St Joseph's Prep Hawks

It wasn't all that long ago that Latrobe senior Jeff Rossi couldn't even raise his right arm past his waist.

Last night, however, nothing could have stopped him from extending his arms, stretched to the sky.

In his first full game back after a shoulder injury, Rossi scored the second of his two goals 1:19 into overtime to lead the Wildcats to a 3-2 triumph against Franklin Regional in the PIHL Class AA Penguin Cup championship game at Mellon Arena.

"You dream for it all your life, and when it happens, you can't describe it," Rossi said.

Latrobe (22-3), the top seed, will play in the Pennsylvania Cup state championship game March 29 at the War Memorial Arena in Johnstown against the winner of the Flyers Cup final, which will be played Saturday in Philadelphia.

JeffJoe Regula scored the other goal for the Wildcats, who were playing in the Penguin Cup final for the first time. Eugene Mack and Ryan Crossey scored for Franklin Regional (20-4-1), the No. 3 seed, which was making its first finals appearance since 2003.

After missing all of the Wildcats' 8-1 quarterfinal victory against Indiana and skating only a few shifts of last week's 3-2 overtime conquest of West Allegheny in the semifinals, Rossi felt well enough to take his regular shift last night.

His first goal, which tied the game at 1-1 midway through the first period, was a tap into a mostly open net after a shot by Alex Stahl was wide and bounced off the boards to Rossi just left of the net.

"I would've been hitting myself if I missed that," Rossi said.

He tallied the winning goal after the puck came to him in the low right-wing circle and his initial shot was stopped by Franklin Regional's Anthony Livecchi, who made 27 saves. But the rebound came right back to Rossi, who fired it over Livecchi's glove.

"I put everything I had on it," said Rossi, whose momentum carried him past Livecchi and into the net.

"I just got up and tried to find the first [teammate] to jump on him," Rossi said.

Many of the Wildcats beat Rossi to the punch and jumped on him in celebration first.

"I've been coaching for 20 years and won some other championships [with amateur teams], but nothing feels quite like this," Latrobe coach Ron Makoski said.

Regula gave Latrobe a 2-1 lead nine minutes into the contest and the score stayed that way until Crossey's wrist shot from low in the left circle off a feed from Eugene Mack tied the game with 6:29 to play in the third period.

Both teams had 28 shots in regulation. Latrobe goalie Nick Loyacona made 26 saves.

"I knew both teams were pretty evenly matched, and it more or less played out that way," Franklin Regional coach Jim Daugherty said.