Archbishop Carroll Patriots - 1981 AAA 2004 AA

Thomas Jefferson 7 Greensburg Salem 2 Greensburg – After spending the early part of Thursday evening watching my first Open Division game of the season between Hempfield and Somerset with Chief O’Hara and Ms. O’Hara [Name and Address withheld for purposes of avoiding Villon(ess) repercussions]. If you stay tuned to Pa Hockey within the next few weeks there will be PART 1 to a solution to the mess of the Open Division and will revitalize hockey in Western Pennsylvania and bring back the competitiveness in Class AAA, AA and A. The bottom line after watching these two teams is that Hempfield and Somerset are only kidding themselves playing in a glorified Varsity/Junior Varsity Division convoluted with a bunch of misfit teams [meaning in the wrong division for al you who are oversensitive]. Hempfield could have been celebrating a Class AAA East Division championship, but will play for the Chuck E Cheese tokens starting March 1st and Somerset, should be playing in Class A, where they would definitely be vying for one of the top 4 teams, but the Villans have a vendetta against the Somerset organization because Chief ran for President against Mr. Freeze and with lack of qualified people to count the votes, Vice President Shame slipped Mr. Freeze, the Riddler and the Archer in for two more years of destroying High School Hockey. What I like most about the Interscholastic Hockey Community most is the scores of terrific people, who I have met and continue to build relationships with covering games and carrying out the mission of Pa Hockey, which is to promote the goodness of the efforts of families and young people, in spite of the cartoon characters aforementioned, who continued to deter any progress of hockey and are attempting suicide for a sport, which has done pretty well over 37 years despite limited school support and lack of sanctioning from school districts, who get out the ten foot pool when hockey is mentioned and would rather fund Lacrosse, Bowling and Rifle, which are certainly major sports on the landscape of youth, interscholastic, collegiate and professional activities. 44 States across this country played for State Championships in hockey, that will culminate with the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships on April 7th at the Ice Works in Aston, Pa. The Wall of Champions for 2007 kicked off last weekend as South Anchorage edged Dimond for the 2007 Alaska State Championship in Wasilla, Alaska before a record 1,600-plus fans stomping bleachers, blowing bugles and screaming hockey eloquence inside Menard Memorial Arena. And people in this Western Pennsylvania Hockey Community still think I have a vendetta because they listen to people like Cat Woman and Ma Snaggletooth Parker, because they are too busy talking on their cell phones, when they should be paying attention to rosters, so they aren’t hammered by the Villans with penalties in the fineum, suspendedum and extortum world of the PIHL. If you don’t believe me ask one of tonight’s combatant Greensburg Salem [forfeit two games], plus Groovy Harry and Brother Stu’s Vikings - CC [forfeit two games] and I dream of Jeannie’s Tigers – NA [forfeit one games] all who should be enjoying or competing for first round byes and fill victim to rules infractions for Freshman players [Freshman Hockey should be 6th – 8th grade like in other parts of the country], who have little or no impact on their respective teams success, but will be key factor’s in the upcoming playoffs in who EARNS byes and home ice advantage. Whhhhhhhhhh….now I can take a deep breath and tell you what I really like about HS Hockey……where was I ? Oh…. As I mentioned, before I was rudly interrupted, by myself, was about the great and unheralded people of Interscholastic Hockey. Back in about 1978 after the closing of the Alpine, Sewickley Arena forced us to drive 45 minutes to Kirk Nevin for a 8:30 practice, a gentleman by the name of Dan Sheehy, who was my high school coach and taught me some great principles and really understood building hockey programs and development started a tremendous learn to play hockey program at Kirk Nevin. Out of that program, came people like former long-time coaches Greensburg Central Catholic’s Butch Marietta, Hempfield’s Bruce Cameron, Latrobe’s Bill Cesarski and Greensburg Salem’s Dave Small. These people fueled and guided the hockey programs out of Greensburg and current Golden