Archbishop Ryan Raiders

This Game Summary was provided by the State College Hockey Club ! Final Score: State College 3 Bishop McCort 2 in OT Game Played at Penn State Scoring: First Period BMc: 1:24 Marc Domonkas (unassisted) SC: 7:10 Casey Sheerin from Nick Petrick Second Period BMc: 12:16 Domonkas from Joe Delic Power Play Third Period SC: 0:23 Matt Rippon from Garrett Corl Overtime SC: 3:12 Rippon (unassisted) Power Play Shots on Goal: Bishop McCort: 60 State College: 14 Goalies: SC - Aaron Myers saved 58-60 BMc - Ron Stenger saved 11-14 Power Play: State College 1-2 Bishop McCort 1-4 Penalties State College 6 for 20 minutes Bishop McCort 2 for 4 minutes Qutotes in Centre Daily Times from SC Head Coach Allen Wilson about the win... "It's huge. McCort has such a strong program and has won four championships in nine years in Class A" about goalie Aaron Myers "Aaron Myers was fantastic, to ask anyone to do what he did is unreal" about the SC Offense "We had to take goals when we could get them. We couldn't bring the same kind of pressure as McCort. When we got a break we had to cash it in" Other Notes: SC is now 9-10 but has never been at or above .500 all season. Overtime Goal by Rippon - He was in the penalty box and there were overlapping penalties. When he came out SC was on about a 20 second power play. When he came out of the box he got the puck immediately carried it in and lifted a shot above the goalies hand into the upper right corner. This set off quite a celabration at the Penn State Rink.

MT LEBANON ~ Reminiscing as much a part of high school hockey as the game itself and as I broke bread with my old friend Jamie Cummings at Bado’s, the stories flowed about Mr. Cummings senior season at Mt Lebanon, which was the best regular season in 33 years at 19-1-2, the year in which the Blue Devils probably should have won it all and at the time the WPIHL Championship [the Pennsylvania High School hockey championships came the very next year in 1975] was the crowned jewel, but much to the dismay of that team, Mt Lebanon fell to eventual champions Churchill 2-1 in a thriller at the old Alpine, a game which Cummings was the star goaltender for the blue Devils and as a sparky 11 year old, I served as the league rep and public address announcer, so your gonna tell me we need 3 people in the box as League reps ? [Just put Bob Sebastian over there and thats all you need is a PA announcer, some tunes and the clock stopped and started again. The conversation then leads on to the 1976 year, when Mt Lebanon won the State Championship, when after a 14-0-8 [yes Gina Colligan that’s right 14-0-8 record is the only unbeaten Mt Lebanon season in 33 years]. The fuel to that State Championship, was a 3-0 loss in the WPIHL Championship again to the pesky Churchill Chargers at the old Sewickley rink. An the Blue Devils came back to win it all 4-2 at the Civic Arena and if you need to know about that one maybe Chad Uddstrom’s dad Norm will show you the scrapbooks of that one. As we walked down the hill from the parking lot, after being lambasted for blocking the lower parking lot, Mr Cummings began talking about the year after 1977, which brought on probably the centerpiece of the greatest controversy in high school hockey history. You see this is the era when Interscholastic Hockey took a turn for the better, when the SHIHL was formed in 1978 because of the issue of purity [high school teams made up of only players playing on the school that they attend, which is the fiber of Interscholastic sports, let alone hockey], which resulted in NO state championships in 1978. Now, 25 + years later, the PIHL in its twisted wisdom is starting Division II or Co-OP or NON-PURE teams, which will be the death nail of High School Hockey as we know it and is more proof why the current administration is bankrupting the member teams and has to keep coming up with fundraisers like JV playoffs and Co-OP Non-Pure teams to fund their Commissioner’s Office’s $ 100,000 plus salaries. I think this will be the first step for bankrupting the rest of the teams because it will be a political hornet’s nest figuring out who plays for who. Development of High School Hockey programs comes from hard work [not laziness] building from within your own school district with the players you have and making it affordable for ALL and not just a select few! This move alone by the PIHL should be a sign that this administration needs to go and an AUDIT should be conducted to