St Joseph's Prep Hawks

December 10, 2006 -- PLUNKETT COACHES GAME 1000, MONDAY DECEMBER 11TH VS NORWIN IN MEADVILLE ...GAME TIME 7:15PM Reprinted feature and excerpts by Matt Martin, Erie Times News. Jamie Plunkett has left his indelible stamp on the Meadville hockey program. After 20 seasons of shaping the Bulldogs into one of the state’s elite programs, Plunkett has proved he owns a blueprint for coaching success.The most significant figure on Jamie Plunkett’s coaching resume isn’t the most obvious. It’s not the eight state championships his Meadville Bulldog hockey program has won, or the record five straight from 1992 to 1996. It’s not the 730 career victories, thought to be the second-most coaching wins in U.S. high school hockey history. No, 20 is the number that should stand out. Twenty years as coach of a program that unfailingly is among the state’s elite. Plunkett hired on in May 1986, surely one of the most serendipitous coaching moves in northwestern Pennsylvania sports history. He’d been coaching a Midget house league team at DeArment Arena after a short stint with the club team at Allegheny College, where he was and remains head athletic trainer. The Bulldogs went 19-3-2 and won a state title that first season. They’ve lost exactly 11 playoff games since. With few exceptions, coaches don’t coach with any one high school for 20 years. Especially not a coach whose team wins state titles in seven of his first 10 seasons, who never has had a losing record, and who appears to be the winningest high school coach, in any sport, in state history. Monday night, Plunkett will make history again as he coaches his 1000th game for the Bulldogs vs Norwin at the "House of Chills". What others see in his two decades in Meadville: · Plunkett locked down ice time at DeArment Arena, making practice a priority. The team’s players, parents and supporters raised money for several years for construction of a pro-style dressing room in whose stalls the youngest players now dream of one day hanging their sweaters. Most of Meadville’s opponents had no such ice-time or home-ice advantage, and many remain nomadic today. The sense of ownership that’s developed in players and fans has made the House of Chills one of the toughest road venues in the state, in any sport. · He brought pro, junior and college sensibilities to a high school club program that feasted on the dedication those sensibilities instilled and required. The Bulldogs traveled to face the best competition; they played 50, even 60 games some seasons; they made dry-land training in August as important as skating drills in December. Plunkett’s best teams haven’t been just good, but feared. From 1986 to 1995, the Bulldogs never lost more than eight games, and averaged just six losses per season. · Every move speaks to Plunkett’s lead role in a cultural shift in western Pennsylvania hockey. Pittsburgh-area teams, whose officials dominated the sport’s governing body, all but refused to acknowledge the arrival of Meadville’s program despite evidence it was in place to stay as early as the late 1980s. By thetime Meadville was grudgingly accepted as an equal, the Bulldogs were anything but; the southwestern quarter of the state spent the mid-90s playing catch-up -largely following Plunkett’s blueprint - as the Bulldogs hoisted the Pennsylvania Cup five straight years. If Plunkett were just concerned with wins, he’d be a success. But his success isn’t found only in wins, titles and records. His players have grown up under his watch, the sons of his friends and neighbors. He’s worked their skate blades dull, and they have the gold medals and golden memories to show for it.Some have gone on to play in college, or tried their luck in the minors. Others have returned to Plunkett in new guises - as assistant coaches, as assistant trainer at Allegheny,with families of their own. And Meadville’s sports fans, whose winters have been given to basketball and wrestling for so long, have gladly learned how to make DeArment Arena warm for the home team, icy for the visitors. None of that happens in just a few whirlwind seasons. For the very fortunate communities, it’ll take at least 20. MATT MARTIN, managing editor/sports, can be reached at (814) 870-1704 or by e-mail at matt.martin@timesnews.com. Congratulations Coach on your 1000th game behind the bench.

