News and Announcements
1/26/04 ~ Peters Twp finally puts away a pesky Trinity squad
Posted by Jeff Mauro at Jan 26, 2004 4:00PM PST
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SOUTHPOINTE ~
Peters Twp has won the past two Pennsylvania Class AA State Championships and last seasons team may have been one of the best teams in state history. The Indians lost their first game of the season and have reeled off 11 straight including an impressive 3-0 win over a very good Indiana team last week. So here’s Mark Cooper and his team is 11-1-0 and ranked # 2 on Class AA tied with Kittanning and all everyone is talking about is Kittanning and Thomas Jefferson….no respect I say and coach Coop wanted a little word with Mr Pa Hockey before the game…..and is was to say thanks because this is just what Peters wants is everyone to forget them, but believe me this team is coming of age with some new faces and some old ones and should be in a position to take a run at anyone as they look forward to a big grudge type match against Thomas Jefferson on February 23 in the season’s final week.
Finally, it happened last night and as promised to my good friend and co-hockey nut Center Ice’s Earl Bugaile, I made a Trinity hockey game after a season and a half have seen ALL 65 Varsities play. Not knowing what to expect, I have scoreboard watched the Hillers over the past year and although they are a playoff contender this year, I was not sure of who they have and who there superstars were…..shame on me. I have known Larry Marks for several years and the coach has done an outstanding job with a program, who frankly struggles with numbers and is not real deep in the talent pool. Trinity exemplifies a team effort and excellent positional play which has brought the Hillers a respectable 5-7-2 in their 10th season and looking to build upon their first ever playoff appearance from a year ago.
Trinity and Peters Twp squared off in the first period before an intimate gathering for the 9:50 game at Iceoplex on a night no one should even be on the roads in a game that promised to end before midnight [no game should start after 9:00]. Trinity matched Peters shift for shift early and both teams had a couple of good chances but the Hillers Mick Alexander and Indians Shane Frey kept the game scoreless through the first thirteen minutes. Trinity would strike first as Chris Graf slammed home a rebound at 1:28 to give the Hillers a 1-0 lead. Great start for Trinity which looked to take the lead into the intermission, but Matt Lazaro’s seemingly harmless dump into the zone from just outside the blue line was misplayed by Alexander and Peters got a big break and a 1-1 tie with just 12 seconds left in the opening period.
Peters turned up the heat in the 2nd period but Alexander rebounded and made several nice save as the Indians pressured Trinity. Gerry Raymond found the net for PT as he scored on a rebound from the slot to give Peters it first lead at 8:43 of the second. The Indians would score three more times in the final period as Brandon Tingle added an insurance goal and Chris Clackson closed out the scoring late to give the Indians a 5-1 win over a tough Trinity squad.
Thank you to Earl Bugaile for contributing to this game summary !
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1/26/04 ~ West Allegheny spoils senior night for Canon Mac !
Posted by Jeff Mauro at Jan 26, 2004 4:00PM PST
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SOUTHPOINTE ~
West Allegheny coach Sean Hart has watched has his team has compiled a 5-9-2 record over the seasons first 16 games and the Indians have lost to all of the teams ahead of them in the standings including Kittanning, Montour, Indiana, Pine Richland, Thomas Jefferson [twice], Peters Twp, Canevin and Trinity. If the Penguins Cup playoffs began today, West Allegheny is sitting in 12th place and would travel to Indiana, but as it stands right now the Indians are holding on to that 12th spot by a mere half game over Moon. I think what coach Hart is looking at in the standings is what or who is in front with Trinity, Canevin and Greensburg CC all within reach, so tonight’s game had a little desperation to it.
Canon McMillan has all but secured a playoff spot and should clinch home ice advantage for the playoffs, which are a month away. Coach Bob Fryer’s Big Macs or Lightning [not sure what their nickname is?] have been a pleasant surprise and held a top 5 ranking, until they got a little dose of reality as they were shelled by Kittanning last week by the score of 8-2. The Big Macs have played well against the better teams, which made this performance a little out of character. A nice turnout on just an awful night on the roads for Senior Night at Iceoplex, which is one of the best places in Western Pennsylvania to watch a hockey game, whether in the stands, which were pretty full or in Jay’s Restaurant.
Canon Mac’s Shannon Anesetti was the story early as she stopped Mark Polidor at 13:54 and made an even better save on a tip from in front by Ryne Savitsky at 12:49. West Allegheny struck first as Polidor made a great move at the top of the circle faking to the right and firing a bullet to the left corner low on the stick side at 9:48 to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. At the other end, WA’s Dan Kuzio made nice save on Nick Godfrey at 8:45, but the Big Macs would tie it as Jeff Warnock muscled his way past two WA defenseman and lofted a wrist shot high over the glove side of Kuzio at 6:22. West Allegheny went on the 5 on 3 power play at 2:49 and Mark Polidor gave his team the lead on a rebound at 2:12.
