St Joseph's Prep Hawks

2008 Pennsylvania High School Hockey AA Championships

Latrobe 3 Conestoga 2

JOHNSTOWN –

      Conestoga (21-5-1) coach Mike Graves has been on the Pennsylvania Cup stage as a player in 1997 for the Pioneers falling to Erie Cathedral Prep and as an assistant coach for his father John Graves, who advanced with some very good Malvern Prep teams during early part of the decade and won the Pennsylvania Class AAA crown in 2004. Probably some pretty good experience for a young man who has resurrected a Conestoga program that captured the 1985 Class AAA crown over Mt Lebanon and 1986 Pennsylvania State Championship with an undefeated season over Upper St Clair. The Pioneers navigated their way through the 2008 Flyers Cup field with some real nailbitters over Methacton 5-4, Central Bucks South 1-0 and then a triple overtime thriller over Pennridge 3-2 with a Vince Masciantonio goal to end a classic Flyers Cup AA final.

      Latrobe’s (22-3-0) hockey program began in 1981 and prior to this year the Wildcats have never won any Championship of significance to this point in 27 years. The claim to fame for the program was that Andy Cesarski, whose father was one of the founders of the Latrobe program and played for Latrobe and went on to Culver Military Academy in Indiana was the highest player drafted in the National Hockey League in the 7^th round.   

Head Coach Ron Makoski, who came back to the program after a hiatus for a couple of years, was on a mission and wanted more for a some very good hockey people and a group of people with the Latrobe Hockey club who value their more than just their accomplishments on the ice. The goal prior to the season for Coach Makoski that this group of talented players could mold as a team and after the Wildcats defeated West Allegheny 3-2 in overtime and then Franklin Regional 3-2 in overtime to wins its first ever Penguins Cup, the Latrobe faithful were starting to believe the ride wasn’t over.

To give an added boast to the Wildcats efforts and an excellent display of sportsmanship on behalf of Penguins Cup finalists, losing goaltender Anthony Livecchi scooped up the puck from the game winning goal of Jeff Rossi in the Penguins Cup and gave to the Senior Latrobe forward and wish him luck in the State Finals.

           So before a great turnout of Latrobe Wildcat faithful, who ventured over the mountain on route 271 and some pretty boisterous Conestoga fans the crowd of an estimated 1300 watched the battle for supremacy in Class AA begin between the Pioneers and Wildcats. The opening period was pretty uneventful as both teams had limited chances. Latrobe went on the power play at 13:52 and their best opportunity was at 12:19, but Wes Mazda made a nice stop on Penguins Cup hero Jeff Rossi. At 11:28 Latrobe goaltender Nick Loycona stopped Rich Masciantonio. Latrobe’s Michael McCurdy could not find the handle on a very good chance at 7:13 as the first period was scoreless with the Pioneers outshooting the Wildcats 5-3.

             Latrobe struck early in the 2^nd period as JeffJoe Regula dangled the puck and fed Alex Stahl on the doorstep who jammed the puck past Mazda wot give the Cats a 1-0 lead at 13:25. Back came Conestoga to get the equalizer and Nick Loyacona said no stopping Cam Fatholahi twice and Ryan Buttenbaum on a couple of real good opportunities as a result of good pressure. Latrobe’s Zack LaDuke broke up a play in his own end and rushed the puck up the ice and threw a shot to the net, which Wes Mazda bobble and LaDuke got his own rebound of the loose puck and scored to make it 2-0 Wildcats at 8:38. Conestoga turned up the heat on Latrobe and outshot them 18 – 6 in the middle period going on the power play with 3:34 to go in the 2^nd. Nick Loyacona made as good of a save on a redirection by Rich Masciantonio on a shot from the left point as you will ever see to keep the score two nill in favor of Latrobe at 1:28. The Pioneers finally hit paydirt with 1:06 to go in the second as the Masciantonio brothers set up a nice give and go as Loyacona stopped Vince on the initial shot, but brother Rich found a loose puck on the goal line and punched it home for a 2-1 game.

