Archbishop Carroll Patriots - 1981 AAA 2004 AA

Semi-Finals Mt Lebanon 3 North Allegheny 1 Mt Lebanon gained the semi-finals of the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational through the conventional manner of impressive victories over perennial New York club power Orchard Park 6-1, 9-time Maryland State Champions DeMatha Catholic 2-1 in overtime and Eastern Pa AA foe Downingtown East 6-1. Coach Paul Taibi’s club has displayed the depth and balance, that has carried the Blue Devils to the Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 ranking in Western Pennsylvania, even tough several players were in and out of the lineup in the tournament’s first two days. North Allegheny knows the feeling that the Blue Devils carry as NA held the title of # 1 for the majority of the regular season and through the playoffs as the Tigers captured the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off, Central Catholic Invitational and the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase a year ago and steamrolled through the regular season with just one loss, which carried them all the way to the Penguins Cup final before bowing to the Hawks 1-0 at the Mellon Arena in one of the classic AAA championships in recent memory. After pummeling Monsignor Bonner in the opener of the tournament, the Tigers got a rude reminder of how fragile winning and losing is as they were upended by nemesis Upper St. Clair 3-1 yesterday morning. Coach Tom Pandolfo hates to lose more than anyone and may have exorcised a few demons as the Tigers knocked off Hamilton, Ontario’s St Jean de Brebeuf, who had crushed their first two opponents in the tournament. Mt Lebanon defeated NA 3-1 as Rick Beuke and Mike Roman scored in the first period to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead. The Tigers pulled within one as Chris Simanic scored on the power play at 12:41 of the second. Max Richards kept North Allegheny in the game with 27 saves, but Matt Bartkowski iced the game with a power play goal with 8:55 left in the third to give the Blue Devils a spot in the finals. Cheektowaga 2 Bethel Park 1 (2OT) Cheektowaga has enjoyed their inaugural visit to the Central Catholic Inviational with victories and a little tour of Pa Hockey defeating host Central Catholic 5-1, 8-time Pennsylvania Cup champions Meadville 3-1 and tying defeating 2005 Flyers Cup finalist Germantown Academy 2-2. The Warriors goaltending tandem of Mike Grover and Adam Palumbo have been stellar in the tournament have been the difference in CC’s ride to the semi-finals. Bethel Park coach Jim McVay knows the importance of good goaltending as his club captured last year’s Pennsylvania State AAA Championship with the great goaltending of Bryce Merriam and the rise of many players such as Timmy O’Brien, Kenny Lehmann, Eddie Bendik, who played key roles and will be counted on to lead BP back to the promised land. The Blackhawk’s have witnessed a turnstile between the pipes but may be settling with former Woodland Hills goaltender Pete Cosentino, who is a legacy of former Churchill player Kevin Monaco of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s so to speak. Cheektowaga defeated Bethel Park 2-1 as the Hawks could only solve Warriors goaltender Mike Grover once with 40 shots. CC opened the scoring at 8:56 of the first period as Eric Osmanski scored on the power play. The Black Hawks tied the game at 4:01 of the second period as Logan Bannon scored to knot the score a one apiece. The Warriors would earned a spot in the finals as Matt Bessing scored at 9:30 of the overtime period to give Cheektowaga Central a spot in the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational Final surviving six Bethel Park power plays. 