Archbishop Carroll Patriots - 1981 AAA 2004 AA

VALENCIA – Hampton 5 Kittanning 3 Kittanning advanced to the 2006 Penguins Cup before bowing to Pine Richland in the final at the Mellon Arena in March. The Wildcats opened up their quest for the 2007 Penguins Cup with a 4-3 victory over Peters Township. Coach Jon Yackmack will realize soon enough that Class AA is full of many hopefuls with aspirations to unseat Pine Richland this season and has tooled his team with plenty of depth as Kittanning has nearly 25 players who could see action this season as he welcomed back Colin McKelvey and Lucas Sasala back to action from Football that ended just last Friday. The Cats have stiffened their schedule to include a trip to Jamestown, New York this weekend to compete in the Inaugural National Invitational Scholastic Showcase against the top teams from Texas, Illinois, New York, Indiana, Florida, Eastern Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania to seek tougher competition and experience. Hampton has struggled over the past few seasons with players who left the program to seek Midget AAA glory leaving the program almost depleted of enough players to field a competitive Varsity team that has not had a winning campaign wince 2003. Allen ‘Whitey’ Walsh enters the 06-07 season with more hope as Hampton has a core group of personnel that looks a like a Hampton team ready to compete with Pine Richland and Kittanning for the North Division crown. A 3-3 tie against the defending AA State Champions Rams in the St Margaret’s Fall Face Off was a start and an opening win over 2006 Penguins Cup semi-finalists Canevin was another bright spot for the Talbots. After a 3-18-0 season in 2005-2006, any positives for the Talbots is a plus. Hampton opened the scoring at 14:18 of the opening period as Bryan Relihan picked up a loose rebound and beat Joey Mecurio on the backhand for a 1-0 lead. Kittannning battled to tie the game in the 1st and the best chance came as Nick Troup was stopped by Lance Hutton from point blank range with 3:17 left. With 11:53 to play in the 2nd period, Kittanning’s Joey Ford tied the game from right in front of Hutton and then the Wildcats took the lead as Jergen Koster scored on a rebound of brother Deiter Koster to make it 2-1 at the 11:05 mark. Hampton came right back at 9:36 of the middle period as Jordan Del Torre blasted a slapshot high over the glove hand side of Joey Mecurio from the left point to knot the score at two apiece. With 7:10 to play in the 2nd period, Lance Hutton stopped Lucas Sasala on the breakaway to keep the game tied. With twelve minutes remaining in regulation, the Wildcats went on a 5 on 3 power play, but the Talbots turned the tide as Chase Evans stole the puck and race in on a breakaway and beat Mecurio with 10:30 to play and :12 seconds left in the Kittanning man advantage. The Cats came back as Nick Troup beat Hutton on a slapshot low to the glove side to tie the score 3-3 with 8:21 left in the 3rd period. Hampton would score the big goal as Jason Bateman scored from the doorstep with 4:16 to play to give the Talbots a 4-3 lead. Chase Evans salted the victory with an empty netter with 37 ticks left and Hampton moved to 2-0 for the first time in a long time and tied with Pine Richland for 1st place in the North Division, which may not be a big deal at this point of the season, but is a great accomplishment for the Talbots program.

Each year for the past eleven seasons, Pa Hockey has compiled the Standings, Scores and Rankings for the Post Gazette. The complete results for 17 weeks os the season and final rankings for Western Pennsylvania teams for Class A, AA, AAA and Open Division for the Pa Hockey Elite 8 and Pittsburgh Post Gazette Top 5 teams at Class A, AA, AAA are included. In addition, the final 2007 Penguins Cup seedings and the complete Master Schedule. WEEK 17 STANDINGS AND RANKINGS - As of March 2, 2007 ***NOW AVALABLE*** FINAL REGULAR SEASON # 1 RANKED TEAMS - Class AAA ~ Bethel Park Class AA ~ Pine Richland Class A ~ Quaker Valley Class Open ~ Hempfield

Each year for the past eleven seasons, Pa Hockey has compiled the Standings, Scores and Rankings for the Post Gazette. The complete results for 17 weeks os the season and final rankings for Western Pennsylvania teams for Class A, AA, AAA and Open Division for the Pa Hockey Elite 8 and Pittsburgh Post Gazette Top 5 teams at Class A, AA, AAA are included. In addition, the final 2007 Penguins Cup seedings and the complete Master Schedule. WEEK 17 STANDINGS AND RANKINGS - As of March 2, 2007 ***NOW AVALABLE*** FINAL REGULAR SEASON # 1 RANKED TEAMS - Class AAA ~ Bethel Park Class AA ~ Pine Richland Class A ~ Quaker Valley Class Open ~ Hempfield

