St Joseph's Prep Hawks

 

              In October 2007, the Johnstown Hockey Community lost a bright young star of the Forest Hills Hockey Team as a young a man by the name of Brad Wess left us tragically. The Johnstown area Interscholastic teams and community have worked as one to honor Brad with a benefit in his honor and with the participation of Senior members of the Forest Hills, Bishop McCort, Conemaugh Valley, Ferndale, Johnstown, Richland-Cambria, Somerset and Westmont-Hilltop Hockey Clubs to play a hockey game in the honor of a player they grew up with, played hockey with and became friends with over their years in hockey. This young man made a great impression with his involvement in the community, with his school and in hockey and is sorely missed, so the people of Johnstown, as only they can do, unlike any other hockey community in Western Pa Hockey will begin the Inaugural Brad Wess Memorial Scholastic Showcase on Sunday February 17^th, 2008 at the Cambria War Memorial.

 

              Please plan to show your support by attending this event and show your support for this excellent event. To the Wess Family and friends, you will always have a friend in the hockey community and thank you for sharing Brad’s memory for the Western Pa Hockey Community!  

              You can read more about the Brad Wess Memorial Scholastic Showcase by clicking on the logo above to see Offical Game Program for the event !

 

Please find the Link for all of the Pa Hockey Tournament Actions by clicking on the title above

   Every year, Pa Hockey searches far and wide for former Pa Hockey Interscholastic Hockey players who are now continuing their careers at the Junior A and NCAA Division Collegiate level. We have compiled our list and the results are in. Now we may miss a player or two on this list, so let us know if we ommitted anyone from this prestigious list for 2007 - 2008.

   We found 39 Players in Division 1 Hockey and we found 57 Players in Junior A Hockey. This is a little below the average in total than over the past five years as we usually find over 100 players. Enjoy the list of Onward and Upward for 2007-2008 ! 

 

 

  

 

 

Bethel Park 6 North Allegheny 3

 

Cranberry –

  

       A traditional rivalry is one that is derived by the natural boundaries of geography such as Mt Lebanon and Upper St Clair and the other type of rivalry is developed when two teams meet each other on a frequent basis with something of significance on the line.

Bethel Park and North Allegheny is developing into one of those types of rivalries and for the head coaches Jim McVay and Jim Black, they really hope this is just the beginning.

 

       The Tigers, who were the answer to the question of what program was historically is the bridesmaid of Western Pennsylvania Class AAA hockey, exorcised the demons last March to win its first Pennsylvania Class AAA State Championship. On their journey was a memorable, at least for Tigers fans, victory over a heavily favored Bethel Park team, 2-1 in double overtime, who was at the top of the rankings and just about everyone’s list to claim the State title. Don’t feel too bad for the Hawks, because in 2005, it was the same Bethel Park team that knocked off the Tigers, who were the favorites to win the Penguins Cup, 1-0 at Mellon Arena.

 

      This game in February had its usual seeding implications and a Lebo Lite who’s who night was threatening to take place amongst the intimate gathering of people who wander into Cranberry BladeRunners for this tilt. Dr Denton was in attendance and appeared shortly after King Tut left, who was stationed with Central skipper Tom Pandolfo, amongst Tiger Sports Networ’s Jorden Dee and Don Vandergrift and everyone’s goaltending guru Bobby Black.

 

       Bethel got the first chance on the power play at 14:32 but could not capitalize. The Hawks would strike first as Tommy Whetsel found room behind the NA defense and took a Brennan Kerr pass and beat Max Richards on the stick side to make it 1-0 at 9:42. NA had a chance on the man advantage at 7:40, but Bethel’s Chris Mandia stole the puck and hustled for a breakaway only to be pulled down causing a penalty shot. Mandia made a great move to the forehand on the penalty shot, but hit the pipe over an outstretched Max Richards and the game remained 1-0. With 3:49 to go in the period, Mandia took a Michael Seifert pass and buried a shot over the stick side of Richards to make it 2-0. The Hawks kept on coming in the opening period as Tyler Trocano made it 3-0 on his own rebound after a pass from Tommy Whetsel. This prompted a exodus of King Tut, whose could not take watching any more Bethel successes.

 

        North Allegheny regained its composure in the 2^nd period although they could not crack the BP defense. Josh Herbert got the Tigers on the board beating Ben ‘Jerry’ Garcia cleanly with 5:12 to go to make it 3-1. The hawks went on the power play, but it was NA who played opportunist as Dylan Rohar stripped the Hawk defense and broke out in a 2 on 1 feeding Josh Herbert, who buried the chance with 4:09 to make it 3-2. Moments later, the same two culprits were at it again and another shorthanded goal as Rohar showed great patience to have Hebert hustle into the play and bury a cross ice pass for a tap in and a tie hockey game 3-3 with 3:34 to play. Bethel Park appeared to be in trouble, but they came up with a strong shift at this point of the game and got a terrific break as Zack Blake’s shot from the left point hit something in front of Max Richards and bounded over the North Allegheny goaltender and into the net with 2:13 to play and a huge goal and a 4-3 Bethel Park lead. The Tigers took a very bad penalty at the end of the period, keeping the momentum with the Hawks.