Lion head coach Anthony DeFazio was a product of that program and is now following the blueprint he was a part of with the leadership of hockey enthusiast and former Golden Lion President Rick Versaw, who in my opinion led Greensburg Salem out of the doldrums of extinction and the Open Division back into competitive hockey of Class AA. Greensburg Salem’s program has been there and back and will compete in the upcoming playoffs trying to nail down a home berth over West Allegheny. About the time I got back involved in Interscholastic Hockey after a ten-year layoff, I started the Pa Hockey Yearbook, Pa Hockey History and the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase and had great support from many people. I can tell you that one gentleman who jumped in was Thomas Jefferson Head Coach Don Powell, who was in the process at that time of continuing tradition with the TJ program of winning and building a Jaguar run of three straight Pennsylvania State Class AA championships. On of the Jaguar offspring and leaders was a kid name John Zeiler, who I ran into working out at Ralph and Alf’s Castle last March and played in his 1st National Hockey League Game this week to become # 5 from Western Pa Hockey to get there. Zeiler is a great Player with tremendous personality, work ethic and character exemplified by his HS Coach. The ‘Dean of AA’ has coached some great teams and great players and their undisputed leader for the 2007 version is Brock Heinauer and trust me the apple does not fall far from the tree because his parents Melinda and Mark have been very instrumental with their leadership of TJ Hockey and coach Powell over the past ten years and will be sorely missed as a part of this hockey community when Brock graduates in the spring. The Jaguars will miss the unreal production, which is believed to be unparalleled in TJ History [which is being tabulated out of the Archives at the request of Mom, which is the least I could do for two super people who I will share this with over a pop or beer to to review the history]. Knowing the TJ run for 2007 will end in some type of tears of joy or sadness in March, I had to take one last chance to bust the chops of Mark and Melinda. For those of you who think the Jaguars have little or no chance to win the Class AA title because of goaltending, I really believe Spencer Neel can and will rise to the occasion similar to Matt Mitchell and Joe Essey did for the 1998, 1999 and 2000 championship teams of coach Powell and they are a sentimental choice for many reasons aforementioned. The Jaguars were looking tonight to nail down home ice advantage and the # 3 seed for the upcoming Class AA tournament. TJ came out smoking in the opening 15 minutes as they seized the lead at 12:08 courtesy of Patrick LaFrankie for a 1-0 lead. At 8:24, Dan Jantzi gave the Jags a 2-0 advantage on a quick shot. Greensburg Salem got on the board at 7:40 as Eric Yurenko beat Spencer Neel on the glove side to make it 2-1. The game took on a new look after that goal as the Golden Lions were back in the game. The backbreaker came with just : 04 left in the period as Dan Nath roofed wrist shot under the crossbar to give Thomas Jefferson a 3-1 lead. The second period was an avalanche on the Golden Lions as with 5:57 to go Brock Heinauer snuck wrister past Shane Talarico to make it 4-1 and with 2:21 remaining in the middle period, it was Brock Heinauer again beating Talarico on the forehand to make it 5-1 as the Jaguars took control of the hockey game as the shots were 29-12 thru 2 periods in favor of TJ. Thomas Jefferson expanded their lead at 12:47 as Dan Jantzi scored his 2nd goal to make it a rout 6-1. Greensburg Salem scored at 10:30 as Shane Davis lit the lamp and the Jaguars closed out the scoring at 1:54 as Dan Jantzi completed the hat trick to give TJ a 7-2 victory. Final shots were 37 – 24 Jaguars in a very impressive win to lock down the # 3 seed, a bye and home ice advantage in round two of the playoffs. After the lights went down and most of the people left the Kirk Nevin Arena, the Thomas Jefferson quietly celebrated on the Kirk Nevin ice for pictures of their division with their 2nd division championship trophy in four years, which they clinched two weeks ago and was delivered by Louie the Lilac this afternoon. Whether they enjoy another celebration this season will be an interesting subplot to what should be a very entertaining Class AA playoffs over the next month.