Bethel Park 7 North Allegheny 0 BETHEL PARK – Semi Who’s Who night with Batman, Robin ‘the Boy Wonder’ and Alfred headlining the featured guest list including Central’s Tom Pandolfo, Cal’s Jan Battista and Justin Berger, Bobby and Bonnie Black from Pine Allegheny, NA’s Denny Sheran, the Bethel Park tailgaters before a sparse but vocal crowd at the Bethel Park BladeRunners on the campus of the University of Bethel Park. Bethel Park and North Allegheny played in the St Margaret’s Fall Face Off and held on to defeat the Tigers 5-4 after building a 5-1 lead. These teams and programs are so familiar with one another that former NA coach Pandolfo was scouting North Allegheny just as much as BP. The Blackhawks are widely regarding as one of the favorites to capture the Penguins Cup and were ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Pre-Season Coaches poll.The Tigers of NA were ranked a close 3rd behind Meadville, who was upended by Central Catholic in the opener 6-3 on Monday night. There is no question that when the playoff bell rings in March that both of these teams will represent the top teams in Class AAA. Home ice advantage is always worth a goal advantage or perhaps a penalty call for the home team and BP received the first power play in the opening period. At At 10:14 Graham Cohen found Matt Seifert on the back door who deposited the puck past Max Richards to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. At 8:28 of the first Wes Waldschmidt had a couple of Hawks draped on him and just miss and it resulted in an NA power play. At 5:20 of the first period a big scramble the occurred in the front of the NA net and the Hawks kept banging away and the puck squirted past Richards and the whistle blew and the goal counted and it was 2-0 Bethel Park. On to the second and at 11:07, the Hawks struck again as Tommy Whetsel found Kenny Lehman to cap off a 2 on 1 to give BP a 3-0 lead. Bethel made it 4-0 when David Spadacene blistered a wrist shot down on the ice to the stick side with a little over 9 minutes to play to make it a 4-0 hockey game and chasing Max Richards in favor of Adam Lutty. Graham Cohen cashed in with 7:04 remaining in the 2nd period to turn this into a 5-0 hockey game. Bethel cruised to a running clock in the third period as Graham Cohen scored on a backhand with 10:08 remaining and capitalized on a Tiger defensive lapse at 8:20 of the final period to create a running clock and a 7-0 whitewash of North Allegheny by the Hawks. Bethel, many of whose players play on a split season amateur team looked like a team in the middle of their season and North Allegheny didn’t. Although it is only March, the Hawks made a statement and it will be up to the rest of AAA to answer over the next five months.

Bethel Park 7 North Allegheny 0 BETHEL PARK – Semi Who’s Who night with Batman, Robin ‘the Boy Wonder’ and Alfred headlining the featured guest list including Central’s Tom Pandolfo, Cal’s Jan Battista and Justin Berger, Bobby and Bonnie Black from Pine Allegheny, NA’s Denny Sheran, the Bethel Park tailgaters before a sparse but vocal crowd at the Bethel Park BladeRunners on the campus of the University of Bethel Park. Bethel Park and North Allegheny played in the St Margaret’s Fall Face Off and held on to defeat the Tigers 5-4 after building a 5-1 lead. These teams and programs are so familiar with one another that former NA coach Pandolfo was scouting North Allegheny just as much as BP. The Blackhawks are widely regarding as one of the favorites to capture the Penguins Cup and were ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Pre-Season Coaches poll.The Tigers of NA were ranked a close 3rd behind Meadville, who was upended by Central Catholic in the opener 6-3 on Monday night. There is no question that when the playoff bell rings in March that both of these teams will represent the top teams in Class AAA. Home ice advantage is always worth a goal advantage or perhaps a penalty call for the home team and BP received the first power play in the opening period. At At 10:14 Graham Cohen found Matt Seifert on the back door who deposited the puck past Max Richards to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. At 8:28 of the first Wes Waldschmidt had a couple of Hawks draped on him and just miss and it resulted in an NA power play. At 5:20 of the first period a big scramble the occurred in the front of the NA net and the Hawks kept banging away and the puck squirted past Richards and the whistle blew and the goal counted and it was 2-0 Bethel Park. On to the second and at 11:07, the Hawks struck again as Tommy Whetsel found Kenny Lehman to cap off a 2 on 1 to give BP a 3-0 lead. Bethel made it 4-0 when David Spadacene blistered a wrist shot down on the ice to the stick side with a little over 9 minutes to play to make it a 4-0 hockey game and chasing Max Richards in favor of Adam Lutty. Graham Cohen cashed in with 7:04 remaining in the 2nd period to turn this into a 5-0 hockey game. Bethel cruised to a running clock in the third period as Graham Cohen scored on a backhand with 10:08 remaining and capitalized on a Tiger defensive lapse at 8:20 of the final period to create a running clock and a 7-0 whitewash of North Allegheny by the Hawks. Bethel, many of whose players play on a split season amateur team looked like a team in the middle of their season and North Allegheny didn’t. Although it is only March, the Hawks made a statement and it will be up to the rest of AAA to answer over the next five months.