2005 Central Catholic Invitational Final Mt Lebanon 5 Cheektowaga Central 1 Cheektowaga Central has battle hard in the Invitational and head coach Steve Ferrentino has to be proud of the fact that Warriors defeated Eastern Pa AA power Downingtown East perennial Pennsylvania AAA stalwarts Meadville and Bethel Park along with a tie with Flyers Cup finalist Germantown Academy. In a whirlwind weekend tournament anytime a team can face the competition that they did and post a 3-0-1 record and head to the finals of this great event, it’s a great accomplishment. The next step would be the much heralded Blue Devils of Mt Lebanon. Any time Mt Lebanon takes to the ice, its an event this season and with Ralph and Alf not present with his sidekick Bob ‘I don’t have a nickname yet’ Behling noticeably absent from the sidelines, I enlisted the help of King Tut to assist me in finding electricity power for the Bat Computer, since I didn’t have Ralph and Alf Construction services available. I probably should have just hooked it up to the Mt Lebanon bench or possibly just the power play because this team has been electric since the start of the season scoring like a machine and yielding shots at the clip of a Tommy Maddox completion %. Murovich, Ferguson, Bartkowski, Mandic, McDermott, and the crew is just firepower in action and has blasted its way into the final with wins over Downingtown East, DeMatha Orchard Park and North Allegheny by a 15-4 margin in 4 contests. Mt Lebanon applied the pressure early and at 9:31 of the 1st Matt Bartkowski scored on a wrist shot from the right point and through traffic past Adam Palumbo to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead. At 5:23 of the Palumbo robbed Josh Mandic from point blank range as the Blue Devils held a 9-1 shot advantage. At 3:01 of the first, the ‘Terminator’ Tyler Murovich undressed the Warrior goaltender and beat him upstairs on the backhand for the games 11th shot and a 2-0 Blue Devil lead. Lebo outshot CC 17-2 in the opening period. Mt Lebanon continued to pound away on Palumbo in the 2nd period and at 12:37 of the middle period, Shane Ferguson bang home a rebound after Josh Mandic and Tyler Murrrr-O-Vitch as PA Announcer Tim Lane would suggest provided the assists. At 10:52, Tyler Murovich scored his 2nd goal poking home a rebound after a scramble in front to make it 4-0. The Blue Devils continued their onslaught on Cheektowaga with 29 shots to only 7 on Matt Vaughn, whose only serious threat was a breakaway from Steve Noworyta shot just wide with a little over five minutes to play in the middle frame. On to the third we went and Lebo continued the onslaught and at 8:40, Sean McDermott scored on a rebound to make it 5-0. With just 4:43. the Warriors finally got on the as Eric Osmanski blistered a slapshot in the upper right hand corner to make it 5-1 and the Blue Devils would run the clock out with a 36-11 shot advantage capturing their first ever Central Catholic Invitational Championship. The Blue Devils Tyler Murovich was named recipient of the William Downey Award for the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and joined teammates Matt Vaughn and Matt Bartkowski of the All-Tournament team along with Eric Osmanski of Cheektowaga Central, Kenny Lehman of Bethel Park and Brian O’Neill of Germantown Academy. Congratulations to the Mt Lebanon Blue Devils and head coach Paul Taibi for capturing the prestigious Central Catholic Invitational !

Semi-Finals Mt Lebanon 3 North Allegheny 1 Mt Lebanon gained the semi-finals of the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational through the conventional manner of impressive victories over perennial New York club power Orchard Park 6-1, 9-time Maryland State Champions DeMatha Catholic 2-1 in overtime and Eastern Pa AA foe Downingtown East 6-1. Coach Paul Taibi’s club has displayed the depth and balance, that has carried the Blue Devils to the Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 ranking in Western Pennsylvania, even tough several players were in and out of the lineup in the tournament’s first two days. North Allegheny knows the feeling that the Blue Devils carry as NA held the title of # 1 for the majority of the regular season and through the playoffs as the Tigers captured the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off, Central Catholic Invitational and the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase a year ago and steamrolled through the regular season with just one loss, which