Thomas Jefferson 7 Greensburg Salem 2 Greensburg – After spending the early part of Thursday evening watching my first Open Division game of the season between Hempfield and Somerset with Chief O’Hara and Ms. O’Hara [Name and Address withheld for purposes of avoiding Villon(ess) repercussions]. If you stay tuned to Pa Hockey within the next few weeks there will be PART 1 to a solution to the mess of the Open Division and will revitalize hockey in Western Pennsylvania and bring back the competitiveness in Class AAA, AA and A. The bottom line after watching these two teams is that Hempfield and Somerset are only kidding themselves playing in a glorified Varsity/Junior Varsity Division convoluted with a bunch of misfit teams [meaning in the wrong division for al you who are oversensitive]. Hempfield could have been celebrating a Class AAA East Division championship, but will play for the Chuck E Cheese tokens starting March 1st and Somerset, should be playing in Class A, where they would definitely be vying for one of the top 4 teams, but the Villans have a vendetta against the Somerset organization because Chief ran for President against Mr. Freeze and with lack of qualified people to count the votes, Vice President Shame slipped Mr. Freeze, the Riddler and the Archer in for two more years of destroying High School Hockey. What I like most about the Interscholastic Hockey Community most is the scores of terrific people, who I have met and continue to build relationships with covering games and carrying out the mission of Pa Hockey, which is to promote the goodness of the efforts of families and young people, in spite of the cartoon characters aforementioned, who continued to deter any progress of hockey and are attempting suicide for a sport, which has done pretty well over 37 years despite limited school support and lack of sanctioning from school districts, who get out the ten foot pool when hockey is mentioned and would rather fund Lacrosse, Bowling and Rifle, which are certainly major sports on the landscape of youth, interscholastic, collegiate and professional activities. 44 States across this country played for State Championships in hockey, that will culminate with the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships on April 7th at the Ice Works in Aston, Pa. The Wall of Champions for 2007 kicked off last weekend as South Anchorage edged Dimond for the 2007 Alaska State Championship in Wasilla, Alaska before a record 1,600-plus fans stomping bleachers, blowing bugles and screaming hockey eloquence inside Menard Memorial Arena. And people in this Western Pennsylvania Hockey Community still think I have a vendetta because they listen to people like Cat Woman and Ma Snaggletooth Parker, because they are too busy talking on their cell phones, when they should be paying attention to rosters, so they aren’t hammered by the Villans with penalties in the fineum, suspendedum and extortum world of the PIHL. If you don’t believe me ask one of tonight’s combatant Greensburg Salem [forfeit two games], plus Groovy Harry and Brother Stu’s Vikings - CC [forfeit two games] and I dream of Jeannie’s Tigers – NA [forfeit one games] all who should be enjoying or competing for first round byes and fill victim to rules infractions for Freshman players [Freshman Hockey should be 6th – 8th grade like in other parts of the country], who have little or no impact on their respective teams success, but will be key factor’s in the upcoming playoffs in who EARNS byes and home ice advantage. Whhhhhhhhhh….now I can take a deep breath and tell you what I really like about HS Hockey……where was I ? Oh…. As I mentioned, before I was rudly interrupted, by myself, was about the great and unheralded people of Interscholastic Hockey. Back in about 1978 after the closing of the Alpine, Sewickley Arena forced us to drive 45 minutes to Kirk Nevin for a 8:30 practice, a gentleman by the name of Dan Sheehy, who was my high school coach and taught me some great principles and really understood building hockey programs and development started a tremendous learn to play hockey program at Kirk Nevin. Out of that program, came people like former long-time coaches Greensburg Central Catholic’s Butch Marietta, Hempfield’s Bruce Cameron, Latrobe’s Bill Cesarski and Greensburg Salem’s Dave Small. These people fueled and guided the hockey programs out of Greensburg and current Golden Lion head coach Anthony