Archbishop Ryan Raiders

Penn Trafford 4 Franklin Regional 2 DELMONT – Penn Trafford 6-2-0 and Franklin Regional 5-2-0 squared off in a battle for first place in the East Division of Class AAA. Coach Jim Daugherty’s Panthers have started the season with a solid effort losing only to Fox Chapel and North Allegheny. Todd Purvis’ Warriors have won some exciting contests as well falling to # 1 Mt Lebanon and McDowell. The records added some flare to what is becoming a big rivalry for the top spot in the Eastern Division. Penn Trafford and Franklin Regional battle for most of the opening period to a scoreless tie. The Warrior’s Chris Cerutti walked out of the corner and beat two FR defensemen and Adam Treml with 1:30 remaining for a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later with :36 ticks remaining in the 1st ,it was Cerutti on the breakway and beating Treml again for a 2-0 lead. The second period was a penalty fest as the team exchanged power plays as PT clung to a 2-0 lead. The Panthers broke the scoreless drought with 2:05 remaining in the period as Ryan Kramer scored on a rebound to make it 2-1. The Panthers had a golden opportunity to seize the game, but instead decided to play to the capacity crowd of FR and PT fans at Center Ice. The undiscipline of some of the Franklin players put their team shorthanded early in the third period, breaking any momentum of the Kramer goal. The Panthers killed off a 5 on 3 disadvantage, which started at 11:11 and preceded to take another penalty at 9:23 and again at 8:12. Penn Trafford could not mount a serious scoring opportunity during all of the power plays and it looked like the Panthers would survive. In fact, a miracle happened as Joe Nicoletti dove and cleared the puck out of the zone the length of the ice at 7:40 and a misplay by Warrior goaltender Joel Sterniak waundered into an empty net to tie the game at two apiece. Moments later it almost happened again as Greg Peters intercepted a Sterniak clearing attempt and deked the goaltender and the puck lay on the goal line but never crossed at 7:11, which was as close as FR came to taking the lead. The Panthers would take another penalty at 6:50 and this time Penn Trafford would make them pay as Chris Cerutti fired a wrist shot from the left point high over the glove of Treml to complete the hat trick and give his Warriors a 3-2 lead with 5:28 to go. Cerutti iced the game with his 4th goal displaying great speed and then beating the Panther goaltender on the backhand to close out the scoring and give PT a 4-2 victory and sole possession of 1st place in the East Division, despite being outshot 27-24