carried them all the way to the Penguins Cup final before bowing to the Hawks 1-0 at the Mellon Arena in one of the classic AAA championships in recent memory. After pummeling Monsignor Bonner in the opener of the tournament, the Tigers got a rude reminder of how fragile winning and losing is as they were upended by nemesis Upper St. Clair 3-1 yesterday morning. Coach Tom Pandolfo hates to lose more than anyone and may have exorcised a few demons as the Tigers knocked off Hamilton, Ontario’s St Jean de Brebeuf, who had crushed their first two opponents in the tournament. Mt Lebanon defeated NA 3-1 as Rick Beuke and Mike Roman scored in the first period to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead. The Tigers pulled within one as Chris Simanic scored on the power play at 12:41 of the second. Max Richards kept North Allegheny in the game with 27 saves, but Matt Bartkowski iced the game with a power play goal with 8:55 left in the third to give the Blue Devils a spot in the finals. Cheektowaga 2 Bethel Park 1 (2OT) Cheektowaga has enjoyed their inaugural visit to the Central Catholic Inviational with victories and a little tour of Pa Hockey defeating host Central Catholic 5-1, 8-time Pennsylvania Cup champions Meadville 3-1 and tying defeating 2005 Flyers Cup finalist Germantown Academy 2-2. The Warriors goaltending tandem of Mike Grover and Adam Palumbo have been stellar in the tournament have been the difference in CC’s ride to the semi-finals. Bethel Park coach Jim McVay knows the importance of good goaltending as his club captured last year’s Pennsylvania State AAA Championship with the great goaltending of Bryce Merriam and the rise of many players such as Timmy O’Brien, Kenny Lehmann, Eddie Bendik, who played key roles and will be counted on to lead BP back to the promised land. The Blackhawk’s have witnessed a turnstile between the pipes but may be settling with former Woodland Hills goaltender Pete Cosentino, who is a legacy of former Churchill player Kevin Monaco of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s so to speak. Cheektowaga defeated Bethel Park 2-1 as the Hawks could only solve Warriors goaltender Mike Grover once with 40 shots. CC opened the scoring at 8:56 of the first period as Eric Osmanski scored on the power play. The Black Hawks tied the game at 4:01 of the second period as Logan Bannon scored to knot the score a one apiece. The Warriors would earned a spot in the finals as Matt Bessing scored at 9:30 of the overtime period to give Cheektowaga Central a spot in the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational Final surviving six Bethel Park power plays. 2005 Central Catholic Invitational Final Mt Lebanon 5 Cheektowaga Central 1 Cheektowaga Central has battle hard in the Invitational and head coach Steve Ferrentino has to be proud of the fact that Warriors defeated Eastern Pa AA power Downingtown East perennial Pennsylvania AAA stalwarts Meadville and Bethel Park along with a tie with Flyers Cup finalist Germantown Academy. In a whirlwind weekend tournament anytime a team can face the competition that they did and post a 3-0-1 record and head to the finals of this great event, it’s a great accomplishment. The next step would be the much heralded Blue Devils of Mt Lebanon. Any time Mt Lebanon takes to the ice, its an event this season and with Ralph and Alf not present with his sidekick Bob ‘I don’t have a nickname yet’ Behling noticeably absent from the sidelines, I enlisted the help of King Tut to assist me in finding electricity power for the Bat Computer, since I didn’t have Ralph and Alf Construction services available. I probably should have just hooked it up to the Mt Lebanon bench or possibly just the power play because this team has been electric since the start of the season scoring like a machine and yielding shots at the clip of a Tommy Maddox completion %. Murovich, Ferguson, Bartkowski, Mandic, McDermott, and the crew is just firepower in action and has blasted its way into the final with wins over Downingtown East, DeMatha Orchard Park and North Allegheny by a 15-4 margin in 4 contests. Mt Lebanon