              Anyone’s hockey game and the next goal would come off the stick of Latrobe’s biggest producer all season as JeffJoe Regula got behind the Pioneer defense was tripped and then got up on his feet and beat Madza on an overpowering wrist shot on the short side to give Latrobe a 3-1 lead with 12:58 to go. Andre Ong hit the post with 11:18 to go as the Wildcats were looking to seal the deal in the 3^rd period. Conestoga outshot Latrobe 12-4 in the third period but the Wildcat’s defense and Loyacona played to win and stop the Pioneers at every opportunity. Great hustle by Michael McCurdy drew a penalty with 3:37 to go but the Wildcats retaliated for an even up call. The Pioneers kept working and finally solved Loyacona as Adrian Piwonski found a rebound and scored with 52 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 3-2. Michael McCurdy would not be denied a loose puck with 25 seconds to go and was pulled down again and the Wildcats held on the final 25 seconds for their first State Championship in school history. Latrobe, although they were outshot, deserved to be champions, Loyacona was terrific, they scored some big goals at big times, played very good defense blocking shots and clearing rebounds and went 6-0 against the top 3 teams in Western Pa and Stoga. 

2008 Pennsylvania High School Hockey A Championships

West Chester East 3 Quaker Valley 2

JOHNSTOWN –

        Quaker Valley (23-2-0) entered the 2008 Class A Pennsylvania Cup on a great run winning 17 straight games and defeating two of the top three teams in Class A Serra Catholic and Mars to capture their second Penguins Cup in three years. The Quakers also have the distinction of being the only Western Pennsylvania team in the past five years to bring home a State Championship in Class A since 2002 as Radnor (twice), Penncrest and West Chester Henderson have completed the Flyers Cup and Pennsylvania Cup trick in the same year.

      West Chester East (19-7-0) play in the league, the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League, that has produced the four preceding State Champions. The Vikings had a good season, but when they ran the table in the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League playoffs and beat all of the Class AA and A competition, it made for an interesting possibility for the Flyers Cup. I think people started to really take notice when they took down rival and defending Pa Champions Henderson and then it got even better when they captured their first Flyers Cup over rival Bayard Rustin. QV Coach Kevin Quinn was very impressed in watching the Vikings win the Flyers Cup and knew the Quakers would have their hands full. So this would be a battle of a very deep team on a hot streak in West Chester East and a Quaker Valley team, which has not lost since December and has a red hot Colin South, who has three consecutive hat tricks in the playoffs and is trying to help the Quakers make it two State Titles in three years.    

       So before a nice crowd of both Vikings and Quaker faithful of a roughly 700 people the battle for Class A supremacy began. West Chester East had the territorial edge early on and went on the games first power play at 10:17, that was killed off by QV. With the teams playing four on four with nine minutes to go, QV’s Noah Zamagias found a loose puck in front of Viking goaltender Josh Donzanti and beat him on a nifty backhand move to give the Quakers a 1-0 lead. Quaker Valley then became a little undisciplined putting East on a 5 on 3 at 6:52 and then took a too many men on the ice penalty at 4:32, but the Vikings could not capitalize. Another undisciplined penalty put West Chester back on the power play with 1:47 to go, but Quaker Valley did an excellent job of weathering the storm, killing off the penalties including a great save by Zach Taylor on Andrew Lamont with a little over a minute to go as East outshot QV 15-4 in the opening period. An apparent tying goal was waived off when the net was off and QV dodged a huge bullet in the opening period.

       West Chester East kept on coming in the second period with three lines and quick shifts and drew another penalty at 12:31. The Vikings did not score on the power play, but may have accomplished tiring out the Quakers as the QV defense gave the puck away at 9:49 and Jay Lynch slid the puck over to Alex Cruit who buried a shot into a wide open net to tie the contest 1-1. the game actually evened up during the middle of the period and Quaker Valley started to mount chances and forced East into penalties and a 5 on 3 with 5:14 to go. Quaker Valley did not let this opportunity slip away as Colin South gathered the puck behind the net and walked out of the corner and chip as shot past Donzanti oon the short side to give the Quakers a 2-1 lead with 4:59 to play. South just missed giving QV a 3-1 lead with 32 ticks to play as East held an 11-7 shot advantage in the 2^nd period.

       The Vikings had an early chance at 13:13, but Zach Taylor made a nice save on a couple of shots by East. A key turning point of this hockey game may have come moments later at 12:33, as QV’s Robert Karvinen was in a breakaway, but Josh Donzanti held his groud on the initial shot and the rebound for a huge save. A Quaker Valley power play resulted, but West Chester East came alive at this point and killed it off. The wave of momentum for the Vikings continued as Tony Imparo held the puck in the zone and slid a pass to Mike Loughlin, who whipped a backhander inside the post to tie the hockey game at two apiece. The Vikings were smelling a State Championship and Andrew Lamont rung one off the crossbar with 7:02 to go. Quaker Valley had the games next chances to regain the lead as Trey Sterner missed a chance at 5:26 and George Jackson took an Aaron Kostial pass only to be turned aside by Josh Donzanti at 4:28. Each team was now in a position to win the Pennsylvania Class A crown and West Chester East was the team who came up with the play as the line that has done in through the Inter County playoffs and Flyers Cup delivered the knock out punch. Jay Lynch fired a shot that Zach Taylor turned aside, but the Flyers Cup hero Steve Oriente found a loose puck and fired it home to give the Vikings a 3-2 lead with :48 seconds left in regulation time to give West Chester East its first Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championship in school history.    