Pine Richland 7 Latrobe 3 VALENCIA – Pine Richland is off to a pretty strong start at 6-0 and ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Elite 8 statewide poll. Head coach Bob Kennedy’s club has been virtually unchallenged through the early part of the season with the veteran leadership of top line Senior Phil Trombetta and sophomores George Saad and Dylan Trombetta, who have combined with a nucleus of up and coming younger players to lead the Rams to a perfect start. The question is when talking Class AA hockey, who will challenge Pine Richland and furthermore is there anyone who can knock them off. A decent victims list of perennial AA powers Peters Twp, Thomas Jefferson, West Allegheny and Canevin have been the whipping boys for the Rams as no one has come within three goals of them during the regular season. The rebirth of Latrobe hockey is still a work in progress under Ron Makoski as this team has started off 7-1 with strong performances over West Allegheny, Greensburg Salem, two narrow wins over Franklin Regional and a road victory at the Belmont over Kittanning, with the only blemish coming in a rematch with Salem. The Wildcats have speed, discipline and goaltending, which is a pre-requisite of competing with the Rams that would be put to the test as the current # 2 team in Class AA traveled to the Infection Ice Connection. The key to Wildcat success would be their ability to expose the Ram defense and goaltending, which is easier said than done and contain Saad, Trombetta and Trombetta, which has not been done by anyone. The Rams dominated the territorial play in the early going as the top line of Phil and Dylan Trombetta and George Saad led the assault. PR opened the scoring with 8:00 left in the opening period. Latrobe came on in the middle of the period but was forced to kill off a penalty and capitalized as Isaac Pritchard got behind the Ram defense and beat Stoney Hildreth low to the glove side to tie the score at one apiece with 5:01 remaining. The Wildcats seized the lead in the hockey game as Ryan LaDuke found Michael McCrady on a cross ice pass, who beat Hildreth cleanly on the ice to give Latrobe a 2-1 lead with 2:20 left. On to the second, which has been Richland’s best period all season and this game would be no different as Phil Trombetta got things started just 30 seconds in beating Nick Loyacona with a wicked snapshot high under the crossbar to tie the score at two apiece. The game went back and forth with both teams skating hard and having chances at both ends, but Pine Richland show their lethal hand in the middle period in the final three minutes as Phil Trombetta found George Saad on a noe-timer with 3:01 to go to give the Rams the lead 3-2. The real backbreaker came with just :13 left as Dylan Trombetta skated over the blue line and used the defenseman as a screen and buried a wrist whot over the glove hand of Loyacona to give PR a 4-2 lead. Shots were 26 – 15 thru two periods in favor of Richland. The Wildcats started the third with the power play and then had a 5 on 3 just ten seconds into the period and Latrobe failed to mount an attack not to mention a quality scoring chance and the Rams killed it. Juat as the penalties ended the Wildcats had a costly turnover as freshman Brian Watt raced 120 feet and beat Loyacona on a nice move to extend the Pine Richland lead to 5-2. Just 41 seconds later the freshman Brian Watt scored at 12:01 on another breakaway as Latrobe fell apart and the Rams seized a 6-2 lead. A little over a minute later, Phil Trombetta turned this one in to a rout at 10:49 7-2. Latrobe scored at 8:49 as JeffJoe Regula made it a 7-3 count. Pine Richland cemented their claim to the number one spot in Class AA and is looking for that next challenger to see if anyone will challenge them come March.

Franklin Regional 7 Elizabeth Forward 1 DELMONT – Franklin Regional hockey is a program that has struggled in recent years to keep the numbers that flourished in the program from the early 90’s up through the present. What boggles the mind for many is that Center Ice Arena sits in the back yard of the school district that can be called affluent with the move east by many people who have migrated from other east suburb districts. Head Coach Jim Daugherty, who entered the program during the mid 90’s has seen the program go from 4 teams including two freshman teams to the state it is now with barely enough players to field two teams at Junior Varsity and Varsity. The fact is the cost structure of the PIHL is so out of line that many people have moved away from High School Hockey to play just amateur or just high school, which has left the Panthers in a dilemma. In fact, it is over $ 1000.00 to play a Varsity game at the Mt Lebanon Recreation Center, which is unreal. This season the Panthers started off 1-4 with losses to Latrobe twice, Greensburg Salem and Thomas Jefferson, but have rebound to win two and have an opportunity to get the bus moving in the opposite direction and into the thick of the Class AA seeding frenzy, which is sure to be very interesting come February. Elizabeth