applied the pressure early and at 9:31 of the 1st Matt Bartkowski scored on a wrist shot from the right point and through traffic past Adam Palumbo to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead. At 5:23 of the Palumbo robbed Josh Mandic from point blank range as the Blue Devils held a 9-1 shot advantage. At 3:01 of the first, the ‘Terminator’ Tyler Murovich undressed the Warrior goaltender and beat him upstairs on the backhand for the games 11th shot and a 2-0 Blue Devil lead. Lebo outshot CC 17-2 in the opening period. Mt Lebanon continued to pound away on Palumbo in the 2nd period and at 12:37 of the middle period, Shane Ferguson bang home a rebound after Josh Mandic and Tyler Murrrr-O-Vitch as PA Announcer Tim Lane would suggest provided the assists. At 10:52, Tyler Murovich scored his 2nd goal poking home a rebound after a scramble in front to make it 4-0. The Blue Devils continued their onslaught on Cheektowaga with 29 shots to only 7 on Matt Vaughn, whose only serious threat was a breakaway from Steve Noworyta shot just wide with a little over five minutes to play in the middle frame. On to the third we went and Lebo continued the onslaught and at 8:40, Sean McDermott scored on a rebound to make it 5-0. With just 4:43. the Warriors finally got on the as Eric Osmanski blistered a slapshot in the upper right hand corner to make it 5-1 and the Blue Devils would run the clock out with a 36-11 shot advantage capturing their first ever Central Catholic Invitational Championship. The Blue Devils Tyler Murovich was named recipient of the William Downey Award for the Most Valuable Player of the tournament and joined teammates Matt Vaughn and Matt Bartkowski of the All-Tournament team along with Eric Osmanski of Cheektowaga Central, Kenny Lehman of Bethel Park and Brian O’Neill of Germantown Academy. Congratulations to the Mt Lebanon Blue Devils and head coach Paul Taibi for capturing the prestigious Central Catholic Invitational !

North Allegheny 7 Monsignor Bonner 1 North Allegheny opened up defense of last years championship with an easy looking 7-1 throttling of the Friars of Monsignor Bonner. Wes Waldschmidt led the way with the hat trick and linemate Chris Gilson chipped in a goal and 4 assists for the Tigers. Coach Tom Pandolfo’s NA squad outshot Bonner 31-8 as Max Richard’s shutout was broken with just two minutes remaining by MB’s Dan Flynn. St Jean De Brebuef 8 Upper St Clair 1 Hamilton, Ontario is about an hour west of Toronto located off the QEW just a short drive north from Niagra Falls and home of St Jean de Breuef High School. In the hockey hotbed of Junior A and professional hockey, the Braves High School led by Ralph Farkas leads his squad into the Central Catholic Invitational for the first time. Upper St. Clair enters the opener of the CC Invitational off their first loss of the season on Monday to Bethel Park 4-2 sporting a 3-1-0 record. In a penalty filled affair, St Jean pasted the Panthers 8-1. Ryan Cline score a pair for the Braves and Kevin Matthews, Steve Zangrando, Cole McNeil, Joe Finelli, Peter Barvet and Michael Luongo scored singles. USC’s lone score came off the stick of David Crockett at 8:28 of the second period. Germantown Academy 4 Meadville 2 2005 CC Invitational FEATURE GAME Meadville entered the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational after a tough 5-2 loss to Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 Mt Lebanon on Monday evening in Meadville. Coach Jamie Plunkett’s teams sports a 3-2-0 in league play as the season finishes its second week. The Bulldogs are familiar with Germantown Academy as the opponent in their 1994 Pennsylvania High School Hockey AAA Championship victory 3-0. Gump Whiteside’s Patriots have not officially started their season for the 2006 AAA Flyers Cup chase, but Germantown Academy’s loss to Malvern Prep is motivation to return to Eastern Pa’s crown jewel for Interscholastic hockey. This team’s unquestionable leader is junior Brian O’Neill, who is considered one of the, if not the top player in all of Eastern Pa Hockey. It didn’t take long for the Dawgs to strike as at 14:15 