DeFazio was a product of that program and is now following the blueprint he was a part of with the leadership of hockey enthusiast and former Golden Lion President Rick Versaw, who in my opinion led Greensburg Salem out of the doldrums of extinction and the Open Division back into competitive hockey of Class AA. Greensburg Salem’s program has been there and back and will compete in the upcoming playoffs trying to nail down a home berth over West Allegheny. About the time I got back involved in Interscholastic Hockey after a ten-year layoff, I started the Pa Hockey Yearbook, Pa Hockey History and the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase and had great support from many people. I can tell you that one gentleman who jumped in was Thomas Jefferson Head Coach Don Powell, who was in the process at that time of continuing tradition with the TJ program of winning and building a Jaguar run of three straight Pennsylvania State Class AA championships. On of the Jaguar offspring and leaders was a kid name John Zeiler, who I ran into working out at Ralph and Alf’s Castle last March and played in his 1st National Hockey League Game this week to become # 5 from Western Pa Hockey to get there. Zeiler is a great Player with tremendous personality, work ethic and character exemplified by his HS Coach. The ‘Dean of AA’ has coached some great teams and great players and their undisputed leader for the 2007 version is Brock Heinauer and trust me the apple does not fall far from the tree because his parents Melinda and Mark have been very instrumental with their leadership of TJ Hockey and coach Powell over the past ten years and will be sorely missed as a part of this hockey community when Brock graduates in the spring. The Jaguars will miss the unreal production, which is believed to be unparalleled in TJ History [which is being tabulated out of the Archives at the request of Mom, which is the least I could do for two super people who I will share this with over a pop or beer to to review the history]. Knowing the TJ run for 2007 will end in some type of tears of joy or sadness in March, I had to take one last chance to bust the chops of Mark and Melinda. For those of you who think the Jaguars have little or no chance to win the Class AA title because of goaltending, I really believe Spencer Neel can and will rise to the occasion similar to Matt Mitchell and Joe Essey did for the 1998, 1999 and 2000 championship teams of coach Powell and they are a sentimental choice for many reasons aforementioned. The Jaguars were looking tonight to nail down home ice advantage and the # 3 seed for the upcoming Class AA tournament. TJ came out smoking in the opening 15 minutes as they seized the lead at 12:08 courtesy of Patrick LaFrankie for a 1-0 lead. At 8:24, Dan Jantzi gave the Jags a 2-0 advantage on a quick shot. Greensburg Salem got on the board at 7:40 as Eric Yurenko beat Spencer Neel on the glove side to make it 2-1. The game took on a new look after that goal as the Golden Lions were back in the game. The backbreaker came with just : 04 left in the period as Dan Nath roofed wrist shot under the crossbar to give Thomas Jefferson a 3-1 lead. The second period was an avalanche on the Golden Lions as with 5:57 to go Brock Heinauer snuck wrister past Shane Talarico to make it 4-1 and with 2:21 remaining in the middle period, it was Brock Heinauer again beating Talarico on the forehand to make it 5-1 as the Jaguars took control of the hockey game as the shots were 29-12 thru 2 periods in favor of TJ. Thomas Jefferson expanded their lead at 12:47 as Dan Jantzi scored his 2nd goal to make it a rout 6-1. Greensburg Salem scored at 10:30 as Shane Davis lit the lamp and the Jaguars closed out the scoring at 1:54 as Dan Jantzi completed the hat trick to give TJ a 7-2 victory. Final shots were 37 – 24 Jaguars in a very impressive win to lock down the # 3 seed, a bye and home ice advantage in round two of the playoffs. After the lights went down and most of the people left the Kirk Nevin Arena, the Thomas Jefferson quietly celebrated on the Kirk Nevin ice for pictures of their division with their 2nd division championship trophy in four years, which they clinched two weeks ago and was delivered by Louie the Lilac this afternoon. Whether they enjoy another celebration this season will be an interesting subplot to what should be a very entertaining Class AA playoffs over the next month.