           West Chester East was the better team today through it’s depth and a credit to coach Drew Cox for quick shifts early on and using his depth and even though they could not score on several power play chances early in the game, just kept working and overcome an excellent goaltending performance by Quaker Valley’s Zach Taylor. WC East ran the table in the Inter-County Playoffs and defeated the defending champs WC Henderson and was a true champion yesterday.  

2008 Pennsylvania High School Hockey AA Championships

LaSalle 9 Pine Richland 1

JOHNSTOWN –

            Pine Richland (24-0-0) won the 2006 and 2007 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships in Class AA over Haverford. This prompted the program [an rightfully so] to move to Class AAA and test its valor at the top level West of State College. The Rams breezed through the competition in Class AAA and with no games against defending State Champs North Allegheny, Seneca Valley or Meadville, the Rams had a pretty uneventful schedule and even in the Penguins Cup playoffs took care of Meadville and Bethel Park as expected. Pine Richland, however, chose to allow their players to continue pursuing their club hockey careers, while playing very limited competition outside the PIHL so travel hockey to the high school team was Wheeling Park WV or State College and really did not prepare the team to much.

        LaSalle (29-1-2) on the other hand plays only ten games in the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League and coach Wally Muehlbronner made a commitment a few years ago to venture out of Pennsylvania to the Mt St Charles Invitational, which this year they won over Connecticut State champs Fairfield Prep 6-0 in the finals after defeating LaSalle Rhode Island and St Joseph’s (Buffalo, NY), the NY State Catholic Champions. The next venture was off to Meadville, where the Explorers swept through PA and Ohio competition, including North Allegheny 11-0 and Ohio Champions St Edwards twice. Not to be outdone, LaSalle headed to New Jersey to play power Don Bosco Prep, St Augustine, the New Jersey Finalist, and New Jersey Champions Delbarton in January and February. Nice resume and only one loss to Christian Brothers Academy of NJ. All of this is designed to give their players a tremendous experience, great competition and a banner year for Explorer hockey. The final stamp after a Flyers Cup victory over Holy Ghost Prep, who is following in LaSalle’s footsteps, was a match-up with Pine Richland in the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championship.          

       LaSalle came out in this contest and took control from the beginning with their stronger and more physical forwards and defense knocking the Rams off the puck from the get go. A Pine Richland power play at 14:22 of the first resulted in Flyers Cup MVP Dan Pyne stopping Brandon Saad on a shot from the left circle. The Explorers went on the power play at 11:41 and although they had shots they did not score. LaSalle would strike first as Kyle Zoldy and Kevin Seybert won the battle for the loose puck and Matt O’Brien poked the loose puck past Dan Szymanski to make it 1-0 at 8:52. Brandon Saad hit the post at 8:20, but the Explorers controlled the play with a 13-3 shot advantage. With 2:26 to go in the opening period, Terrence Wallin sucked in the PR defense with great patience and slid a beautiful pass to Adam Schmidt, who made it look easy into a wide open net and a 2-0 lead.

        The second period was a penalty filled period with Pine Richland on the power play with two 5 on 3’s at 14:08 and 9:52 and the shots were actually a little more even at 14 – 12 in favor of LaSalle despite killing off penalties for a majority of the period. The beginning of the avalanche on Pine Richland came at 7:59 of the 2^nd period as Kyle Zoldy scored on a breakaway after a beautiful tape to tape pass from Alex Pascal to make it 3-0. The Explorers were relentless on the puck and the Rams were defenseless as Ryan Tyson buried a rebound past Szymanski of a TJ Laessig shot to make it 4-0 at 7:15. LaSalle’s Nick Cruice showed great speed up the ice creating a 3 on 1 and Adam Berkle finished it off on the rebound to make it 5-0 at 4:18. Berkle was back at it again on a power play after some great puck movement by the Explorer power play and buried a wrist shot up under the crossbar with 2:11 to go to make it 6-0. Adam Schmidt scored a shorthanded goal on the ice through the 5-hole with 46 seconds to play and this Class AAA State Championship was a rout 7-0. The Rams Reed Loney scored Pine Richland’s only goal with :02 to go in the 2^nd period and this one was in the books.