Mike Noonan scored on the breakaway on a backhand beating Patriots goaltender Nick Stampone. Germantown struck back at exactly 10:00 as Brian O’Neill beat Brian Danczak to tie the score at one apiece. Back came Meadville at 7:25, as Tyler Learn scored on a rebound on the power play for a 2-1 Bulldog lead after one. On to the second and the O’Neill brothers hooked up at 11:19 as Brennan O’Neill scooped up a Brian O’Neill rebound and deposited it past Brian Danczak to knot the score at 2-2. Nick Stampone stopped Alex Drelick on a breakaway at 7:52 and covered up a rebound attempt by Nick Fedorka. The third period saw tight checking early on as both teams battled for the go ahead goal in an evenly played fast paced game. Danczak continued to shine with several nice saves, but at 9:26 of the third period, the Patriots as Andrew Sloane’s shot from the right face-off circle trickled past the Meadville goaltender give GA a 3-2 lead. Nick Stampone made a real nice save with 7:24 remaining as Pat Leone streaked around the Patriot defense to preserve the one goal advantage. Leone had two more chances on Stampone, but the Patriot netminder came up big with a little over three minutes to go as the Bulldogs poured on the pressure in the Germantown Academy end. An 120 foot icong by Brian O’Neill handcuffed Brian Danczak with 1:07 remaining to give GA a 4-2 lead and the victory in the opener of the tournament as Meadville outshot Germantown 26-25. Downingtown East 6 DeMatha 4 Downingtown East of the ICSHL AA squared off against the perennial state powers of Maryland DeMatha Catholic. The Stags and Cougars battled to a 3-3 tie through two periods as Shane Lynch of East scored with just 13 seconds remaining in the 2nd to tie it. Brendan Smith gave Downingtown the lead 1:04 into the third and Andy Thomas add insurance with 7:11 remaining to give the Cougars a 6-4 victory. Ben Souders led D-East with two goals and two assists and DeMatha got scoring from Scott Gray and Shane Findlay who scored twice for the Stags. Mt Lebanon 6 Orchard Park 1 Mt Lebanon advanced to the finals of last years Central Catholic Invitational culminating in tonights opponent semi-finalist Orchard Park, the 2005 New York Club finalist. Mt Lebanon controlled this one from the outset outshooting the Quakers 29-10 on the evening. Sopho Tyler ‘the Terminator’ Murovich notched the hat trick to lead the way for the Blue Devils. Mike Roman, Sean McDermott and Matt Bartkowski also scored for Lebo, while OP’s lone tally came off the stick of Tyler Matthews. Cheektowoga Central 5 Central Catholic 1 Cheektowoga Central opened up its inaugural Central Catholic Invitational against the tournament host Vikings. The Warriors broke open a 1-1 tie in the 2nd period as Matt Bessing scored his second goal just 22 seconds into the middle period to give Cheektowoga a lead it would never relinquish. Ron Szymkowiak, Steve Noworyta and Eric Osmanski scored for a 5-1 victory over Central Catholic. The Vikings loan goal was by Glenn Sherwin, who was the only CC player to score in 26 shots on Warrior netminder Adam Palumbo. Bethel Park 7 Thomas Jefferson 0 The Bethel Park and Thomas Jefferson programs have been staples of the Central Catholic Invitational over the past five plus years. Bethel Park is coming of a tremendous campaign and a AAA State Championship under Jim ‘Mort’ McVay. The Hawks opened up the 2005 CC Invitational with a 7-0 pasting of the Jaguars. Pete Cosentino played his first game between the pipes for BP and stopped all 15 shots he faced in a 7-0 victory over TJ. Tyler Zaremski scored twice and Nathaniel Brown, Kenny Lehman, Graham Cohen, Bob Heyl and Tim Davin chipped in goals for the win. Holy Ghost Prep 4 Calvert Hall Prep 2 Holy Ghost Prep has established itself as a AAA power out of the Lower Bucks County Scholastic Hockey League in Eastern Pennsylvania and in tonight’s opener in the 2005 CC Invitational would face Calvert Hall Prep, out of Maryland. The Firebirds picked up a 4-2 victory as John Suroka scored the hat trick for HGP and Mike Andrusko also scored. Kenny Kocsan and D.J. Comer scored for the Cardinals.