Franklin Regional 2 Moon 1 CORAOPOLIS – Moon (13-5-1) and Franklin Regional (13-6-1) are two teams in the Class AA landscape that have had pretty good seasons. If you take into account that the Panthers started the season 1-4 in their return to Class AA, FR is now 12-2-1 since the end of November with losses to division foes Greensburg CC and Indiana, this is a team that has done so under the radar which is probably how Head Coach Jim Daugherty would like to keep it but a victory over the Tigers will open a few eyes as Franklin will have their season finale Monday with # 1 ranked and defending State Class AA Champions Pine Richland. Meanwhile, the Tigers have only lost in the 2nd half of the season to Pine Richland and Thomas Jefferson and have really been a consistent club throughout the regular season playing a disciplined style of hockey to put together one of the better seasons in Moon history. This game will have significance in the final bye in Class AA after the Tigers face # 2 Latrobe next week and the regular season winds up. The winner of this contest will assume the inside track on the 4th and final bye and home ice advantage should both teams be unable or unable to knock off higher ranked opponents. Franklin came out in the opening 15 minutes and carried the play to Moon outshooting the Tigers 15-5, but Tiger goaltender Matt Wynn held FR off the board in a scoreless first period. The game remained scoreless deep into the second until with 6:01 remaining, Joe DeNardo lit the lamp to give Moon a 1-0 lead. Franklin Regional ties the score later in the period as freshman Steven Shirk was set up by Eugene Mack and gave the Panthers a 1-1 tie with 2:36 to play in the period. FR held a 19-10 shot advantage, but the score was tied after two periods. FR started the final period on the power play and was unable to capitalize. With 10:40 to go in regulation, Carl Richter fired a long lead pass through center ice that Ryan Kramer plucked out of the air and beat the Moon defense and was in on the breakaway and beat Matt Wynn on the forehand to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead. Moon went on the power play with 8:49 to go but FR effectively killed it off and held a slim lead. Moon’s Matt Reese took a long shot that hit the crossbar with 4:30 to go and the Panthers clung to their lead. FR got a power play with 2:42 to go and was unable to score the insurance goal and gave the Tigers a chance to pull their goaltender, which they did, but were unable to score as Anthony Livecchi closed the door and Franklin Regional scored a huge win on the road keeping their hopes alive for a bye and home playoff berth.

Franklin Regional 2 Moon 1 CORAOPOLIS – Moon (13-5-1) and Franklin Regional (13-6-1) are two teams in the Class AA landscape that have had pretty good seasons. If you take into account that the Panthers started the season 1-4 in their return to Class AA, FR is now 12-2-1 since the end of November with losses to division foes Greensburg CC and Indiana, this is a team that has done so under the radar which is probably how Head Coach Jim Daugherty would like to keep it but a victory over the Tigers will open a few eyes as Franklin will have their season finale Monday with # 1 ranked and defending State Class AA Champions Pine Richland. Meanwhile, the Tigers have only lost in the 2nd half of the season to Pine Richland and Thomas Jefferson and have really been a consistent club throughout the regular season playing a disciplined style of hockey to put together one of the better seasons in Moon history. This game will have significance in the final bye in Class AA after the Tigers face # 2 Latrobe next week and the regular season winds up. The winner of this contest will assume the inside track on the 4th and final bye and home ice advantage should both teams be unable or unable to knock off higher ranked opponents. Franklin came out in the opening 15 minutes and carried the play to Moon outshooting the Tigers 15-5, but Tiger goaltender Matt Wynn held FR off the board in a scoreless first period. The game remained scoreless deep into the second until with 6:01 remaining, Joe DeNardo lit the lamp to give Moon a 1-0 lead. Franklin Regional ties the score later in the period as freshman Steven Shirk was set up by Eugene Mack and gave the Panthers a 1-1 tie with 2:36 to play in the period. FR held a 19-10 shot advantage, but the score was tied after two periods. FR started the final period on the power play and was unable to capitalize. With 10:40 to go in regulation, Carl Richter fired a long lead pass through center ice that Ryan Kramer plucked out of the air and beat the Moon defense and was in on the breakaway and beat Matt Wynn on the forehand to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead. Moon went on the power play with 8:49 to go but FR effectively killed it off and held a slim lead. Moon’s Matt Reese took a long shot that hit the crossbar with 4:30 to go and the Panthers clung to their lead. FR got a power play with 2:42 to go and was unable to score the insurance goal and gave the Tigers a chance to pull their goaltender, which they did, but were unable to score as Anthony Livecchi closed the door and Franklin Regional scored a huge win on the road keeping their hopes alive for a bye and home playoff berth.