Forward, their opponent for this evenings tilt came into existence in 1988 and had a string of losing seasons its first six seasons, then took a hiatus for a year and then had two more losing campaigns in 1997 and 1998 before disappearing into the developmental Junior Varsity and Freshman teams for three years until 2002 when the Warriors made in all the way to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals before losing to Bishop McCort. The Warriors had two more winning seasons in 03 and 04 and then have been heading in the other direction again the past two seasons. The challenge for the coaching tandum of Larry ‘Briggs and Stratton’ Briggs and Tom Mooney [who lead Serra Catholic to their last Penguins Cups] is to keep enough healthy bodies to compete in a very rigorous Class AA schedule and a 1-4-1 start. According to club officials, the Warriors will lose 7 seniors that will be replaced by eight 8th graders currently playing on the EF Freshman team. Elizabeth Forward and Franklin Regional are two programs that appear to have similar qualities and both will need to attract players through development over the next three to five years to avoid the ‘Teams that aren’t here any more’ portion of the Pa Hockey Website. The Panthers looked to take advantage of their momentum from their modest two game winning streak and the very noticeable short bench of the Warriors. EF goaltender Michael Cole made several nice saves in the opening minutes to keep FR off the board and the game scoreless. FR opened the scoring when Ryan Kramer buried a snapshot past Cole after a pretty passing play and setup with Carl Richter and Eugene Mack with 5:44 to go in the opening period. Elizabeth Forward tied it on the power play less than a minute later as Cruise Lizik’s wrist shot from the right point glanced off something and bounded past James ‘Bobby’ Orr at 4:45. The Panthers scored a huge momentum goal late in the first as Jared Yesko pounced on a loose puck on the doorstep of a John Cecere rebound to give FR a 2-1 advantage. The Panthers held a 15-6 shot advantage after one. On to the second period and the Panthers seized control of this hockey game as Stephen Shirk found the 5-hole through Cole after a nice cross ice pass from Eugene Mack to make it 3-1 with 11:18 to go in the 2nd. The Panthers kept bringing the offensive pressure as Ryan Kramer picked up his second goal at 9:26 on the power play. FR took a 5-1 lead with 1:37 as Jared Yesko scored his second goal of the game. The Panthers iced the game in the third period as Stephen Shirk scored his 2nd goal on a shorthanded breakaway and Brian Buckley closed out the scoring converting a Shane Crossey feed with 1:31 to go to give Franklin a convincing 7-1 victory, outshooting the Warriors 43-18 on the night

By MIKE MASTOVICH The Tribune-Democrat Bishop McCort’s hockey team gradually has reached full strength, and it shows. The Crimson Crushers beat Sewickley Academy 7-1 on Friday night at Cambria County War Memorial Arena for McCort’s third straight win. Coach John Bradley’s team is 3-3-1 after opening without a victory in the first four games. The Crushers began the season minus soccer players Zac Seidel and Justin Delic, football players Matt McIntyre, Dane Domonkos and Anthony Pioli, and the injured Chad James. Members of that group accounted for four goals and eight points on Friday. “Early on we had an opportunity to get some guys in the lineup and we were in all the games,” said Bradley, who had only nine players on his roster for one outing. “We lost a game in OT. They were all one-goal games. We’ve got a lot of talent, a lot of skill and a lot of guys that have the desire to play. “I don’t say it too often, but these guys – when they’re on, they’re going to be tough to beat. We’re letting some teams know we were down early because we didn’t have everybody. Some of the guys stepped up then and played well.” Six Crushers scored goals on Friday. Seidel had two goals and three points. Shawn James, Chad James, Todd Thomas, Jordan Jaco and Delic each hit the net as McCort outshot winless Sewickley Academy 31-10. “Now that we’ve got all of our players back we can set our lines up,” Seidel said. “It showed tonight that it helps having all of our guys back. We came in here thinking we just have to keep winning, keep our play up. We’re real excited and we’re going to keep building as we go on.” McCort posted a 9-0 advantage in shots on goal in the first period and had a 16-5 edge in the middle period. “We still try to take care of our zone,” Bradley said. McCort goalie Danny Mock stopped nine of 10 shots. Sewickley’s Steve Tehovnik was outstanding despite allowing seven goals. He turned aside a Jaco breakaway and a tight one-on-one challenge from Domonkos in the first period, and made a sweeping glove save on a Thomas shot from the slot in the second. “We easily could have had a lot more than seven goals,” Bradley said. “Their goalie played a great game and made six or seven sensational saves. Some guys had opportunities to put the puck in the net, but the kid made real nice point-blank saves on us.”

