St Joseph's Prep Hawks

 

 

Serra Catholic 4 Quaker Valley 2

 

ROSTRAVER –

 

         Serra Catholic and Quaker Valley represent the past two victims of the Penguins Cup Class A Championship, as Serra lost to the Quakers in the 2006 Penguins Cup and Quaker Valley fell in what I consider one of the biggest upsets in Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championship history to Freeport in the 2007 Penguins Cup final. For both programs a little something to prove in 2008 as both schools are expected to be in the mix to challenge for the 2008 Penguins Cup for Class A. The two teams would face off for a pretty important seeding match-up before an intimate gathering at the Rostraver Ice Garden. 

 

          For the Eagles Head Coach Brian Boehm, this year represents a season where a lot of players who came in under his regime will now control the destiny of a proud program that produced State Championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Serra has gone through a dry spell since then, but for the first time in a long time has a very healthy bench and considerable depth in the program, especially for a Class A school. Serra has many returning players and this could be a year that the Eagles will return to prominence established previously.

 

         Head Coach Kevin Quinn’s Quakers captured the 2006 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championship and in 2007 was everyone’s odds-on favorite to repeat and after dismantling Bishop McCort in the Penguins Cup Semis, no one would have predicted anything other than a 2^nd straight Quaker title. Freeport’s Tim Zahumensky played one of the better games in a Penguin Cup in recent memory as the Yellow Jackets stole the Penguins Cup before bowing to West Chester Henderson in the State Final. Another loss for the Quakers in the off season with the moving of Mik Lemieux to Juniors and loss of mainstay Zac Zinger to graduation.

 

      The first period was owned by Quaker Valley with a 10-6 shot advantage, but the game was scoreless after the opening period. Serra could not capitalize early in the 2^nd period on the man advantage but almost struck first at 9:05 as Jake Adams shot rung off the far post. Another power play for the Eagles and this time it would be Patrick Boehm who walked off the near boards from the point and buried a wrist shot high over the stick side of Zach Taylor to give Serra a 1-0 lead. QV made a mental mistake with 5 minutes to go in the 2^nd with a too many men on the ice penalty and Serra made them pay as Josh Werner tapped in a perfect cross ice feed from Jacob Allen and it was 2-0 Eagles with 3:45 to go. Quaker Valley went on the power play and Stephen Derewonko made diving stop at 1:44 and Serra killed off the penalty, but just two ticks after the penalty with :48 to play, Colin South buried a wide open chance to cut the Serra lead to 2-1. South almost tied it just 12 seconds later, but Derewonko stopped him with a terrific extended glove save and  Serra took a 2-1 lead to the ice cut.          

 

      The tone of the 3^rd Period would be dictated by the importance of the next goal of the contest. Partial Breakaway for Erik Manetta with 11:37 to go in the 3^rd but the effort was thwarted by a good backcheck by the Quakers and a better pokecheck by goaltender Zachery Taylor. The Eagles went on the power play with 10:52 to play and appeared to gain a two-goal cushion at 9:44, but the goal was waived off. With 8:49 to play, QV was whistled for a penalty much to the dismay of the Quaker bench, giving the Eagles another golden opportunity with a 5 on 3 advantage for a full two minutes with Noah Zamaigas in the box and Colin South off to Hornets practice to gain a two-goal advantage. QV killed it and went on a power play themselves with after killing off the Serra power play but could not tie it. With 4:09 to play, the Eagles scored the clincher as Josh Werner scored on a rebound to give Serra a 3-1 lead. The Eagles kept up the pressure as Quaker Valley looked tired and beaten after the big goal. Erik Manetta added an empty netter with 1:11 to play to make the count 4-1 in favor of Serra. Quaker Valley did add a goal with :22 to play from Ross Watko, but this game belonged to Serra with a 4-2 victory on the scoreboard and a 29-24 shot advantage for the evening.           

2003 Greensburg CC Invitational Championship Game Greensburg CC 3 Fox Chapel 1 Fox Chapel coach Keith Kearney knows that his team will be a force in Class AAA this season, but he also knows from last years experience that he must have his full team in the lineup. So the coach must have been a little giddy when he opened up the game with the speed demons of Joe Budz, Matt Quigley and Kyle Misour against Greensburg CC because those guys can create chances and will be a major cog in the Foxes aspirations for playoff glory in 2004. The other issue facing Fox Chapel will be goaltending and whether to platoon Brad Killian and Todd Hendry or juts go with the horse and spot the backup. Having said that Killian got the start against GCC. Greensburg CC coach Joe Dykta has a nice situation between the pipes with Kent Weaver and Jake Genes and it is that his team plays well in front of both. The Centarian defense has done a nice job clearing pucks out of danger limiting second chances as it did against Plum in the semi-finals. GCC has combined good defense with timely scoring to advance to the finals of the month long extravaganza A/K/A Greensburg CC Invitational. This recipe will make the Centarians a very logical choice to make some noise in Class AA this upcoming season. GCC got a little of that timely scoring early on as Marc Perez slipped a backhander under Killian with 4:55 gone in the first period. The Foxes answered as Joe Budz and Matt Quigley combined to setup Kyle Misour and a wide open net on the back door with 7:29 remaining to tie the game at one apiece. Brad Killian stopped a great chance for GCC at 3:34, when he stopped David Ulishney on a breakaway. While Kent Weaver stopped Budz on a shorthanded opportunity with 1:59 remaining, The Centarians had the better of the play in the 2nd period outshooting FC 13-9 and capitalized as John Kennedy scored on a Doug Francken rebound on the power play at 1:58 and GCC regained the lead 2-1. GCC played strong defense and limited Fox Chapel’s chances by playing excellent fundamental hockey into the third period. That combined with strong goaltending by Weaver shut the door on FC the rest of the way. Marc Perez found himself wide open in front of Killian and Zach Cuttrell gave him a perfect feed which Perez buried to add insurance at 7:55 of the third and seal a 3-1 Greensburg CC victory and clinch the 2003 GCC Invitational title.

