2009 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships

West Chester, Pennsylvania

 

Bayard Rustin 5 Mars 0

WEST CHESTER -

Class A – Hat Trick for West Chester

 

        Bayard Rustin (23-2-0) entered the 20^th Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Class A Championship as Flyers Cup Champions for the first time, on the heels of its brother schools Henderson in 2007 and East in 2008 capturing the previous Pa Cup crowns and ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Statewide Rankings. The most revealing factor that does not show up in the stat column is the overwhelming support for Head Coach Nick Russo’s Knights as over 1000 jammed into the IceLine Rink in West Chester, Pa. And 85 – 90 % where in the Blue and Gold of Bayard Rustin.

 

         Mars (23-1-0) winners of the Penguins Cup earlier this week has not played in a hostile environment and certainly did not play the caliber of competition that the Knights do in the Inter-County League, but nonetheless the Planets came out hitting in the opening minutes and outshot BY 12-7, but could not beat goaltender Philipp Allmaier. Rustin went on the power play at 10:13 of the opening period and imposing defenseman Eric Knodel gained the blue line of the Mars zone and fired a lasar to the stick side of Tyler Stepke to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.

 

         Mars got a little sloppy early in the 2^nd period and Patrick Kinch made a superb play to keep the puck in the zone get it to Knodel, who threw the puck to the net and Matt Capone outworked the Mars defense for the puck and found the net to give Rustin a 2-0 advantage at 14:28. The Planets were reeling and Tyler Stepke made several nice saves to keep the score 2-0. Mars then took a couple of penalties that would spell doom for their State Championship hopes as William Gaffney took down the right side and wheeled behind the net and completely fooled everyone in the building except the forgotten player on the play and the previews as Mike Ignatuk took the backdoor pass and tapped it in for a huge goal and Rustin was on their way with 7:11 to go and over half the game to play. The Planets slim hopes now were getting worse as the Knights outshot them 16-8 in the middle period and then capped off a great period of hockey as William Gaffney took advantage of a bad clearing attempt and deposited it on the backhand past Stepke to make it 4-0 with 1:06 to go in the period.

 

        Bayard Rustin held off a Mars potential rally in the 3^rd period by playing smart hockey and limiting time and space and even though the Planets outshot BY in the 3^rd period 8-5, Phillipp Allmaier would turn away all 28 shots to earn a State Championship shutout. Brian Christie would put an exclamation point on Bayard Rustin’s first State Championship victory on a great individual effort beating Stepke on the backhand to make it a 5-0 final and the hat trick for West Chester schools as Rutin joined East and Henderson as Pennsylvania Class A State Champions.

  

2009 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships

West Chester, Pennsylvania

 

Latrobe 3 Council Rock South 2

WEST CHESTER

Class AA – Rally for perfection for Latrobe

 

        Latrobe (25-0-0) has been on a quest since the 2008-2009 season began and become the 2^nd Pennsylvania School in Class AA [first was Thomas Jefferson in 1999] and 13^th team in State History [Conestoga AAA (1986), Upper St Clair AAA (1987), Meadville AAA (1992,1993,1994,1995,1996), Bishop McCort A (1996), Bethel Park (2002), Mt Lebanon (2006) LaSalle (2008) to complete a perfect season in Interscholastic Hockey in the State of Pennsylvania. Council Rock South (19-5-1), the Flyers Cup would be the team in the Wildcats way of history and beat Suburban League rival North Penn to win their first ever Flyers Cup.

 

        Latrobe was the aggressor in the opening period outshooting CR South 13 –4 in the opening period but Hawks goaltender Sean Boyd was superb stopping the all. Council Rock got a break as the puck bounced past the Latrobe defesneman at the point and Peter Malamud raced up the ice and fired a wrist shot past Nick Loyacona to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead at 3:34 and a short handed goal.

 

        The Wildcats tied the score at 9:30 of the second as Matthew Batis found a loose puck and beat Boyd on the short side to make the count 1-1. CR South had the better of the play in the second period outshooting them 11-6 and earned the lead as Patrick Grilli would not be denied after Loyacona made several great stops and scored on the rebound with 7:09 to play for a power play goal.