Day 2 Germantown Academy 6 Central Catholic 3 Germantown Academy defeated Central Catholic 6-4 breaking open a 3-3 tie after the Vikings Andy Hanno gave CC the lead at 9:14 of the third period. Greg Dobson completed the hat trick for the Patriots with 8:30 remaining in the final period to tie the game and Reed Marko and Andrew Sloane add insurance for GA. C.J Burke, Joe Kerr, and Glenn Sherwin scored for Central and Brennan O’Neill scored Germantown. Cheektowoga Central 3 Meadville 1 The Warriors picked up a victory big win over Meadville 3-1 setting up a winner take all game with Germantown Academy later Saturday. After a scoreless opening period, Cheektowaga’s Eric Osmanski and Steve Nowortka gave CC a 2-0 lead, but the Bulldogs Morgan Nickerson scored with :19 left in the 2nd period to pull within 2-1. Cheektowaga’s goaltender Mike Grover stopped 42 of 43 Meadville shots and Matt McGillcuddy ice the game with a goal with 5:16 remaining in the final period. St Jean de Brebeuf 5 Monsignor Bonner 1 The Braves of Hamilton, Ontario continued where they left off in their opener with four unanswered goals in the 2nd and 3rd periods as Rick Porto, Joe Finelli, Kyle Aquin and Jon Popek scored. The teams traded scores in the third as Dan Flynn scored for the Friars and Steve Zangrando scored for St Jean de Brebeuf. Upper St. Clair 3 North Allegheny 1 North Allegheny hasn’t lost too many games over the past season and a half in Tournaments or Regular Season, but the Panthers seem to have their number defeating NA 3-1 and harpooning the Tigers plans to repeat as CC Invitational champions. After USC’s Kevin Lucas and NA’s Josh Herbert traded goals for a 1-1 tie after two, Upper St Clair’s Mike Penkrot scored with 6:39 remaining in the 3rd on the power play and Davey Crockett added insurance with :57 seconds to secure the win. Bethel Park 5 Calvert Hall Prep 0 Bethel Park shut out Calvert Hall Prep as Tim O’Brien and Kenny Lehmann scored two goals and added an assist each and Pete Cosentino and Ben Garcia split the goaltending duties and the shutout. Holy Ghost Prep 6 Thomas Jefferson 3 The Firebirds scored 4 goals the last 4:47 of the third period to retake the lead after the Jaguars were up 3-2 as John Suroka score twice for HGP. North Allegheny 5 St Jean de Brebeuf 2 The Tigers atoned for their morning loss to Upper St Clair with a 5-2 win over the Braves as Max Richards made 17 saves and Chris Simanic and Wes Waldschmidt chipped in 3 points each. Upper St Clair 6 Monsignor Bonner 1 The Panthers of USC picked up their 2nd win of the tournament with an easy win over the Friars of Eastern Pa. Meadville 4 Central Catholic 1 The Bulldogs finally hit paydirt in the Invitational with a 4-1 victory over their rivals the host Vikings. Morgan Nickerson scored two goals and added an assist including a goal on the penalty shot. Mt Lebanon 4 Downingtown East 1 The Blue Devils earned a spot in the semi-finals with a 4-1 win over the Cougars as Tyler ‘the Terminator’ Murovich score a pair of goals and added an assist and goaltender Matt Vaughn made 28 saves. Germantown Academy 2 Cheektowoga Central 2 (OT) The Patriots and Warriors battle to a 2-2 tie in overtime, but Cheektowaga earned the spot in the Semi-Finals through the tiebreakers. GA’s Brian O’Neill scored a goal and added an assist and the Cheektowaga Rob Szymkowiak duplicated O’Neill’s effort and Adam Palumbo made 24 saves to send the Warriors from Western New York to the semi-finals in their maiden voyage in the CC Invitational. Orchard Park 3 DeMatha 2 The Quakers defeated DeMatha in a tight contest as Mike Murray made 24 saves for Orchard Park. Bethel Park 4 Holy Ghost Prep 3 The Hawks defeated Holy Ghost as Bryan Brown broke a 3-3 tie with 3:24 left in the third period sending Bethel Park into the semi-finals of the Invitational. Kristian Villante scored the hat