Central Catholic 1 Mt Lebanon 0 HARMARVILLE - Since Tom Pandolfo took over the Central Catholic program he has adopted a little different philosophy than the Vikings are used to and pretty similar to what we saw at North Allegheny, which brought the Tigers to two consecutive Penguins Cup. By his own admission, coach Pandolfo demands more from his players than one could expect normally, which rubs people the wrong way sometimes, but is necessary if you have goals and aspirations, which many of the Central Catholic folks are interested in. And in that world, some players looking for more personal glory with travel programs may take the highway, which is fine and some have. To live in the world of the Bethel Park’s, Meadville’s and the Paul Taibi era at Mt Lebanon means your program has pride and character to commit to the goal of winning a state championship, which includes going over and above to make it happen. So the recent trip to Chicago to play in the Loyola Thanksgiving Tournament may have been a revelation for the Vikings. While several players chose no to go the ones who did battled to a respectable 2-1 mark against Providence [7-3 loss], Naperville Central [5-3 win] and Loyola Maroon [Non-Prep Varsity]. And coach Pandolfo has come out of this experience knowing what players will give him quality minutes come January, February and playoffs, which looks pretty good so far with a 5-1 mark. Mt Lebanon’s State Championship season had similar undertones a year ago as Lebo 66, which was the nickname of the Blue Devils, when their top line players were off traveling around the globe in Scoutsville, and when it came to rug cutting time, Lebo was able to count on players like Jon Wilen or Scott Millhouse or as it turned out in the Penguins Cup Sean McDermott. Yes, we could assume that a very important cog in the championship aspirations, are those 2nd or 3rd liners who gain valuable leadership experience during the season. The Blue Devils are a work in progress that has vaulted them to a 5-1 start thus far in 06-07. This season has been a little different animal for head coach Paul Taibi and the absence of offense has turned the attention to defense and goaltending. Last weekend’s trip to Cleveland was a prime example of 2-0 win over Gilmour Academy or the 2-1 win over St Ignatius, which is how Mt Lebanon is going to be able to get it done in March. If anyone doesn’t think that can happen just ask Tom Pandolfo, whose North Allegheny team yielded one goal in the 2005 Pennsylvania State Playoffs to Bethel Park and was sent packing after the Penguins Cup. So while character or character’s if you will are on Mt Lebanon’s side, with the absence of the Ralph and Alf road show, the emperor King Tut, leader of the Blue Devils and twisted professor of Egyptology [and DJ on the side] has turned to his Dr Denton [Doctor of Psychiatry and serves as King Tut’s psychoanalyst, though he does tend to fall asleep during sessions, possibly Sunday night Lebo practice sessions]. Dr Denton’s role in this plot is spearheaded by the play of his offspring Robbie Behling, who has been stellar between the pipes for Mt Lebanon this season and had a coming out party against Pandolfo’s former team, the North Allegheny Tigers last Friday night stopping 27 shots in the 2-0 Lebo victory. After a flurry of penalties in the opening period, the game settled into a little bit of flow after two Viking power plays resulted in a 7-1 CC shot advantage thru the first half of the first period. Mt Lebanon finally was able to counter with a few scoring chances but Central goaltender Phil Salerno made several nice saves as the shot gap evened out through the 1st to 9-7 in favor of Central Catholic. The Vikings carried the play in the second period adding six more shots to their total, while the Blue Devils only could counter with two bringing the shot totals to 15-9 in favor of CC. Mt Lebanon worked hard and created some scoring chances, but failed to get off shots and get the shots they had on goal. Dr Denton and King Tut are with this program and we seem to have coach Pandolfo’s and coach Taibi’s attention as well. After Batman’s psuedo nap aided by the expert analysis of the Milk Man Dave Dorsey, we readied ourselves for an action packed third period. Robbie Behling afforded his team an opportunity to steal another game and this story looked to be writing a familiar script for Mt Lebanon at 0-0 as the Blue Devils went on the power play with 14:31 to go in regulation. King Tut’s fiendish play with the aide of Dr Denton drew excitement from the far sideline as the Lebo faithful, many of whom are well aware of Lebo 66 lore had to like how this one was playing out. Mt Lebanon’s struggles at even strength this season have welcomed power plays, but coach Pandolfo’s Vikings had other ideas as Chris Urso’s shorthanded attempt at 13:48 was stopped by Behling and then C.J. Burke was stopped twice by Behling at 13:20. Then it looked like a little Lebo 66 action as the Blue Devils had a 3 on 2 with 11:49 to go but failed to get a quality shot off. Moments later at 11:27, Burke was stopped by Behling again and we were still scoreless. Ah the suspense, almost too much for Batman to handle as the Bat Phone rang and it was Alfred from the Batcave and Aunt Harriett who came on the line……..at 8:18, the Blue Devils would have yet another power play and Robbie Behling would again have to come up big stopping stopping Chris Urso twice shorthanded from point blank range avoiding disaster after doing a double camel on the goal line and falling to the ice. Coach Pandolfo had to be scratching his head and I know coach Taibi was because I same him, but Lebo was still alive and still had a chance to steal this game despite being outshot 27-11 on the evening. Then the character and pride I spoke about from the onset came to life with 2:49 to go as C.J. Burke, on a tremendous individual effort walked out from behind the net and lofted a wrist shot high past the stick side of Behling and into the net on Central’s 26th shot and Burke leap high in the air after it hit the twine giving Central Catholic a thrilling 1-0 victory at the Harmarville Blade Runners before quite a few spectators. These two teams may meet again down the road and it could make for a thriller in the playoffs!