 

       Bethel Park regained its momentum during the early part of the third period and Matt Quigley’s shot through a screen at 13:35 to play beat Richards on the stick side to make it 5-3. Tommy Whetsel closed the door on North Allegheny with a beautiful wrist shot over the stick side of the NA Goaltender and a 6-3 final score for BP. For Bethel Park, renewed hope of capturing a top 4 seed and for North Allegheny, now they are in a dogfight to maintain their top 4 seed and should these teams meet again the rivalry will continue to grow!  

 

 

 

Central Catholic 7 North Hills 4

 

NEVILLE ISLAND –

 

           North Hills hockey club started in 1972-73 and has had a less than stellar history over it’s 35 years and 2007 – 2008 has been another year of promise gone bad for the program. The Indians started off the pre-season knocking off defending State Class AAA champions North Allegheny in the St Margaret Fall Face-Off in their very first game and has petered to a 2-12-2 record during the regular season and may make the Penguins Cup playoffs in a battle with bottom feeders Baldwin and Hempfield, but really it will just be another playoff bill no one wants to pay. What it equates to is a first round matchup with undefeated Pine Richland, which is like being fed to the lions in the 14^th century roman empire and expecting to survive. 

  

           Central Catholic (12-3-1) is back to respectability in Class AAA and has ramped it’s seeding prowess up a few notches with a very good late first half and excellent 2^nd half of the season at the expense of some really mediocre competition of sub .500 teams. Head Coach Tom Pandolfo will tell you that his team’s true valor will be tested in the form of Bethel Park, Pine Richland and a very solid State College team, who lie ahead for the Vikings in their remaining games prior to the Penguins Cup playoffs. A couple of wins would put CC in a 4^th or 5^th seed and a couple of losses would mean a 6^th or 7^th seed, which is not how this team would like to end the regular season.

 

           Central Catholic’s program, which also began in 1972-73 has a pretty nice tradition of winning seasons with 27 out of 34 years and a who’s who list of coaching in Western Pennsylvania including Tom Zunic, Lenny Semplice, Pat McQuillan, Joe Gaul, Kevin Zielmanski and now Tom Pandolfo among a couple of others not on the top of my head, who have over the years instilled pride and tradition with Viking Hockey and led to this date a 499-282-51 record, which is way above average and with a couple of Penguins Cup in 1982 [Class AA] and another in 1998 along with a couple of Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League Championships in 1982 [AA], 1987 and 1997. Add along with that a number of division titles, it is not a bad history by any means, but the void of expectations of this hockey program yearns for a Class AAA Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championship, which has eluded the program for 35 years.

 

          On this night, an opportunity for the Central Catholic Hockey program to join an elite group of schools who have earned 500 wins becoming the 5^th program in Western Pennsylvania [including League Record, League Playoff and State Playoff Records] to accomplish this magical number. Upper St Clair was the first and Kittanning/Armstrong was the second and pending some records finalization [missing records for both clubs], both Mt Lebanon and Bethel Park accomplished this feat earlier this season, Central Catholic will join some pretty good company as members of the 500 win club. Ironically, the setting of this accomplishment lead me to one of the original members of the Vikings 1972-73 squad Bobby Arturo, who now managers the RMU Neville Island Sports Center as he was naming members of the inaugural Vikings and referring me to the picture in his office of that team he played on 35 years ago that started the process and tradition of Central Catholic Viking Hockey.   

 

              Central Catholic started this game off with a vengence as C.J. Burke swooped in and beat North Hills keeper Zaid Alzaid at 14:14 to give CC a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later, John Wroblewski scored with some help from Jon Coulter to make it 2-0 and then with :55 remaining in the opening period, Alex Galbraith fired home a rebound of Renars Rukmanis and Central Catholic was well on its way to # 500 with a three nill lead after one period.

 

              North Hills played pretty disinterested hockey in the opening period, but got interested when Dan Stein buried a wrist shot low to the stick side on the ice past John Scalo to make it 3-1 at 11:29. Just 37 seconds later, Chris Karas scored on a rebound through the 5-hole past Scalo and all the sudden it was only 3-2 Central. A series of power plays chances almost went array for North Hills to tie the game as C.J. Burke’s   shorthanded breakaway attempt was saved by Alzaid. With 1:01 remaining in the period on a 4 on 4, Alex Galbraith buried the next chance on a terrific forehand move and the Vikings now had a 4-2 cushion. 

 

              The Indians rallied in the 3^rd period behind two goals for Dan Stein at 9:34 on a rebound and then at 6:10 to tie the game from the slot with a big wrist shot high over the glove of Scalo to complete the hat trick after a very nice pass by Derek Belke out of the corner. With a 4-4 hockey game, C.J. Burke found the handle and buried a nice shot up over the shoulder of Zaid Alzaid on the short side with 3:53 to go to make it 5-4 Vikings. Renars Rukmanis took a doormouth pass from Alex Galbraith and converted with 3:09 to go to make it 6-4 and at 1:31 Galbraith picked up loose puck in neutral zone and beat the North Hills defense and scoring on another nice move to close out the scoring and make the final count 7-4 in favor of Central Catholic. Congratulations to the Central Catholic Hockey Organization for 35 years of excellence and accomplishing its 500^th win!