The West Allegheny super sophomore’s hooked up again to extend the lead as Ryne Savitsky took a great pass from Polidor and broke in all alone and beat Anesetti with a wicked backhander upstairs at 12:23 for a surmising 3-1 West Allegheny lead. Jesse Patnesky brought CM back within one on a nice play by Doug Stanton, who made West Allegheny pay for not clearing the zone and fed a wide open Patnesky for the tap in at 6:20. After Shannon Anesetti stopped Steve Sarachine in front, Polidor banged home the rebound to complete the hat trick at 4:21 and give the Indians a 4-2 lead.
Sarachine would provide a big insurance tally at 10:44 of the third period on a nice pass from Polidor to make it 5-2 and Nick Godfrey would score on a rebound late in the final period at 1:27 to make the final 5-3 in favor of West Allegheny, who moved a little closer to securing a playoff spot.
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1/22/04 ~ Bulldogs give Foxes a little lesson in defense …….
Posted by Jeff Mauro at Jan 22, 2004 4:00PM PST
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NEW KENSINGTON ~
Keith Kearney has done a wonderful job in rebuilding the Fox Chapel program and bringing into first place in the East Division and has three solid lines, which have helped the Foxes to a 13-1-1 record and looking like a contender for the Penguins Cup. The solid goaltending of Senior Todd Hendry makes the Foxes an even more interesting team and FC has beaten some pretty good teams recently like Central Catholic, Butler and Plum. That is all great, but in order to be a contender you must beat one and my opinion for most of the season, which has been validated lately is that Mt Lebanon and Meadville are the favorites entering the playoffs, which is a little over a month away period. So this would be a big test for the Foxes and without getting into a long drawn out discussion about a certain player’s [who is a sophomore in high school’s] dreams, I will just simply state that NO team in Class AAA can win the Pennsylvania State Championship with a rent-a-player and the only one in recent memory who won a State Championship with them is Peters Twp in 2002 and 2003 and that team could have won it with me between the pipes.
So trudging along is Jamie Plunkett, the Dean of Coaching of Interscholastic Scholastic Hockey in the State of Pennsylvania, whose Bulldogs will be looking to defend their State Championship from a year ago and has eight Pennsylvania Class AAA State Championships. Plunkett has retired many of opposing coaches into the amateur ranks, who wouldn’t play the Bulldogs because they couldn’t beat them and now these guys portray themselves as procurement specialists of ‘the Dream’. Maybe no one has ever heard of Ryan Smart, who walked right out of Meadville High School and played four years for Cornell University and then was drafted by the New Jersey Devils. He played four years for the Dawgs and picked up a few State Championship rings along the way, so anyone who tells me about the ‘Dream’ has never won a State Championship for their school. Meadville has re-written the book on it, Mt Lebanon is a contender for it and North Allegheny is working on it and Fox Chapel is # 4, until the beat somebody in the top 3.
So what should have been a packed house at Harmarville, turned into an intimate gathering at the new Valley Sports Center and Adam Petrovitch had a great opportunity on a Bulldog turnover at 14:03, but was turned aside by Danny O’Sharuk. Fox Chapel’s Jason Kreps would put the Foxes on top on a great individual effort at 12:52 as he walked around the Meadville defense and shoved the puck past O’Sharuk for a 1-0 lead. Coach Kearney did a lot of line juggling in the opening period, but the guy they were trying to stop burned them as Christian Nickerson found the rebound at the 9:00 mark and poked it past Hendry for a tie game. O’Sharuk stopped Justin Kreps from point blank range at 8:37 to keep the game tied. The thing that make Meadville so dangerous that they get scoring from everyone in the lineup and hard working Shawn Harbaugh was the recipient of a great cross crease pass from Tyler ‘the forgotten one’ Learn and Harbaugh buried a shot down on the ice to give the Dawgs a 2-1 lead at 3:24.
Fox Chapel had power plays late in the first and three more in the second, but something was missing on the Foxes power play as they managed only 8 shots and let a golden opportunity to seize this one slip away. Meadville on the other hand had some great defensive play and excellent penalty killing namely from Christian Nickerson, David Moyer, Nate Licinski and Phil Siverd to keep the lead at 2-1.
On to the third period and the Bulldogs kept Fox Chapel at bay limiting the usually high powered Foxes to just 3 shots while pressuring Fox Chapel with twelve of their own for a shot advantage of 33-22 on the evening. Meadville finally found the knockout punch as David Moyer buried a slapshot on the ice through the 5-hole of Todd Hendry to give the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead with 6:51 remaining. Meadville controlled the play and the clock the rest of the way forcing Fox Chapel into undisciplined penalties and picked up a key 3-1 win over once, now twice beaten Fox Chapel. The dream lives and it took it show up Interstate 79 in preparation for another run !
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1/20/04 ~ Valley picks up 1st victory over Johnstown 4-1 !
