St Joseph's Prep Hawks

North Allegheny 2 Seneca Valley 1

CRANBERRY –

      North Allegheny exorcised 35 years of demons for their program in 2007 by winning the Pennsylvania Class AAA title over Holy Ghost Prep. The State Championship was part of a process started by the teams the preceding two seasons that lost in the Penguins Cup final to eventual champions Bethel Park in 2005 and Mt Lebanon in 2006. Head Coach Jimmy Black, who won the State Title at Class AA with Pine Richland in 2006 repeated the feat at North Allegheny last season. The Tigers had not had a terrific start at 3-2-0 and they didn’t last year either, but sometimes it’s more how you finish the season than begin. NA will test it’s valor nationally in the 2^nd National Invitational Scholastic Showcase in Jamestown, New York against Illinois powerhouse New Trier Green, Indiana State Finalist Hamilton Southeastern and Texas Semi-Finalist Jesuit College Prep and do so having to travel back to Cranberry Friday Night for a PIHL game with State College, in a league that has trouble scheduling roughly 20 games in 18 weeks and would not permit the Tigers to re-schedule the game.

     Seneca Valley is currently 4-0-0 and ranked # 2 in the latest Post Gazette/ Pa Hockey Elite 8 rankings. The Raiders have defeated Bethel Park (St Margaret’s Fall Face Off) and McDowell of note last week. The Seneca program has risen from the ashes of no varsity program a couple of years back to strong numbers in development and a lot of depth for Head Coach Mike Schall. The Raiders are a squad who in my opinion has been building toward joining the club of Class AAA’s Elite programs such as Meadville, Mt Lebanon, Bethel, and now North Allegheny, who are now in pursuit of Pine Richland who appears to be a notch above the AAA competition. So this game on the schedule is a measuring stick and a rivalry game and possibly could be a playoff matchup later as these teams point toward the Penguins Cup playoffs in March.

        At 11:33 of the opening period, Seneca Valley would have the first opportunity on the power play and NA would kill it off. The teams were back and forth with limited  scoring opportunities until with 1:32 Matt Jarrett’s blistering wrist shot from top of circle found its way over the glove hand of Max Richards for a 1-0 Raider lead..

      Early in the second period at 14:33, NA had a 5 on 3 power play to tie the score and Seneca Valley killed it off and went right back on the power play at 12:33, but NA’s Dylan Rohar dazzled the Seneca defense forcing a penalty at 11:21. The Tigers went on an abbreviated power play and made it count at 10:18 as Donnie Lewis sped down the left side and beat Ryan Schutte on the short side to tie the game at one apiece. Seneca Valley went back on the power play at 7:55, but had trouble getting out of their zone due to some effective penalty killing by the Tigers. The Raiders would have the games next good chances as with 4:43 to go in the period Brandon Platt stopped by Max Richards on the breakaway and then Tyler Rose’s shot rang off the right post at 4:31, but the score remained 1-1. With 1:45 to play in the period, Ryan Schutte robbed Brett Schindler with a glove save to keep the game knotted.

         North Allegheny started the third period with roughly a minute on the power play but could not convert. With 8:49 to go Brett Schindler wound his way through the Raider defnse and lofted a wrist shot past Ryan Schutte to give NA a 2-1 lead. Seneca Valley tried to build pressure to tie the game in the closing minute and pulled the goaltender for the extra attacker and with :23 to go and the Raiders with the puck on the doorstep in Seneca Valley and the whistle blew and a penalty call on the Raiders ended Seneca Valley’s chance to tie game. North Allegheny salted the a pretty big with with a Bo Schwab empty netter with :15 to play and held on for a 3-1 victory over the Raiders.