see where nearly a millions dollars a year in going ? The Mt Lebanon Rec Center, which to this day is the BEST place to watch a hockey game in Western Pennsylvania, and home to Blue Devils, who have occupied the building for every year since their last State Championship. Mt Lebanon coach Paul Taibi has quietly built a powerhouse team this season and with a pair of victories over red-hot Central Catholic and archrival Upper St Clair, the Blue Devils can cap off the greatest regular season in Mt Lebanon history. Oh yeah that’s real nice but, what Mt Lebanon really is after, which brings us back to 1974 and Mr Cummings, you see nobody ever remembers the regular season, what they remember [with the exception of a couple of chronies like Mr Cummings and myself] is who won the State Championship and this Mt Lebanon squad understands the process and has been after it ever since the 5-4 loss to Frankin Regional in last years playoffs. Central Catholic knows all about winning the State Championship, they’ve never won one and the closest they came was in 1998 in coach Kevin Zeilmanski’s first season. If you ask the current Viking squad about it, they won it the first game of the season in Meadville. CC has been in a funk ever since that game and it all started the game after Meadville against Shaler in a game the Vikings won 2-1 but really lost that is lost their ability to be a team and not just a group of individuals. The players started exuding this cockiness and went away from the attention to detail which they displayed opening night against Meadville [passing the puck, playing with a physical edge, giving up your body to block shots and most of all playing with passion and hustle] and this has cost the Vikings at times during the season. Needless to say Central has caught fire lately and sports an 18-3-0 record coming into this big matchup with Mt Lebanon. The question I have is will we see Central Catholic playing hockey they are capable of or when times get tough will this be a group of individuals trying to do it all by themselves. A who’s who night at Mt Lebanon Rec Center as the venerable Chuck Kelly was in the house, with USC’s Kip Guenther and half of his team, my sidekick for the night Jamie Cummings, Earl ‘Center Ice’ Bugaile, [later on even Jim ‘Mort’ McVay and Jamie Plunkett showed up] among the cast of characters in a packed house for the big game. After a feeling out process in the opening minutes, Mt Lebanon struck first at 10:41 as Tony Valerino beat the CC defense to the puck and chipped it past Russ Hefner for a 1-0 lead. Just 24 seconds later, Eric Sloan took a Chad Uddstrom feed and ripped it past Hefner on a one-timer at 10:17 making it 2-0. The first period was all Blue Devils and Sloan showed tremendous speed beating the Viking defense and Hefner on the forehand for a shocking 3-0 advantage with 4:17 left in the opening period. On to the second and Chad Uddstrom got into the act with a wicked wrist shot streaking down the off wing past Hefner at exactly the 12:00 mark and now 4-0. Tony Valerino sent Hefner to the bench at 10:21, picking the Central points pocket and scoring on a nifty move for a shorthanded goal and a 5-0 lead for Mt Lebanon. Central received new life as Joe Coulter redirected a shot past Matt Vaughn to get the Vikings on the board at 9:16. Billy Connelly scored a great goal at 6:07 to get CC within striking distance at 5-2 taking a Coulter shot and deking Vaughn on the backhand. Central Catholic started looking like they were solving the Blue Devils defense and had all the momentum. At 2:34 of the 2nd the Blue Devils got a huge break when it was discovered the net which Central was shooting on was unfit for play and the teams were sent off for an ice cut….this effectively broke Central’s momentum. Mt Lebanon recovered during the ice cut and adjusted, while Central…well they went into a funk again and started playing individual hockey. The Blue Devils showed why they are the # 1 ranked team in Class AAA by putting an exclamation point on this one. One of Western Pa’s best forwards Eric Sloan took a pass from Chad Uddstrom and completed the hat trick at 6:56 to make it a convincing 6-2 Lebo lead and Uddstrom buried a wrist shot up under the cross bar at 5:16 for a big 7-2 victory for Mt Lebanon, clinching the West Class AAA crown. My question is where was the trophy presentation ? For the Blue Devils they would like to save it .....for the league it must have been at Bethel Park !

