St Joseph's Prep Hawks

2008 Pennsylvania High School Hockey AA Championships

Latrobe 3 Conestoga 2

JOHNSTOWN –

      Conestoga (21-5-1) coach Mike Graves has been on the Pennsylvania Cup stage as a player in 1997 for the Pioneers falling to Erie Cathedral Prep and as an assistant coach for his father John Graves, who advanced with some very good Malvern Prep teams during early part of the decade and won the Pennsylvania Class AAA crown in 2004. Probably some pretty good experience for a young man who has resurrected a Conestoga program that captured the 1985 Class AAA crown over Mt Lebanon and 1986 Pennsylvania State Championship with an undefeated season over Upper St Clair. The Pioneers navigated their way through the 2008 Flyers Cup field with some real nailbitters over Methacton 5-4, Central Bucks South 1-0 and then a triple overtime thriller over Pennridge 3-2 with a Vince Masciantonio goal to end a classic Flyers Cup AA final.

      Latrobe’s (22-3-0) hockey program began in 1981 and prior to this year the Wildcats have never won any Championship of significance to this point in 27 years. The claim to fame for the program was that Andy Cesarski, whose father was one of the founders of the Latrobe program and played for Latrobe and went on to Culver Military Academy in Indiana was the highest player drafted in the National Hockey League in the 7^th round.   

Head Coach Ron Makoski, who came back to the program after a hiatus for a couple of years, was on a mission and wanted more for a some very good hockey people and a group of people with the Latrobe Hockey club who value their more than just their accomplishments on the ice. The goal prior to the season for Coach Makoski that this group of talented players could mold as a team and after the Wildcats defeated West Allegheny 3-2 in overtime and then Franklin Regional 3-2 in overtime to wins its first ever Penguins Cup, the Latrobe faithful were starting to believe the ride wasn’t over.

To give an added boast to the Wildcats efforts and an excellent display of sportsmanship on behalf of Penguins Cup finalists, losing goaltender Anthony Livecchi scooped up the puck from the game winning goal of Jeff Rossi in the Penguins Cup and gave to the Senior Latrobe forward and wish him luck in the State Finals.

           So before a great turnout of Latrobe Wildcat faithful, who ventured over the mountain on route 271 and some pretty boisterous Conestoga fans the crowd of an estimated 1300 watched the battle for supremacy in Class AA begin between the Pioneers and Wildcats. The opening period was pretty uneventful as both teams had limited chances. Latrobe went on the power play at 13:52 and their best opportunity was at 12:19, but Wes Mazda made a nice stop on Penguins Cup hero Jeff Rossi. At 11:28 Latrobe goaltender Nick Loycona stopped Rich Masciantonio. Latrobe’s Michael McCurdy could not find the handle on a very good chance at 7:13 as the first period was scoreless with the Pioneers outshooting the Wildcats 5-3.

             Latrobe struck early in the 2^nd period as JeffJoe Regula dangled the puck and fed Alex Stahl on the doorstep who jammed the puck past Mazda wot give the Cats a 1-0 lead at 13:25. Back came Conestoga to get the equalizer and Nick Loyacona said no stopping Cam Fatholahi twice and Ryan Buttenbaum on a couple of real good opportunities as a result of good pressure. Latrobe’s Zack LaDuke broke up a play in his own end and rushed the puck up the ice and threw a shot to the net, which Wes Mazda bobble and LaDuke got his own rebound of the loose puck and scored to make it 2-0 Wildcats at 8:38. Conestoga turned up the heat on Latrobe and outshot them 18 – 6 in the middle period going on the power play with 3:34 to go in the 2^nd. Nick Loyacona made as good of a save on a redirection by Rich Masciantonio on a shot from the left point as you will ever see to keep the score two nill in favor of Latrobe at 1:28. The Pioneers finally hit paydirt with 1:06 to go in the second as the Masciantonio brothers set up a nice give and go as Loyacona stopped Vince on the initial shot, but brother Rich found a loose puck on the goal line and punched it home for a 2-1 game.

              Anyone’s hockey game and the next goal would come off the stick of Latrobe’s biggest producer all season as JeffJoe Regula got behind the Pioneer defense was tripped and then got up on his feet and beat Madza on an overpowering wrist shot on the short side to give Latrobe a 3-1 lead with 12:58 to go. Andre Ong hit the post with 11:18 to go as the Wildcats were looking to seal the deal in the 3^rd period. Conestoga outshot Latrobe 12-4 in the third period but the Wildcat’s defense and Loyacona played to win and stop the Pioneers at every opportunity. Great hustle by Michael McCurdy drew a penalty with 3:37 to go but the Wildcats retaliated for an even up call. The Pioneers kept working and finally solved Loyacona as Adrian Piwonski found a rebound and scored with 52 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 3-2. Michael McCurdy would not be denied a loose puck with 25 seconds to go and was pulled down again and the Wildcats held on the final 25 seconds for their first State Championship in school history. Latrobe, although they were outshot, deserved to be champions, Loyacona was terrific, they scored some big goals at big times, played very good defense blocking shots and clearing rebounds and went 6-0 against the top 3 teams in Western Pa and Stoga.