trick for the Firebirds. Thomas Jefferson 2 Calvert Hall Prep 2 (OT) The Jaguars and Cardinals battled to tie as both teams looked for a victory in the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational. Calvert’s Jon Tietjen tied the game with 9:18 left in the third beating Jeff Wojnovich, the TJ goaltender who made 26 saves in between the pipes. Mt Lebanon 2 DeMatha 1 (OT) The Blue Devils faced a stiff test against the perennial Maryland state powers DeMatha with a low scoring defensive struggle by Mt Lebanon standards missing several key players. Rick Beuke gave Lebo the lead at 10:16 of the first and it looked as if Rob Behling would make that stand stopping all 12 shots the Stags could muster up, but the last shot would come of the stick of Marc Aguir who scored with just :03 left to tie it. Rick Beuke would have the final say in this one scoring just :43 into overtime to give the Blue Devils the victory and an opportunity to get into the semi-finals with a win over Downingtown East. Orchard Park 4 Downingtown East 1 The Quakers owned this game from the outset outshooting the Cougars 26-12 and establishing a 3-0 lead early in the 2nd as Mike Schoell scored twice and Tyler Matthews scored the opening goal 6 ½ minutes into the contest. Downingtown’s Ben Souders continued his hot hand scoring at 4:54 of the 2nd period, but Justin Gunntaylor put the game out of reach at 13:47 of the third for a 4-1 victory for Orchard Park.

North Allegheny 7 Monsignor Bonner 1 North Allegheny opened up defense of last years championship with an easy looking 7-1 throttling of the Friars of Monsignor Bonner. Wes Waldschmidt led the way with the hat trick and linemate Chris Gilson chipped in a goal and 4 assists for the Tigers. Coach Tom Pandolfo’s NA squad outshot Bonner 31-8 as Max Richard’s shutout was broken with just two minutes remaining by MB’s Dan Flynn. St Jean De Brebuef 8 Upper St Clair 1 Hamilton, Ontario is about an hour west of Toronto located off the QEW just a short drive north from Niagra Falls and home of St Jean de Breuef High School. In the hockey hotbed of Junior A and professional hockey, the Braves High School led by Ralph Farkas leads his squad into the Central Catholic Invitational for the first time. Upper St. Clair enters the opener of the CC Invitational off their first loss of the season on Monday to Bethel Park 4-2 sporting a 3-1-0 record. In a penalty filled affair, St Jean pasted the Panthers 8-1. Ryan Cline score a pair for the Braves and Kevin Matthews, Steve Zangrando, Cole McNeil, Joe Finelli, Peter Barvet and Michael Luongo scored singles. USC’s lone score came off the stick of David Crockett at 8:28 of the second period. Germantown Academy 4 Meadville 2 2005 CC Invitational FEATURE GAME Meadville entered the 2005 Central Catholic Invitational after a tough 5-2 loss to Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 Mt Lebanon on Monday evening in Meadville. Coach Jamie Plunkett’s teams sports a 3-2-0 in league play as the season finishes its second week. The Bulldogs are familiar with Germantown Academy as the opponent in their 1994 Pennsylvania High School Hockey AAA Championship victory 3-0. Gump Whiteside’s Patriots have not officially started their season for the 2006 AAA Flyers Cup chase, but Germantown Academy’s loss to Malvern Prep is motivation to return to Eastern Pa’s crown jewel for Interscholastic hockey. This team’s unquestionable leader is junior Brian O’Neill, who is considered one of the, if not the top player in all of Eastern Pa Hockey. It didn’t take long for the Dawgs to strike as at 14:15 Mike Noonan scored on the breakaway on a backhand beating Patriots goaltender Nick Stampone. Germantown struck back at exactly 10:00 as Brian O’Neill beat Brian Danczak to tie the score at one apiece. Back came Meadville at 7:25, as Tyler Learn scored on a rebound on