Archbishop Carroll Patriots - 1981 AAA 2004 AA

Special to Pa Hockey from the Meadville Tribune by Pete Chiodo Halloween might be over for the rest of Meadville, however the DeArment Ice Arena was still a house of horrors for the Bulldog hockey team, which was drubbed by Bethel Park, 7-0, in each teams’ Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League opener Monday. “We were just beaten by a better team,” said Meadville head coach Jamie Plunkett. “Hopefully, we remember how it feels and use this as a reference point to say that, if you don’t work hard and you don’t compete hard, this could be a common thing. You sometimes learn something from losses like this.” The loss was Meadville’s worst since a 9-2 loss to Boston’s Bellmont Hill during the 1992-93 season. The Bulldogs also had a pair of 8-1 losses that season. The Bulldogs worst shutout since the 92-93 season was a 6-0 loss to Harbor Creek in November of 1999. “I think we’ve had a couple close to that, right around there,” said Plunkett, “But those ones, they’re not a lot of fun.” The Blackhawks took the lead early when Tim O’Brien made a nice move to work the puck past Bulldogs freshman goalie Bryan Danczak a minute into the opening period. That kicked off a string of five first-period goals for Bethel Park. “We came out very, very hard,” said Bethel Park coach Jim McVay. “Our guys were ready to play. I’m very happy with how they came out. This is a tough place to play, but when we jump on them like that it helped us out. “I don’t think I’ve even seen or heard of a Meadville team losing 7-0,” he said. “I know Jamie was playing without some players tonight. And I know that they only have two seniors. They’re going to get a lot of experience, and I wouldn’t want to play them in the playoffs.” Bulldogs junior goalie Derrek Hunter — along with sophomore defenseman Jake Mushrush — missed the game and will be out for another week due to violating a team rule. “I think if I would have had Derrek there I probably would have (put him in),” Plunkett said. “Sometimes, when you make a goaltending change that sparks something.” Still, Danczak did what he could, posting 21 saves on 28 shots. “The only kid that showed up, in my mind, was Bryan Danczak,” Plunkett said. “If it weren’t for him, it could have been 10, 15 to nothing. I feel bad for the kid because collectively, not just defensively, I thought the forwards and the defense really struggled inside our own blue line.” Meanwhile, the Bulldogs recorded 12 shots on goal (3-2-7), including five in the first two periods combined. “We’ve got several kids that just don’t want to shoot the puck,” said Plunkett. “They’re waiting for the perfect shot. In this game, you can’t wait for them. You get five shots in two periods, and you’re playing poor defensively, that’s a recipe for a long night.” For Bethel Park, Bryan Brown scored a pair of goals. Matt Slogan had a goal and two assists. Connor McLean, Logan Bannon and Mike Diethorn each had a goal and an assist in the win. “We had six different players score,” McVay said. “I think our goalie (Bryce Merriam) played great. If I’ve ever seen a team effort before, it was tonight. “There were a few things we could have done better. But it’s tough to complain when you beat a great team like Meadville. They have all the history. Just look at all the state championships. They’re as big a game as there is on your schedule.” The loss was the first of the season for the Bulldogs, who fell to 3-1-2 on the year, and 0-1-0 in the PIHL. “I thought that 3-0-2 record was misleading,” Plunkett said. “I felt that we’d be seeing a lot better competition. For a lot of these kids, this was their first time playing in that kind of game. It’s tough. Hopefully, we’ll learn from it.”

