St Joseph's Prep Hawks

VARSITY: Meadville: 6, McDowell: 0 Game Report provided by Meadville Bulldog Hockey Club ERIE - Sophomore goalie Bryan Danczak was perfect in the contest stopping all 14 Trojan shots in a total team effort as the Dogs’ dominated the entire game. Meadville’s Morgan Nickerson powers the Dogs to victory with 3 goals and an assist in the contest. The Dogs outshoot McDowell 36-14 to lead the PIHL division. The first period had both teams feeling each other out a bit until the Dogs’ began to wear down the Trojans with their relentless effort. Goalie Bryan Danczak kept the Dogs’ in it early as he made some quality saves late in the period. Senior Assistant Captain Chris Learn sacrificed his body for the good of the team when he blocked a shot from the point with 1:55 remaining in the 1st. Momentum shifts to the Dogs’ as they record 9 shots on goal in the period to McDowell’s 5. The second period saw an energized Meadville team turn up the noise on the McDowell tender. At 12:13 the Dogs’ mounted 2 flurries around the net but couldn’t cash in. At 9:31 the McDowell tender began losing control of the rebounds, and the puck, and you could sense Meadville smelled blood. With increased intensity from both the forwards and defense, the Dogs’ drew a penalty. With about 9 minutes remaining the eruption began……on the power play…Casey Rogers fed Morgan Nickerson at the point and with some slick stick work, Nickerson walked through 2 defenders and snapped a devastating wrist shot past the Trojan tender for the eventual game winner. About 30 seconds later on the same shift, Nickerson used his size and agility in front of the net to score his second of the evening from Casey Rogers. Nickerson took a pass in front of the net an d pulled the puck all the way across his body…and “roofed” it with a quick backhand….sweeeeettt. 2-0 Meadville. McDowell called a time out but the train already left the station and it was Tyler Learn and” Red Hot “Mike Noonan who teamed up for the Dogs’ 3rd goal. Noonan’s aggressive attack allowed Learn the opportunity to poke home a rebound…3-0 Meadville. Goalie Bryan Danczak stayed focused on the task at hand and “stoned” sniper Nick Desanti with 2:12 remaining in the 2nd from close range. The save fueled the fire and the Dogs roared back with 1:56 remaining in the period. Coming out of the Meadville zone Casey Rogers made a nice headman pass to a streaking Morgan Nickerson. Nickerson took the puck up the right wing and with some fancy skating and stickwork…..found Pat Leone on the back door with a perfect pass through traffic that Leone punched in for the Dogs’ 4th goal. The second period ended with Meadville out shooting the Trojans 17-5 in the period and 26-10 after 2. The Dogs’ poured it on in the 3rd and “Beef” Stanton got an early Christmas present when he dumped the puck in from center red and it took and odd bounce an in for the 5th goal of the night. Leone recorded the assist on the play. Danczak stayed sharp and could smell the shutout coming but not before making several more quality saves as the Trojans tried to spoil the fun at 10:24. At 8:42, the Nickerson, Leone and Rogers line struck again with for the Dogs’ final goal of the night. Rogers and Leone worked hard to get the puck to Nickerson for the hat trick. As Nickerson was getting worked over in front of the net, he held his position and with sheer desire, muscled home the Dogs’ 6th goal with power and finesse. The Dogs’ defense tightened up for Danczak, preserving the shutout and the 6-0 win. Final Shots on goal Meadville 36…McDowell 14.

