is brother combinations including his two sons Zach and Jeremy to the biggest stage that Freeport has ever known. Anyone familiar with the movie Hoosiers can only relate what must go through the minds of this team, who can become the first school in Armstrong County to ever capture a state championship in hockey for a small town in Western Pennsylvania, which when you think about it is really what a State Championship aspires to be in the spirit of sportsmanship and can only bring lore if the Yellow Jackets are able to complete the dream. The first period was scoreless as goaltenders Rob Mattern of Henderson and Tim Zahumensky of Freeport were flawless stopping 9 and 8 shots respectively. The Warriors killed off two Freeport power plays and established themselves defensively with excellence backchecking and tremendous defensive plays limiting the scoring chances of the high scoring duo of Beau Zack and Patrick Spangler, who combined for 70 goals in the regular season and have been the catalyst of the Yellow Jacket offense in the Penguins Cup playoffs. Freeport went on the power play at 8:18 of the 2nd period, but it was West Chester Henderson who would strike first in this contest and capitalized with a shorthanded goal by Billy Latta, who took the puck from the center ice area and beat the Freeport defense and Tim Zahumensky ay 6:16 on the forehand to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead. The Yellow Jackets went on the power play again at 3:39 and again it was Billy Latta again scoring on another shorthanded breakaway with 3:27 remaining taking nice lead pass of the far boards by Joe Carlin 2-0 and made a move on the Freeport defense and was gone in on Zahumensky beating him on the forehand to make it 2-0. Latta felt his team could win the game at this point “we gained confidence after the second goal and we knew we could win it as Rob (Mattern) and our defense was doing a great job penalty killing, which we have worked on in practice”. The Warriors held a distinct advantage in the territorial play and the shots in the 2nd period 14-7, due to the play of the defensive unit of B.J. Blaker, Joe Carlin and Cory Speroff and a deep group of defensive forwards, who limited Freeport’s opportunities and kept the puck out of their end and kept the pressure on the Yellow Jackets. On to the third period and West Chester Henderson continued its smart play and great defensive effort holding Freeport in check. Freeport had a flurry early in the 3rd period, but once again Robbie Mattern kept the Jackets off the board. The backbreaking goal came with 2:56 to play on a rebound goal as T.J. Wallace found a loose puck on the door step after hard work by linemates Jack Kelly and Nick Ramondo and poked it past Tim Zahumensky to give the Warriors a commanding 3-0 advantage. Just 13 seconds later at 2:43, the Warriors struck again another breakaway goal by Billy Latta to complete the hat trick and make it 4-0 and West Chester on their way to the Pennsylvania Class A State Championship. The sophomore Latta used the some move to score all three goals and credited studying tapes of NHL players for his success. Freeport’s Jeremy Hepler scored inside the post to break the shutout of Rob Mattern with 41 seconds to go and make the final count 4-1 as the Warriors captured their first Pennsylvania Class A title in 25 years since 1982. Billy Latta summed it up best saying “Nothing is better than winning a State Championship for his senior teammates in their last game”. Final Shots in the contest in favor of West Chester Henderson were 31 – 25, but the underlying theme of this contest was the great team effort offensively and defensively by the Warriors, who skated three lines throughout the contest, used its depth in the offensive and defensive ends, with timely goaltending from Robbie Mattern and an extraordinary performance of a very talented sophomore Billy Latta, who was almost as refreshing to talk to as he was to watch.