St Joseph's Prep Hawks

PA HOCKEY GAME OF THE WEEK 

GREENSBURG -

      Latrobe Hockey has not lost a hockey game since February of 2008 to Greensburg CC.

The two time defending Pennsylvania State Champions return several key players and in addition has tremendous development in the Junior Varsity and Freshman programs, which has caused the Wildcats to have to cut players for the first time in recent memory.

Head Coach Dan Ridder knows that his team is a work in progress for 2009-2010 and the goal is to return to the Pennsylvania State Championship for an opportunity for a three peat in March.

      Peters Twp knows all about three peats as the Indians had an opportunity in 2004 at Neville Island only to fall to Archbishop Carroll in a shocking State Championship contest. The Indians returned the very next year to knock off Haverford and capture their 3rd State Title in four years. Head Coach Rick Tingle, who actually called the broadcast of the 2003 State Championship when arguably one of the greatest High School Teams of all-time throttled Holy Ghost Prep at IceLine as Peters established itself as one of the premier hockey programs in State History with that run.

        Latrobe got this party started in the opening period as Charlie Harris pounced ona Jayson Angus rebound at 8:04 to give the Cats a 1-0 lead. Ben Dachille tied the game for Peters less than a minute later as his shot through traffic found its way behind the Latrobe goaltender at 7:35 to knot the score at 1-1. Peters took the lead at 4:12 as Cody Gubala slipped a rebound through the 5-hole to make it 2-1 with 4:12 to go in period number one.

        Peters got into penalty trouble late in the first period and Jayson Angus made them pay as high shot from the high slot on a 5 on 3 power play beat Woody Shell to tie the score at two apiece. The turning point of the hockey game came on another Latrobe power play as Drew Rubeo stole the puck from the Latrobe defenseman and scored with 6:35 to go in the middle period to make it 3-2.

         Latrobe could not take advantage of yet another man advantage and Matt White extended the Peters lead with a pretty breakaway goal through the 5-hole to make it 4-2 in favor of the Indians with 6:02 to go. Latrobe poured on the shots in the 3rd period outshooting Peters 15-11 and 38-31 on the evening, but could not solve Woody Shell, who played an excellent game between the pipes. The Wildcats never quit and Noah Batis scored at the buzzer to make the final score Peters 4 Latrobe 3 and while Peters Twp defeated the Wildcats, Latrobe showed it is not going to hand over their title without a scrap and would certainly be an interesting match up in March.