 

        Latrobe came out flying in the 3^rd period and put CR South on their heels, but Sean Boyd was making the lead stand up. The Hawks took a penalty behind the play and Latrobe’s chances were running out. Dillon Hunter pinched from his point position found the puck and fired a blazing snapshot that just trickled past Boyd for a power play goal with 4:58 to play after some pretty nice passing by the Latrobe power play. Hawks called timeout to settle down their team, but it backfired as Latrobe kept coming and with time running down in regulation, Tyler Berger gathered the puck in the neutral zone and sped down the left side of the ice got a step on the CR South defenseman and slipped a backhand through the 5 hole of Sean Boyd sending the throng of Latrobe faithful into a frenzy. The Wildcats held off Council Rock South the rest of the way and as they did a year ago by the identical score of 3-2, the Latrobe Wildcats became the 5^th Class AA team to win back to back Pennsylvania State Championships.

      

2009 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships

West Chester, Pennsylvania

 

LaSalle 6 Shaler 4

 

Class AAA – LaSalle journey’s pay off as they edge feisty Shaler

 

        LaSalle (25-9-5) did not have the season it did a year ago and for Head Coach Wally Muehlbronner the goal was simple, win the last game of the season and LaSalle would be champions of the State of Pennsylvania for the 3^rd time in their history and second in a row. Shaler (23-2-0) would be an unknown opponent for LaSalle, but a team that has grown with each victory this season and gained quite a bit of momentum in the playoffs and winning their first ever Penguins Cup in 38 years was maybe the beginning for the Titans as Curt Hetz has built a group of mostly underclassmen into a winner in his first year and the former two-time 50 goal scorer for the Titans believed his team may have some surprises for the Explorers.

 

       LaSalle didn’t waste any time getting things rolling as Flyers Cup hero Dan Merenich scored on a rebound just 58 seconds into the Pennsylvania Class AAA title. Shaler had some jitters but started to build on a penalty kill early in the period. The Titans went on the power play as Gabe Antoni stopped Shane Shiring at 4:02, which grew to a 5 on 3 for 20 seconds. Shaler capitalized as Brian Stein jammed home a Tyler Schreiber rebound to knot the game at one apiece and more importantly established that it could play on equal footing with the Explorers. Shaler committed a costly turnover and Ross Denczi made them pay with 3:13 to play giving LaSalle a 2-1 lead. The Titans fought back and tied the score as Drew Martz converted a quick pass to the front of the net by Patrick Schafer with just 15 seconds to play and the score was tied at 2-2 after one period.

 

       In a wide open second period the teams exchanged shots throughout the period. Shaler’s Drew Martz knocked home a loose puck with 8:44 to go in the period to give the Titans their first lead 3-2. The Explorers now had their work cut out for them and turned their game up a notch late in the 2^nd period. Ross Denczi got things started as he wlaked out of the corner and whipped a backhand past Steven Weilersbacher to tie the score 3-3. Less than a minute later was a huge turning point of this State Championship as Matt Catanese kept the puck in at the right point threw a shot which deflected up in the air and Steven Weilersbacher never saw as came down like a rainbow out of the sky over the Shaler goaltender’s glove and into the net as LaSalle regain the lead 4-3. The Titans were on their heels at this point and on a delayed penalty call Mark Schnupp found a loose puck after his teammate was pulled down and stayed with it beating incoming Shaler  goaltender Oscar Prom on the stick side to make it 5-3 with 2:31 to go. The Titans did not quit and had to kill off a penalty late in the period, when Shane Shiring undressed a LaSalle defenseman and fired a low shot on Gabe Antoni, which squirted free and Drew Martz charged the net and buried upstairs at 1:09 to pull Shaler to within one 5-4 at the end of two periods.

 

       The next goal in this hockey game would be paramount as LaSalle found itself in a good old fashioned dogfight with Shaler. The Titans came out in the third period and outshot them 15-6 and the Explorers were holding on at this point as Gabe Antoni made a nice save on Patrick Dobson at 10:34 and similar to Shaler’s Penguins Cup game winner LaSalle was able to work the puck into the Shaler zone just 17 seconds later and Ross Denczi found an opening and Nick Cruice set him up for the biggest goal of LaSalle’s season to give the Explorers some  breathing room at 6-4. Shaler kept working and forcing the play in LaSalle’s end and on the power play nearly scored but Sean McCue was robbed on a spectacular save by Antoni at 7:26 and the Titans kept the puck alive but Antoni made another great stop on Zac Lynch with 7:09 to play. The Explorers could smell victory but Shaler did not go quietly as the Titans played toe to toe with them outshooting LaSalle 42-37 for the game. LaSalle was able to hold on and became the 5^th Class AAA team to repeat as Class AAA State Champions joining Churchill, Conestoga, Meadville and Bethel Park to repeat as Pennsylvania Class AAA State Champions.