Announcement
BETHEL PARK –
Pine Richland Head Coach Bobby Kennedy has won three Pennsylvania State Championships, one as a player with Upper St Clair in 1980 and two as a coach including Pine Richland a year ago over Haverford and in 1997 with Bethel Park. As history would have it, the Hawks have gone on to win five Pennsylvania Class AAA titles including four under current Head Coach Jim McVay. Kennedy was paraded around after the first ever State title with Bethel and then moved on to his alma mater Upper St Clair and then to Shadyside Academy prior to heading to Pine Richland. The Rams are undefeated since moving to Class AAA and have been virtually unchallenged by the competition rolling up 45 goals in seven games and only yielding 8. Implant goaltender Dan Szymanski has fit into the PR plans nicely and just adds to the aspirations of a March run.
Bethel Park has quietly started off the season at 6-0-0 and now heads into a stretch of games with Pine Richland, Mt Lebanon and Meadville over the next week. Head Coach Jim McVay’s squad is depleted with injuries to key players including one of his leading scorers Matt Quigley, which will add to his challenge ahead. The Hawks recently competed in the National Invitational Scholastic Showcase in Jamestown, New York and fared the best of the five Western Pa teams, narrowly missing out on a Medal Round appearance for the second straight year. Bethel Park has improved immensely since the season’s opening bell and looks to be one of those teams that will be in the run when the Penguins Cup chase begins in March.
Bethel Park was the aggressor early on in this contest between the Pa Hockey Elite 8 Class AAA # 1 ranked and # 3 ranked teams in Pennsylvania as they hemmed up the Rams in the opening minutes. As we have become accustomed to with Pine Richland, when they strike they score and Dylan Trombetta was the culprit as he collected a rebound and deposited it behind Hawk goaltender Ben ‘Jerry’ Garcia at 12:54 to give the Rams a 1-0 lead. The game was pretty evenly played in the opening period with PR having an 11-7 shot advantage.
Bethel had an opportunity to tie the game on the power play at 11:29, but PR’s Bryan Watt had the best scoring opportunity at 9:58 and Garcia made a nice stop. The Hawks tied the contest shortly after the man advantage as Zach Blake’s blistering shot from the right point beat Dan Szymanski at 9:22 and we were tied at one apiece. The Rams got a power play at 8:02 and regained the lead as Evan Goetz converted a centering pass from Dylan Trombetta to give Pine Richland a 2-1 lead a 6:24. Bethel Park received another great opportunity with a power play at 5:37 and then a 5 on 3 at 4:44, but Pine Richland’s Dylan Trombetta had other ideas as he stripped the Bethel defense and raced 120 feet and undressed Garcia with a great move on the forehand for a huge turning point in the hockey game and a 3-1 Ram lead with 4:24 to go in the 2nd. Bethel had another man advantage with 1:44 to go and held an 11-7 shot advantage in the second period, but the damage was done as it was 3-1 after two periods.
Pine Richland used its momentum from killing off the penalties and surviving the Bethel attack in the second to catapult themselves to an easy win in the third period. Evan Goetz made it 4-1 on a backhand goal after a nice give and go with Dylan Trombetta at 9:28 for another shorthanded goal. Reed Loney scored on a centering feed from Bryan Watt at 8:59 and then Evan Goetz closed it out with an exclamation point goal with 1:43 remaining in the contest to make the final count 6-1. An impressive win on the road for Pine Richland against a Bethel Park team that has only been defeated at home once in three years to 2006 State Champions Mt Lebanon. Considering Brandon Saad and George Saad were not in the lineup, it only adds to the victory, but one must remember that Pine Richland has tremendous depth and many players fighting for playing time on the top three lines, which will make the hill to climb for Class AAA very steep come March, but as we have seen the last three consecutive years, the favorite has been knocked off in the Penguins Cup twice. This is why the Rams are ranked # 1 in the State of Pennsylvania and March should be interesting, stay tuned!