the power play for a 2-1 Bulldog lead after one. On to the second and the O’Neill brothers hooked up at 11:19 as Brennan O’Neill scooped up a Brian O’Neill rebound and deposited it past Brian Danczak to knot the score at 2-2. Nick Stampone stopped Alex Drelick on a breakaway at 7:52 and covered up a rebound attempt by Nick Fedorka. The third period saw tight checking early on as both teams battled for the go ahead goal in an evenly played fast paced game. Danczak continued to shine with several nice saves, but at 9:26 of the third period, the Patriots as Andrew Sloane’s shot from the right face-off circle trickled past the Meadville goaltender give GA a 3-2 lead. Nick Stampone made a real nice save with 7:24 remaining as Pat Leone streaked around the Patriot defense to preserve the one goal advantage. Leone had two more chances on Stampone, but the Patriot netminder came up big with a little over three minutes to go as the Bulldogs poured on the pressure in the Germantown Academy end. An 120 foot icong by Brian O’Neill handcuffed Brian Danczak with 1:07 remaining to give GA a 4-2 lead and the victory in the opener of the tournament as Meadville outshot Germantown 26-25. Downingtown East 6 DeMatha 4 Downingtown East of the ICSHL AA squared off against the perennial state powers of Maryland DeMatha Catholic. The Stags and Cougars battled to a 3-3 tie through two periods as Shane Lynch of East scored with just 13 seconds remaining in the 2nd to tie it. Brendan Smith gave Downingtown the lead 1:04 into the third and Andy Thomas add insurance with 7:11 remaining to give the Cougars a 6-4 victory. Ben Souders led D-East with two goals and two assists and DeMatha got scoring from Scott Gray and Shane Findlay who scored twice for the Stags. Mt Lebanon 6 Orchard Park 1 Mt Lebanon advanced to the finals of last years Central Catholic Invitational culminating in tonights opponent semi-finalist Orchard Park, the 2005 New York Club finalist. Mt Lebanon controlled this one from the outset outshooting the Quakers 29-10 on the evening. Sopho Tyler ‘the Terminator’ Murovich notched the hat trick to lead the way for the Blue Devils. Mike Roman, Sean McDermott and Matt Bartkowski also scored for Lebo, while OP’s lone tally came off the stick of Tyler Matthews. Cheektowoga Central 5 Central Catholic 1 Cheektowoga Central opened up its inaugural Central Catholic Invitational against the tournament host Vikings. The Warriors broke open a 1-1 tie in the 2nd period as Matt Bessing scored his second goal just 22 seconds into the middle period to give Cheektowoga a lead it would never relinquish. Ron Szymkowiak, Steve Noworyta and Eric Osmanski scored for a 5-1 victory over Central Catholic. The Vikings loan goal was by Glenn Sherwin, who was the only CC player to score in 26 shots on Warrior netminder Adam Palumbo. Bethel Park 7 Thomas Jefferson 0 The Bethel Park and Thomas Jefferson programs have been staples of the Central Catholic Invitational over the past five plus years. Bethel Park is coming of a tremendous campaign and a AAA State Championship under Jim ‘Mort’ McVay. The Hawks opened up the 2005 CC Invitational with a 7-0 pasting of the Jaguars. Pete Cosentino played his first game between the pipes for BP and stopped all 15 shots he faced in a 7-0 victory over TJ. Tyler Zaremski scored twice and Nathaniel Brown, Kenny Lehman, Graham Cohen, Bob Heyl and Tim Davin chipped in goals for the win. Holy Ghost Prep 4 Calvert Hall Prep 2 Holy Ghost Prep has established itself as a AAA power out of the Lower Bucks County Scholastic Hockey League in Eastern Pennsylvania and in tonight’s opener in the 2005 CC Invitational would face Calvert Hall Prep, out of Maryland. The Firebirds picked up a 4-2 victory as John Suroka scored the hat trick for HGP and Mike Andrusko also scored. Kenny Kocsan and D.J. Comer scored for the Cardinals.