Archbishop Ryan Raiders

Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park 4 Malvern Prep 3 HERSHEY – I am sure when Friar head coach John Graves coach reads this game summary, he will be thinking …..hmmmm. Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park 4 Malvern Prep 3 - 1997 Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park 2 Malvern Prep 1 - 2001 Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park 4 Malvern Prep 3 – 2002 Pennsylvania Cup ~ Class AAA – Bethel Park - Malvern Prep – 2005 Three years against Bethel Park in the Pennsylvania State Final and three loses to the Hawks. Besides the fortunes have changed at Malvern Prep as they now are the owners of the Pennsylvania Cup AAA title from beating Mt Lebanon a year ago at Robert Morris Island Sports Center 5-4 in a thriller. This would be the first time these two teams have met since the 2002 final at Rostraver, where Malvern had a 3-2 lead late on the Hawks, but coach Jim ‘Mort’ McVay caught one of the Malvern player using an illegal stick resulting in a power play, a tying goal and eventually a win in overtime for a third consecutive State Championship for Bethel. Everyone in Eastern Pennsylvania thought Malvern would lose the Flyers Cup and the answer was wrong as they defied LaSalle 2-1 in the Semis and Germantown in the final 4-3 to get here and an opportunity to defend their title. For Bethel Park, the same could be said as the talk all year was that North Allegheny or perhaps Mt Lebanon would make the State Finals, but the Hawks beat Mt Lebo in the semis 4-0 and then upended North Allegheny 1-0 in a classic Penguins Cup AAA title game at the Mellon Arena before a crowd of 2700 + fans, who saw a spectacular goaltending performance by Bryce Merriam and a huge goal by Tim O’Brien to lead BP back to the State Finals. The 2005 Pennsylvania Class AAA championship got off to a roaring start for Bethel Park as Jacobus Bliek took a great feed from Tim O’Brien cutting down the slot and hammered a shot over the glove shot of Josh Firely to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead at 11:11. Bethel was flying in the first period and stunned the Friars taking a 2-0 lead as Conner McLean scored a beautiful backhander and caught Josh Firely leaning the wrong way with 6:44 left in the first. BP looked sharp and Malvern looked to be in trouble until a rarity of Hawks mistakes became lethal. First, Bryce Merriam went to play a puck which caromed of the back boards and under his stick to an opportunistic Matt Campanale, who had a tap-in even Stu Relnick couldn’t miss with only 1:17 remaining to cut the Bethel lead to 2-1. The Friars wasted no time jumping on Bethel for another one as Geoff Mucha slammed home a Sean Olejar rebound with 50 seconds left and the game was tied at 2-2. On to the 2nd period and the Friars took the lead as Campanale, on a great individual effort, made a great play to keep a BP clearing attempt in the zone and then walked down the slot, beat a Bethel defenseman and then fired a snapshot past Merriam to give Malvern Prep its first lead 3-2 with 7:32 remaining. Bethel Park adjusted defensively and stiffened and Merriam made a couple of nice saves as well to keep the one goal game. Then a critical mistake by Malvern turned out to be the turning point in this hockey game as while trying to clear the puck past Jacobus Bliek, the Friars defense panicked a little and it cost them. The sure handed Bliek simply threw the puck to the net and in a scramble Michael Diethorn got there first and wristed one past Josh Firely to tie the score with just 26 seconds left in the middle period and the game was tied up again 3-3. So here we have Malvern Prep and Bethel slugging it one for PA Hockey supremacy at Class AAA at the more than rustic Hersheypark Arena. Malvern Prep would have the golden opportunity to erase three state finals of frustration against the Hawks and it would be Bethel Park, who would make their frustration continued. The Friars would go on the power play with 12:39 remaining in regulation with a chance to take the lead. But Jim McVay would go to a combination of Kenny Lehman and Tim O’Brien to kill the penalty, who may be a little less defensive, but actually may have been the Hawks strongest defensive forward tandem in the Penguins Cup final victory over North Allegheny. Lehman stripped the puck from the Malvern back line like a jewel thief and just slid the puck ahead to a breaking Tim O’Brien and O’Brien, as he did against NA showed great speed on the breakaway and beat Josh Firely to the stick side to give Bethel Park…you guessed it a 4-3 lead. Like 1997 and 2002, this one would be no different as coach McVay’s boys shut down the Friars the rest of the way to capture their 5th State Championship in 8 years and are moving closer to Meadville, who has 8. Congratulations to the Bethel Park Blackhawks – the 2005 Pennsylvania Class AAA State Champions. The difference in this hockey game may have been the determination by the Bethel Park team, who are committed to their coaches demanding regiment and pulled through against a defending champion and played phenomenal hockey over the past two weeks to win it. And we will ALL look forward to seeing coach McVay back behind the bench in 2006 as the Hawks will defend their title.