Bethel Park 3 McDowell 2 ERIE – The Bethel Park Hockey program has made a bold step to separate themselves from the rest of Class AAA in 07-08. Not only does the majority of Jim McVay’s club play on the Phantoms Split Season team, but the Hawks have made a huge commitment to play in the best competition possible on the weekends, including several trips to Cleveland and Western NY to hone their run for the 2007 Penguins Cup and Pennsylvania State Championship. Bethel is now 16-0-1 and ranked # 1 in Western Pennsylvania and appears to have the inside track on the 6 other contenders, who will occupy seeds 2-7 in the Class AAA playoffs. McDowell’s Nels White had a goal for 2007 to become part of the exclusive club, which includes Bethel, Mt Lebanon, Central Catholic, North Allegheny, Meadville and Upper St Clair, who have dominated the Class AAA landscape over the past half to a dozen years and seem to have their programs ready every year for a playoff run. The Trojans have not tasted the Penguins Cup Semis since the PIHL was founded in 1999 and would really like to become an annual contender. McDowell has made some significant strides in their play in the league and outside of the league this season and appears ready to make a move in the Class AAA. Tonight’s contest with Bethel Park would be one more test to measure their progress over this season and maybe give the program confidence that it can compete with the big boys when it counts a little less than three weeks from now. The Trojans opened the scoring early in the first period as freshman Shane Reese threw the puck to the net and Jimmy Martin beat the Hawk defenseman to the puck and chipped it past Pete Cosentino to give McDowell a 1-0 lead. The Hawks tied it with 7:43 of the first period as Graham Cohen picked up a rebound and beat Ericcson on a typical BP goal with hard work to make it 1-1. In a very evenly played opening period, shots were eight apiece. On to the second and McDowell continued to gain confidence against # 1 Bethel with action at both ends. The Trojans would take the lead at 8:55 of the middle period as Nick DiSanti cashed in on a rebound from right in front of the net beating Pete Cosentino to give McDowell a 2-1 lead. With 5:56 to go in the 2nd period, the Trojans had a golden opportunity to extend their lead on the power play, but took a penalty to nullify that chance. The Hawks took advantage of that momentum swing as Bryan Brown made a real nice play from the right point to wrist the puck to the net through traffic, which appeared to hit something in front and found the outside corner of the net just inside the post to tie the game 2-2 with 2:38 to go in the period. McDowell held the advantage in shots at 11-8 in the period, but Bethel held the territorial advantage late in the period and took the lead as Tommy Whetsel’s rebound was gathered by Matt Quigley, who deposited the go ahead goal behind Ericcson to give Bethel Park a slim 3-2 lead heading to the ice cut with just :28 remaining before the break. On to the third period and McDowell was looking for the equalizer and almost got it as Shane Reese had Cosentino beat but his shot just glanced off the side of the net and the score remained 3-2 in favor of the Hawks. The Trojans next big chance came on the power play with 7:48 to go, but Bethel Park dug in and with great corner work would not let the Trojan have any room nor any chances. McDowell pulled the goalie, but BP played excellent defense and the Trojans could not get close as Bethel Park earned a very impressive 3-2 win at the Erie Civic Center and remained unbeaten and locked down the # 1 seed in the upcoming playoffs. For McDowell, a close call, which might mean the Trojans will more than likely be on the road for round 2 of the playoffs in a very tight race for seeding that will transpire over the closing weeks.