CANONSBURG – Pine Richland is off to a 5-0-1 start and after an opening 4-4 tie against Canevin has plastered the Class AA competition by a 51-4 margin running off five straight victories. I am sure many of the Rams have had this date scheduled on the callender from the time the schedule was published and have been pointing toward this game even though it is the first of December. Head Coach Jimmy Black’s team is no secret and they are a contender for the 2006 Penguins Cup, fresh off the final appearance a year ago when PR lost to Peters Township, who went on to win the 2005 Pennsylvania State AA Championship in Hershey 4-0 over Haverford. It would have been a pretty romantic match-up, if the Indians now 3-1 would have defeated Thomas Jefferson, who rattled off five unanswered goals for a 6-4 upset at Rostraver on Monday night. Peters Township has won the Pa State Title three out of the past four years and has a stranglehold on the Penguins Cup for the past four years, with the only hiccup being a 4-2 loss to Archbishop Carroll in the 2004 Pa AA title game. Coach Rick Tingle’s squad is the favorite to win it again and when the Penguin allows his Peters Hornets out of practice, they are arguably the best team in the State of Pennsylvania at any level, but none where in attendance for this early season match-up with PR. All where in attendance Monday night against TJ, so there are no excuses for PT. Chris Papciak has rejoined the Indians squad adding to the firepower of this team come March, when as we learned a year ago it really counts. A sparse gathering of Concerned Citizens of Peters Township and Pine Richland were in attendance for the big match-up. Peters would get the first opportunity on the power play at 12:39 and the Rams limited the chances and killed it off. PR received their first opportunity on the power play at 7:34 of the opening period and also failed to crack Mike Mastracci. At 4:50 of the first, PR went back on the power play, but Dustin Roux almost scored at 3:39 shorthanded or the Indians as his backhand just trickled wide. Mike Mastracci made a great stop on Josh Fodor from point blank range at 2:32. Peters got the next power play at 2:17, but could not crack the scoreboard in a scoreless opening 15 minutes. At 9:45 of the second period, Peters was whistled for a delay of game penalty as Mastracci’s clearing attempt went over the glass. At 5:32, Mike Mastracci made a great stop on Brian Miller from on the doorstep. The game went to the ice cut at 0-0. Richland’s Josh Fodor great chance at 14:42, but Mastracci made a diving stop to keep the Rams off the board. Stoney Hildreth got into the act at 12:59 stopping Chris Papciak. The Rams continue to pick their play up and pressure and Mastracci made another skate save on Phil Trombetta. Then with 11:34 remaining in regulation, Pine Richland was whistled putting the Indians on the power play. Brendan Conlon and Josh Fodor would take advantage of lack of backchecking by the Peters power play unit as Conlon found a loose puck in the corner and hit a streaking Fodor, who buried a wrist shot low to the stick side to give the Rams a 1-0 lead at 10:24. With 7:30 remaining, PR got a big insurance goal as Kyle Adams crashed the net and gave the Rams a 2-0 lead. The flood gates opened at 6:17 as Steven Adams buried a snap shot on the stick side to make it 3-0. PR continued the pressure and picked up an impressive 3-0 win at Southpointe.

Championship Game Mt Lebanon 4 Orchard Park 1 ***GAME SUMMARIES*** Consolation Game Gilmour Academy 3 St Ignatius 2 (SO) Highlights: Gilmour Academy wins sudden death shootout on 8th shooter Preliminary Round Gilmour Academy 2 Malvern Prep 1 Mt. Lebanon 4 Gilmour Academy 0 St. Ignatius 2 Orchard Park 1 Malvern Prep 2 Orchard Park 1 Mt. Lebanon 2 St. Ignatius 1 Orchard Park 1 Gilmour Academy 0 Malvern Prep 6 St. Ignatius 1

