St Joseph's Prep Hawks

NEW KENSINGTON ~ Valley is a second year Varsity program and like many programs in their infancy is struggling to find an identity. Coaching is question mark as first it was Mike Konopski prior to entering the Varsity level, and then in its first year Levin Mohney took the reigns and then Jason Markijohn, one of Mohney’s assistants. Tonight’s game against Ferndale, assistant Brandon Jones would be running the show. This situation is reflected by the Vikings 0-11-0 record and a team which is struggling to play competitive hockey. The godsend to the Valley Hockey program will be that in time it will overcome this with the beautiful state of the art Valley Sports Center facility that opened in November, which has an amateur program the Greater Pittsburgh Huskies from the Golden Mile Ice Center, which closed this past spring. Ferndale, A/K/A the International Yellow Jackets, who wrote the book on the use of Foreign Exchange Students to supplement a hockey program from the smallest school in all of High School Hockey with less than 100 boys in their enrollment. Ferndale is a ‘miracle on ice’ to field a team let alone field a competitive one. Brian Riffle, the head coach, is one of the true gentleman of the sport of Interscholastic Hockey together with his long time assistant Tom Callihan, have been the glue to keep the Yellow Jacket program in good spirits. Especially, after a 49 game losing streak was broken earlier this season with a 7-3 win over archrival Conemaugh Valley, another small school. The Yellow Jackets smelled blood early as Sean Riffle finished off a nice pass play with Pehr Lindquist and Per Svensson just 35 seconds into the contest to give Ferndale a 1-0 lead. Valley tied the game as Anthony Perriello scored at 9:07. Then the Yellow Jackets regained the lead as Per Svensson scored on the power play at 1:18. Svensson scored his second at 13:51 of the second and completed the hat trick at 14:40 of the finals period, as Ferndale opened up a 4-1 lead. At 12:11 or the third, Valley’s Bryn Arneson scored to cut the lead to 4-2. At 7:27, Ferndale’s Svensson scored his 4th goal hooking up with line mate Pehr Lindquist, who assisted on all four goals to make it 5-1. Just 17 seconds later Valley’s Dave Roberts cut the lead to 5-3, but Sean Riffle took a pass from Svensson to pur the game on ice 6-3 at the seven-minute mark and a final of 6-3. Ferndale goaltender Dennis Hammers faced 34 shots to get the victory for the Yellow Jackets. Thanks to Kevin Keller for his contribution to this report!

ROSTRAVER ~ West Allegheny coach Sean Hart knows his teams future rests in the hands of some pretty capable players in Marek Polidor and Ryne Sivitsky, who are a couple of real nice looking young players for the Indians. The combination of this youthful influx and a couple of veterans make West Allegheny a very interesting team to pull of a playoff upset or two, especially if Dan Kuzio continues to solidify his play between the pipes. Thomas Jefferson is ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Elite 8 poll in Western Pennsylvania and the state of Pennsylvania. The Jaguars are a team blessed with scoring and solid defense in front of arguably the best goaltender in Western Pennsylvania Danny Hartman, who is one of the finest competitors of any player at any level. Long Time professor coach Don Powell, was not in attendance due to work commitments, but was on the cell phone monitoring his teams progress from Detroit. The Jaguars are hoping to get their lineup to full strength for the upcoming playoffs and a speedy recovery to Grant Heinauer and Brandon School. TJ went on the power play ion the opening minutes of the game, but West Allegheny had the games first big chance on a breakaway as Ian Skacan was stopped by Hartman at 11:37. The Jaguars struck first as Gary Bucci scored on the rebound at 10:21. The Indians responded on the power play as Justin Hoppe fired a shot front the left point, which hit something in front and found its way over the glove hand of Hartman to tie the game at one apiece with 8:41 to go in the 1st. TJ was buzzing the WA net at 4:39, as Bucci and Luke Wawrzeniak were stopped by Kuzio. Ryne Sivitsky found himself in alone on Hartman but could not beat him at 3:50. On to the second and West Allegheny had a golden opportunity on the power play at 6:03 in a very evenly played hockey game, but Luke Wawrzeniak stripped the Indian defense and beat Kuzio on the glove side at 4:56 to give the Jaguars the lead 2-1. Eric Holzer scored a huge goal on a one-timer at 2:58 to give TJ a two-goal cushion. The third period saw West Allegheny keep on coming, but could only beat Danny Hartman once in 27 shots. Bobby Maliszewski [11:16] and Ryne Sivitsky [9:19], both had excellent chances to cut the TJ lead but could not find the net. Thomas Jefferson was looking for the knockout punch and got it as Zach Hanbury outraced the WA defense to the puck and beat Kuzio on the stick side at 4:56. Holzer closed it out with exactly one minute left beating Kuzio high to the glove side for a 5-1 Thomas Jefferson victory and a perfect 12-0-0 record.