Special Report to Pa Hockey provided by Montour Hockey Club In an evenly played game, Montour (11-6-2) shut out its opponent for the second consecutive game by the score of 3-0. Montour goalie Aaron Williams had 20 saves for the shutout. Montour scored a goal in each period for the win. In the first period, Ross Polk scored his 8th goal of the year on assists from Kevin Smith and Tyler Kocak. In the second period, Dan Shiwarski scored his 11th goal of the season following passes from Zach Perry and Brian Dugan. Montour finished its scoring with an empty net goal by Mario Panucci, his 17th of the season. West Allegheny with good, clean hits helped goalie Dan Kuzio (24 saves) keep the game close. West Allegheny's Ian Skacan and Bob Maliszewski skated hard and had great forechecking while adding pressue in the Montour defensive zone. Shots for the game were: Montour 27, West Allegheny 20.

DELMONT – Penn Hills coach Jan Battista is really trying to right the Penn Hills Hockey program and has done a fine job despite the Indians 2-15-1 record, which can be mainly attributed to the fallout from the past two seasons of players in the school who are not playing hockey for Penn Hills. Fortunately, Penn Hills has one of the league’s most exciting players and leading scorers Ryan Jones, who is complimented by Willie Banks and Eddie Obenauff. The problem comes from the mix of inexperience and youth which has yet to develop, but the Indians are a team which is a dangerous opponent, especially for a team trying to stay alive in the playoff picture, as evidenced by Monday night’s 9-4 loss to Penn Trafford, which was a 5-4 game well into the third period. If the Penguins Cup playoffs started today, Gateway would currently sit at # 17 and its interesting because prior to Wednesday night, they were # 16. The difference is that Erie Cathedral Prep was given back two forfeited games, which is a source of major controversy in Class AAA, and now stands at 9-10-1. Apparently, the PIHL failed to file the proper paperwork with Cathedral Prep notifying them of the hearings and decisions made, which basically means they are not doing the job which the member schools PAY over $ 100,000 a year for and further evidence that the APPOINTED administration is UNQUALIFIED to run the organization. Cathedral Prep won the games and if they win enough games to get in the playoffs, they deserve to be in the playoffs and Gateway or Shaler, who the Ramblers beat [both] in overtime can look at themselves in the mirror if Cathedral Prep finishes ahead of them and captures the final playoff spot. So now the Gators, who have been to the playoffs five consecutive years, are in a desperate situation and would need a big effort in a must win game. Given the non-sense of players not showing up for practices, who was not in attendance, or missing for a travel game, who was not in attendance, or missing because they can’t find the right colored socks or helmut and missed countless practices, was not in attendance and arguably the best defensive player in the program is out for the season, with an injury. So Gateway could just pack it in and lose to Penn Hills and their season would be over. Sometimes, the best lesson for a true team is that you have the players who WANT IT in attendance and for coach Lou Biancanello, although he had a short bench, he had players who want to play for Gateway and want to win and make the playoffs in the lineup against Penn Hills. The Gators came out with fire in the opening minutes and looked to put Penn Hills on their heels early. Sophomore Scott Lyons found a loose puck in front and banged it home past Zach Cullen at 13:49 for a 1-0 Gator lead. On the very next shift, Craig Leith showed great speed and beat the Penn Hills defense and Cullen at 13:09 and Gateway was off and running 2-0. The Indians came back and Ryan Jones set up Eddie Obenauff who beat J.D. Domenick through the 5-hole to cut the lead to 2-1 at 8:22. Then it was Jones again, who took it coast to coast and beat Domenick on the forehand to tie the game at two apiece at 7:28. Penn Hills came on in the second and took the lead as Jones took and Obenauff pass and buried a wrist shot to the stick side at 13:16 and the Indians had their first lead 3-2. Nice looking sophomore Anthony Battista scored on a Ryan Jones rebound, after a great lead