CORAOPOLIS – The state of Class A hockey is this…..gone is Deer Lakes, Johnstown, Steel Valley, South Fayette, Somerset, Blackhawk, just to name a few over the past two seasons. Waiting in the wings is Quigley and possibly Conemaugh Valley or Ferndale, which seem to hang on every year. What was once a pride of High School Hockey in Western Pennsylvania is now a mix of have and have-nots and may explain why the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championship trophy reads …..2005 – Penncrest – 2004 Radnor – 2003 – Radnor. Yes indeed Serra Catholic [in 2002, 2001, and 2000] was the last Penguins Cup champions to win it all. So out of the twelve teams in Class A, Quaker Valley and Sewickley Academy were the canon fodder for the annual Bishop McCort – Serra Catholic Class A Penguins Cup, which has been the case 4 out of the past 6 years, with the Westmont Hilltop visit in 2003 and Somerset short stay in 2004 being the only exception. Quakers coach Kevin Quinn in many people’s opinion has the best team on paper in Class A entering the season and is off to an impressive 4-0 start including a 4-1 victory at the Cambria County War Memorial over 2005 Penguins Cup champions Bishop McCort. Sewickley Academy is coming off its best ever season a year ago and looking to better itself from a Penguins Cup semi-final appearance and loss to Serra Catholic. Coach Eric Hoolihan had the whole summer to ponder his goaltending woes in the playoffs, which ultimately lead to his teams demise and exodus out of the playoffs. Steve Tehovnik is now the SA man between the pipes and will have to be the answer if this team hopes to contend this year and take it one step further. A 3-0-0 start for Sewickley is expected given the opponents faced. The first big test would come tonight before a jammed packed Airport Ice Arena of ‘Concerned Citizens of both Quaker Valley and Sewickley’, which both happen to reside in the same place as the high school building are less than a mile apart, so we’ll classify this one as a rivalry. At 13:04 of the first period, the Quaker Valley faithful were treated to a customary Furman South goal on a rebound to give QV a 1-0 lead. The Panthers were given an opportunity at 11:41 of the opening period on the power play and after a scramble for the puck, Benji Brozanski kept the puck alive in the zone and Chris Behrer found the rebound and deposited a backhand past Zac Zinger at 9:47 to tie the score at one apiece. Zinger made two nice saves on a delayed penalty called at 6:59 and the Panthers went back on the power play and could not score as the QV goaltender stopped Brad Watts twice prior and after the penalty expired. The Quakers lack of discipline resulted in a SA power play at 2:02, which resulted in another kill by QV. At 14:26, an innocent looking play behind the Sewickley net ended on the stick of Cody Scott, who jammed home a shot past Tehovnik to give the Quakers a 2-1 lead. End to end action took this game by storm in the middle of the second period. Zinger made a great save on Alex Echavarria at 7:19 and another on Brad Watts at 6:39. The Panthers kept on working and earned another power play at 4:08, but it was the Quakers who capitalized as Mikail Lemieux stole the puck at the blue line and buried a wrist shot high over the glove side of the SA goaltender at 3:15 for a shorthanded goal. With 44 seconds remaining in the period Zac Zinger robbed Brad Watts again to keep his team in front by two. On to the third period and if there was a big play for the Panthers in this game it came at11:48 as Richard Thornburgh lugged the puck out of his own zone and carried it into the QV zone and hit a streaking Conner Blood in the slot , who was stopped by Zinger, but scored on the rebound low to the stick side to cut the lead to 3-2. The Quakers came right back at 10:55 as Colin South banged home a rebound to give QV a 4-2 lead.SA maintained the pressure in the QV end, but could not beat Zac Zinger. Mikail Lemieux scored an empty netter with 2.9 left for a final count of 5-2, in a game, which was a lot closer than the score as the Panthers outshot QV 30-19, but the Quakers came out the victors on the scoreboard.

CASTLE SHANNON – Bethel Park won the 2005 Pennsylvania Class AAA title by excellent goaltending, hard work and timely goal scoring. Head Coach Jim McVay’s team opened the season with a loss to North Allegheny and has reeled off four consecutive victories over some good competition including USC 4-2 within the past few weeks. The Hawks are trying to keep pace with Mt Lebanon, who has established themselves as the top team early on in Class AAA. The Panthers have opened the season with a 4-1-0 record and have done so on the strength of their top offensive line of Mike Penkrot, David Crockett and Jono Lohman, who have provided the majority of the offense. Coach John Harford knows USC will need defense and goaltending to spar with the likes of Bethel Park, North Allegheny, Meadville and ultimately Mt Lebanon. This early season has established that the Penguins Cup chase may be a five team race, with the Blue Devils being the early season team of choice. As we learned a year ago, the race could have a clear frontrunner, which ultimately may not win it all, hence North Allegheny, who did everything to win it and fell short giving up just one goal in the entire playoffs, but even that superb performance only yielded a Penguins Cup finalist tag. Upper St Clair started the scoring midway through the first period as David Crockett gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead. Bethel Park outshot USC 6-4 and their best chance to score came as Kye Budziszewski’s shot from the right point hit the post with 26 seconds left. The Panthers and Hawks traded power play chances late in the opening period and into the second and the score remained 1-0. Bethel Park had a great opportunity to tie the game as Tim O’Brien walked down the slot only to be stopped by Kevin Gorder. Paul Crockett’s clearing out of the zone wandered into the neutral zone and Mike Penkrot beat the BP defense to the puck and then beat Pete Cosentino on the backhand with 8:30 left to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead. Bethel Park went back on the power play at 4:54 but St Clair would capitalize as Mike Penkrot got behind the Hawk defense again and snapped a shot up under the crossbar, which appeared to go in, but Dave Crockett made sure slamming home the loose puck on the doorstep for a shorthanded goal and a 3-0 lead with 4:20 remaining in period # 2. BP went on a 5 on 3 with 3:44 remaining and Kenny Lehmann made it count as he scored on the 2nd rebound to make it 3-1. Bethel Park dominated the 3rd period and had 3 more power plays, but could not beat Kevin Gorder, who stopped 24 of 25 shots on the evening. While the Hawks pressured and created opportunity, Gorder stopped Tim O’Brien at 12:43, Kenny Lehmann at 10:27 and several other key stops to preserve an impressive 3-1 win at the Ice Castle.