MOON TWP ~ Thank you to the Ambridge Hockey Club for providing this report Goals for Ambridge were Chris Bajek, Chas Cvitkovic, Cory Bajek, Jeremy Elser and Terry Maitz. Carrick's goals were scored by Gary Delahanty and Chris Larkin. Cvitkovic's goal was short-handed, Cory Bajek's was a Power Play. Both Carrick goals were Power Play goals.

Special Report to Pa Hockey provided by the Butler Hockey Club ~ It may have taken the Butler Tornados until the end of the 1st period to get started, but they pulled a 5-4 win over Upper St. Clair (ranked #1 in their division) on Monday night @ 7:00 p.m. at the Ice Castle in Castle Shannon. Only 1 minute 6 seconds into the 1st period, USC was on the board with a goal by John Markwell. USC fired its second goal into Butler's net with 2:51 left, with Brian Gorder scoring. Butler began to pressure USC less than a minute later as Greg Rogerson shot in Butler's first goal at 2:03, getting them on the board with an assist from Tyler Druschel. With the score at 2-1, USC got one more up on Butler in period 2 at 11:41 with a goal from Kris McDonough. A little over two minutes later, at 9:34, Butler brought the score to 3-2 with a goal by Jared White, assisted by Tyler Druschel. That same line seemed to catch on fire as White tied the game up at 8:26, with assists from Greg Rogerson and Tyler Druschel (his 3rd assist of the night). Then it was Rogerson's turn, again, to score on a breakaway, getting Butler its first lead of the game (4-3), with assists from Myke Guentner and Goalie Bucky Holt. USC came back immediately in the 3rd period with a goal at 13:28 from Mike Penkrot, tying the game up again at 4-4. The 2 teams battled against each other until 2:14 when Spencer Crouse, amidst much confusion in front of USC's net, got Butler's 5th goal. USC pulled goalie Kevin Gorder with 1:23 left in the game. But Butler stood its ground and came out victorious! Butler's next game is this Thurday, Jan, 15, 2004 vs. Fox Chapel at 9:30 p.m. at the Belmont Ice Complex in Kittanning. Fox Chapel is rated #1 in their division so its should be another great game!

ROSTRAVER ~ 1/12/04 ~ EF gets a big win over Forest Hills in wild finish ! Elizabeth Forward coach Chuck Beckinger knows his team can play with the best teams in the league as they almost upended highly ranked Serra and Blackhawk, but have fallen to teams under .500 like Wheeling Central Catholic and Deer Lakes. This inconsistency has Warrior fans scratching their heads, but a look at the lineup will give many clues as a balance of veterans and youth are very evident for EF. The Warriors came into the game at 7-6-0 and were looking to make ground in the race for home ice advantage in the playoffs. Forest Hills coach Bob Salata would like to steal a page out of Beckinger’s playbook as the Rangers have lost only to Serra and Bishop McCort, but neither game was much of a contest 1-10 and 0-4, respectively. The Rangers have had a great season though at 7-2-1 and ranked # 6 in the latest Pa Hockey Elite 8 poll. Maybe that is a reflection of a week Class A field, but coach Salata knows there are teams the Rangers must beat if they hope to become a contender in the playoffs and Elizabeth Forward and FH could meet when the playoff bell rings in less than two months. The first period was back and forth and the shots were pretty even at 10-9 in favor of Elizabeth Forward. Since it took me almost two years to cover either of these two teams, I was scrambling to familiarize myself with each team and noticed some players that I have never witnessed play before if you can believe that, which frankly is the beauty of Pa Hockey…..seeing some fresh talent and new players ! Dustin Siplivy got things started for the Rangers as he weaved his way down the slot and took a wrist shot on EF freshman goalie Mike Cole, who made the save, but kicked out the rebound where Siplivy gathered it and buried a shot on the stick side to give Forest Hills a 1-0 lead early in the 2nd period. Then at 9:34, the Warriors struck as Brian Doak beat the Forest Hills defense and fed Jeremy Delmaster, who beat FH’s Kyle Single on the backhand to tie the game at 9:34. Forest Hills tried to intimidate EF with its size but that seemed to inspire the Warriors as Delmaster hit the post at 2:02 and Brian Doak almost put his team ahead with 52 seconds remaining in the middle frame as EF took a 22-19 advantage to the locker room. On to the third and both teams had chances to go ahead but Kyle Single stopped Matt Mitchko and Jeremy Delmaster on great chances at 10:19 and Mike Cole turned back the Rnager’s Bryan Parkinson at 7:47. The big break came at 3:13, when Delmaster beat the Forest Hills defense and was in on the breakaway and the beaten FH defenseman threw his stick, which referee whistled for a penalty shot after Delmaster fell off his feet. The most exciting play in hockey and the sparse crowd on its feet, Delmaster moved in on Kyle Single and went to the forehand through the 5-hole, giving Elizabeth Forward its first lead 2-1. EF would hold on as FH pulled the goalie with under a minute to play and Billy Repass added an empty netter to give the Warriors a 3-1 win in a thriller at Rostraver.