SEMI-FINALS Fox Chapel 3 Franklin Regional 2 [OT] Sure Fox Chapel defeated Franklin Regional 6-2 last week in the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off and it shouldn’t be a problem to assume the Foxes would handle the Panthers pretty easily in the Greensburg CC Invitational Semi-Finals since FR would again be without Jimmie Daugherty, who appears to be out for an extended period and Lou Levine and Mark Gigliotti, who are still on the gridiron. FC raced to a 2-0 lead in the 1st period on goals by Dan Thiessen [4:46] and Justin Kreps [0:27] and a commanding shot advantage of 9-3. Franklin Regional showed resolve in the 2nd period by pressuring netminder Todd Hendry with 10 shots to the Foxes 6. The third period was all Franklin as Luke Baughman and Jeremy Truxal rallied the Panthers to tie the game with 2:53 remaining to force overtime. Chris Fonzi turned away all 13 FC shots. Fox Chapel’s Adam Petrovich put the game on ice with a high shot from in between the circles past Fonzi to send the Foxes to the finals. Greensburg CC 3 Plum 2 Centarian coach Joe Dykta had to go to his backup goalie for the semi-final matchup with Plum as Jake Genes was helping the GCC Soccer team win in WPIAL playoff action, not to mention resting for the big football matchup with rival Jeannette Friday night. So the Mustang big guns were probably salivating over the prospects of facing Kent Weaver, but the GCC netminder was the games star through the first 20 minutes as he was keeping his team close at only 2-0, after goals by Plum’s Travis Senchur at 1:16 of the 1st and Phil Mains on a backhander at 4:22 of the 2nd. Weaver stoned the Mustangs barrage late in the middle period including a brilliant save on Jonathon Smith with under 3 minutes left. Then GCC got a break as Mains fell down allowing Marc Perez a breakaway, who buried a wrist shot past JP Balson to cut the lead to 2-1 with just 25 seconds remaining in the period. On to the 3rd period and GCC tied the game as John Kennedy poked a rebound home at 11:37 and we had a new hockey game at two apiece. Plum went on the power play with a little under four minutes left in regulation but could not beat Weaver, who stopped 28 of 30 Mustang shots. The Centarians got an odd man break after killing the penalty and Zach Cutrell made Plum pay as he waltzed down the right side and buried a wrist shot high over the shoulder of Balson giving GCC a 3-2 victory and a date with Fox Chapel in the finals.

     Western Pennsylvania's navigation to NCAA Division 1 Hockey has come full circle over the past dozen years or so as we have roughly 100 Pennsylvania Born players now playing in Division 1 and Junior A Hockey. Pa Hockey will produce a compilation know as Onward and Upward, which is our annual account of those players, who have climbed to an elite level, either collegiately or in Junior Hockey. Quaker Valley's Furman South, the leader of the 2006 Pennsylvania State Champion Quakers has been playing with the Bay State Breakers of the Eastern Junior Hockey League over the past few seasons and plans to attend college locally at Robert Morris University. Joining the Colonials and fellow Western Pa Hockey's Peters Twp's Eric Trax, Kiski's Sean Berketresser and Shadyside Academy product and Penn Hills native Karac Davis, South graduated in 2006 from Quaker Valley and moves on to Collegiate Hockey to play in the same arena where his Quakers captured the State Championship a little over a year ago. Congratulations to Furman South and good luck !

 PRESS RELEASE - Bay State Breakers

HEADING SOUTH TO ROBERT MORRIS UNIVERSTIY (CHA-Div. I)

                              Rockland, MA – Furman South, of Sewickley, PA, commits to Robert Morris University for the fall of 2008. Furman is a right shot forward who stands 6’2 and weighs in at 200lbs, this is Furman’s second year with the Breakers. Last season Furman scored 40 points and was named to the EJHL All-Star team. Prior to the Breakers Furman played for the Pittsburgh Hornets Midget AAA program, which participated in the USA Hockey National Championships two years in a row. Furman was also selected to represent the Mid-American District at the USA Hockey Select Festival on two occasions. “After weighing my college options I decided that Robert Morris has a perfect mix of   hockey and academics. Robert Morris is a growing program and I am excited to be apart of it as it continues to grow.” 

“When Coach McCauley recruited me to come to Bay State I had several other options of       where I could play. Choosing Bay State was the best decision I could have ever made. I feel that the coaching and exposure at Bay State are unmatched throughout the country. Anyone looking to move to the next level should consider playing for the Bay State Breakers and Coach McCauley.” stated South.

“Furman is a great student-athlete. Furman had several college options this year already, with his hockey ability and academic profile, 1280 SAT 4.2 GPA, he made the choice to head closer to home. Robert Morris has a great non-league schedule this year which helped with Furman’s decision. He should be a great addition to the Robert Morris program, as he will join former Breaker Chris Margott. Our staff is proud to have Furman as an alumni” stated Head Coach David McCauley.

 

 “This year Furman was named as a Captain of the team by his peers as he is a quality kid on and off the ice.” added McCauley. “As a staff here at Robert Morris University we are very excited about Furman’s decision.” stated Robert Morris Head Coach Derek Schooley.  Furman is the son of Beth and Furman South Sr. of Sewickley, PA.