pass by Willie Banks, at 11:48 and Penn Hills held a 4-2 lead. Gateway would have numerous opportunities late in the second on the power play and looked pretty lethargic as Penn Hills took a two-goal advantage to the locker room. Friday the 13th was not looking too good for the Gators as they took to the ice for the 3rd period, but maybe they could get back in the game on the power play to start the final period. Just 17 seconds in it looked like doomsday as Eddie Obenauff beat Dominick on the forehand shorthanded and Penn Hills opened up a 5-2 lead. Brennan DiBasilio tipped in a hot from the point at 13:56 to make the power play count and cut the lead to 5-3. Obenauff finished off the hat trick on a rebound at 12:03 and gave Penn Hills a 6-3 lead and they looked well in command at this point. Gateway never gave up and when Matt Rose scored on the wrist shot at 7:18, the Gators were back in the game 6-4. Steve Lyons threw the puck to the net at 6:06 and it trickled past Zach Cullen to pull Gateway within one at 6-5. Penn Hills showed a ton of frustration and took an illadvised penalty and Gateway made them pay as Craig Leith buried a slapshot from the top of the circles high over the glove side of Cullen and the Gators tied the game 6-6 with 4:14 left in regulation. No comeback would be perfect without a great finish and this time it was Ryan Whitfield in overtime, who lofted a backhand toward Cullen which handcuffed the Penn Hills goaltender and trickled over his shoulder into the net giving Gateway a miraculous 7-6 come from behind victory at Center Ice, keeping the Gators playoff march alive.

NEW KENSINGTON – Plum has been through the ringer in the second half of the 2003-2004 season with losses to contenders Meadville, Mt Lebanon, Bethel Park and Monday night’s division clinching loss to Fox Chapel, where the Mustangs outshot the Foxes, but came up short on the scoreboard 5-3 with an empty net goal. What Head Coach Stu Relnick is more concerned right now is securing a playoff berth and a home ice berth in the playoffs and Plum is currently sitting in 9th place in the overall standings, which would send them on the road. Shaler coach Ron Steedle has a different theory and he only could dream of having Plum assistant coach Mike Sargo [who scored over 100 goals in leading Gateway to the WPIHL AAA crown and Penguins Cup Semi-Finals in 1996] suit up in Shaler Blue and White or maybe borrow Travis Senchur for a half of season, the Titans could have capitalized during the unreal ten one-goal games in which Shaler and they would be talking about home ice advantage in the playoffs and not just trying to survive and avoid a first round trip to Meadville or Mt Lebanon, which equates to Siberia for Titans. Shaler has lost twice to Plum, 5-1 in St Margaret’s and a 5-0 whitewash in November and was looking to measure its progress over the season’s 2nd half. Shaler came out and took the play to Plum in the first period pressuring the Mustangs which would result in the opening goal as Graham Papciak on his off wing beat J.P. Balson low on the ice at 5:26 for a 1-0 Shaler lead. Then the Titans were whistled for hauling down a Plum player in the slot and the Mustangs capitalized on Shaler’s inability to clear the puck. Travis Senchur blasted a slapshot high over the shoulder of Ben Burns with 2:48 remaining in the first. Plum took the lead at 11:14 of the second period as Senchur took a Jonathon Smith feed and beat Burns between the legs for a 2-1 Mustang advantage. The Titans came back and tied the scored as John Shannon’s shot was like a pinball off defenseman and legs and sticks and ultimately J.P. Balson to knot the score at two apiece with 6:09 remaining in the middle period. The Mustangs would answer as Mike Dunlap would take advantage of a Shaler defensive meltdown in its own zone and beat Burns with exactly five minutes remaining in the middle frame. On to the third period and both teams had several chances to score but it was Shaler once again who had the better chances late in the game, but could not beat J.P. Balson who stopped 27 of 29 shots on the evening. Jim Rouda had a wide open net and the puck just would not go in for Shaler, who pulled the goalie and watched Josh Huber’s shot in the final seconds ring off the post and Plum held on for a 3-2 victory at the Palladium at Parnassus.