Posted by Jeff Mauro at Jan 20, 2004 4:00PM PST
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NEW KENSINGTON ~
The Johnstown hockey program has hit the skids in the late 1990’s and into the 21st century and coach Tom Rizzo’s squad has improved to two victories in Class A, but considering how weak Class A hockey is this season, its hard to measure the improvement. An opportunity is the form of winless Valley presented itself for the Trojans.
Valley, on the other hand, had one of its best outings of the year against a ranked team in Richland-Cambria before the Rams finally took control in the 3rd period and defeated the Vikings 6-2. In fact, although winless Valley has put up a pretty good battle with some of the better teams in Class A and maybe this would be the night the Vikings could break their 0-14-0 season and put a victory on the board.
The first period was evenly played as the Vikings held a 9-8 shot advantage and took the lead late in the period as Anthony Perriello scored on the power play at 3:42 to give Valley a 1-0 lead. Perriello set up linemate Dave Roberts only twenty seconds late to extend the lead to 2-0.
The Vikings were in rarified air at 7:01 of the second as Perriello added his 2nd goal on an assist from Roberts with a shorthanded tally for a 3-0 Viking lead. When Brandon Gazzo scored at 5:14, the Vikings were on their way to victory.
Johnstown’s Marcus Botteicher broke Logan Harding’s shutout bid at 10:05 of the 3rd as Valley outshot Johnstown 32-20 on the evening and picked up their first victory of the season 4-1 over the Trojans.
Special Thanks to Kevin Keller for this report
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2004 Meadville Bulldog Invitational Coverage
Posted by Jeff Mauro at Jan 19, 2004 4:00PM PST
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1/17/04 ~ Meadville defeats undermanned TJ, win proves costly !
Meadville ~
BULLDOG INVITATIONAL
Meadville, the # 3 Class AAA team in Pennsylvania met Thomas Jefferson, the # 1 AA team in Pennsylvania. Meadville was looking to advance into the semi-final round to defend its 2003 Bulldog Invitational title, while the Jaguars were trying to survive without leading scorers Luke Wawrzeniak, Brandon School and Derek Kelly.
Although TJ put up a valiant effort through 2 ½ periods, Meadville took control of this one as Phil Siverd registered the hat trick and Evan Wisinski score twice in a 7-1 win for the Bulldogs. The win proved costly as Meadville’s leading scorer Christian Nickerson was ejected from tournament play late in the third period of a 6-1 game.
1/17/04 ~ Meadville peaks a little and soundly defeats LaSalle
Meadville ~
BULLDOG INVITATIONAL
Meadville, the # 3 Class AAA team in Pennsylvania and 2-0 in the Invitational met LaSalle, the # 4 Class AAA team in Pennsylvania and also 2-0 in the Bulldog. Both teams were looking to advance and claim the # 1 seed in their bracket into the semi-final round of the 2004 Bulldog Invitational.
Meadville, playing without Christian Nickerson, played an inspired game as Rick Thomas scored two goals and David Moyer, Anthony Scarpino and Phil Siverd scored singles. L.G Gatson and John Williams scored for the Explorers, who had plenty of chances but were denied by Danny O’Sharuk, who made several key saves in the second and third periods to preserve the victory.
1/18/04 ~ Malvern shows why they are # 1 in Pennsylvania
Meadville ~
BULLDOG INVITATIONAL
Malvern Prep, the # 1 Class AAA team in Pennsylvania met archrival LaSalle, the # 4 Class AAA team in Pennsylvania in the Bulldog Invitational. The Friars entered the playoff round with impressive wins over Sylvania Northview 8-3, Cleveland St Ignatius 3-2 and a 6-1 drumming of Central Catholic. LaSalle defeated Thomas Jefferson 5-0 and Toledo St Francis before bowing to Meadville 5-2.
Malvern flexed their muscles in this one with a 4-0 victory over the Explorers as freshman Bryan Mountain picked up the shutout stopping all 19 shots he faced. The Friar scoring machine for coach John Graves of Justin Martin, Chris Campanale, Tim Gehring and Warren Byrne scored and Malvern, the 2002 Bulldog champion, claimed a spot in the Bulldog Invitational finals waiting for the winner of 2003 champion Meadville and three-time Bulldog champion [1999,2000 & 2001] Cleveland St Ignatius.
1/18/04 ~ St Ignatius has the magic in Bulldog & beats Meadville
Meadville ~
BULLDOG INVITATIONAL
Meadville, the # 3 Class AAA team in Pennsylvania met Cleveland St Ignatius for the right to face Malvern Prep in the Bulldog Invitational final. Meadville may have been caught looking ahead a little, while the Wildcats were looking forward to a rematch of an outstanding preliminary round 3-2 contest with Malvern Prep.
St Ignatius was impressive in this semi-final as Nick Anderson scored twice for the Wildcats with single scores from Jack Ubbing, Kevin Colleran and Chris Schmoldt. The Wildcats Ted Riolo faced only 12 Meadville shots as Anthony Scarpino’s second period tally was the only highlight for the Bulldogs. The Wildcats advanced to their 5th Bulldog Invitational final in 8 years to face Malvern Prep.
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