HARMARVILLE – Franklin Regional lost a ton of seniors from last year’s squad, many of whom competed in the 2002 Penguins Cup AAA final loss to Meadville and head coach Jim Damp departed to take the Fox Chapel post, many in Pa Hockeyland felt the Panthers would be in for a down season. Maybe to some people, but not this person! Head Coach Jim Daugherty is a hockey person and he is a builder and after watching FR in the pre-season, one could notice the balance, the unselfish play and the work ethic would make this a team which if it finds timely scoring and goaltending would challenge division champ Penn Trafford for the top spot in the East. Shaler head coach Ron Steedle is the dean of coaches in Western Pennsylvania and has coaches over 20 seasons of High School Hockey and is trying to rebuild the Shaler program, which has competed for 34 consecutive seasons, who along with Mt Lebanon and Upper St Clair, are the only programs who can make that claim. The Titans have been successful on 17 consecutive opening nights dating back to 1987 and their streak would receive a severe test in Franklin. Shaler lost 12 players to graduation and those who chose to take up other activities resulting in 7 freshman in the opening day lineup and the remaining players are holdovers from last years playoff team. In a scoreless first period, Franklin Regional held the territorial advantage as Shaler killed of four penalties yielding just seven shots to the Panthers. A 5th penalty at the end of the first period would put FR on another power play to start the second. Brian Dunford would open up the scoring on the power play just 33 seconds into the middle period for a 1-0 lead at 14:27. The Panthers would extend the lead at 8:51 as Tom Abraham scored from close range and beat Ben Burns. Franklin would go on another power play a little over two minutes later, but a great effort by Shaler’s P.J Domski to beat the Franklin defense to the puck resulted in a goal and a slim 2-1 lead for FR with 4:34 left in the 2nd. Shaler began to carry the play late in the middle frame and the Titans went on the power play at 2:14 and had a golden opportunity to tie the game, but it was the Panthers who struck as Joe Ferriero made a super play to gain the zone and thread a perfect pass to Joel Sirianni behind the Shaler defender, who beat Ben Burns to give FR a huge insurance goal with 1:32 remaining in the 2nd period and a 3-1 lead. The same two players combined early in the 3rd period to extend the lead as Sirianni pinballed an odd angle shot through the pads of Ben Burns for a 4-1 lead at 13:53 of the 3rd. Shaler could not take advantage of several power plays over the final minutes of play as Adam Treml stopped several good opportunities for the Titans to secure a 4-1 opening night victory for the Panthers.

Midnight Madness ....a couple of improvements for your convenience ! New Features !!! > Please find all of the scores updated up to the minute AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HOME PAGE. > If you click on the SCORE you will get the Highlights of the games with the Games marked with [H] > For game scores with ***GAME SUMMARIES*** next to it you will see the caption next to the score . > The Overall Standings for Class AAA, AA, A and Open will be updated automatically Daily and can be found in Overall Standings Section. > You can get the individual teams Schedules and Scores in the Team Websites section, which also includes standings for every team that particular school plays Thanks for your patience and please let us know if you have some thoughts about our coverage !

Canon McMillan 8 Greensburg CC 5 Thank you to Canon McMillan for providing the Game Summary ! *** In a rematch of the first round of last year's state playoffs, Canon-McMillan outlasted Greensburg Central Catholic by a score of 8-5. The season opener for both teams featured timely goaltending, streaks of offensive, and a furious third period. GCC started the scoring when John Kennedy deflected in a Jeff Robinson shot at 11:44 of the opening frame. However, Canon Mac responded by scoring the next 4 goals while holding the Centurions off the board for the next 30 minutes of play. Doug Stanton got the Big Macs on the board with a slap shot off the rush at 7:28 of the first. Justin Cormack would give CM the lead at the end of one with his first career Varsity goal with an assist from Eric Lang at 4:25. A spectacular glove save by Centurion netminder Ryan Homanics kept the CM lead to only one early in the second period, but the period would belong to Canon-McMillan. Cormack would extend the lead to 2 with his second goal of the night at 9:05. Freshman Nate Bohn padded the lead with a wrist shot from the slot off a Kyle Harnen pass to make it 4-1 at the intermission. A relatively solid defensive game would take on an entirely different look in the third period as Greensburg Central found new life coming out of the locker room. Doug Francken was finally able to solve CM goaltender Drew Stanton again just 36 seconds in to the period, sparking what would become an incredible rally for the home team. The ensuing face-off at center ice would lead to a breakaway goal by Alfonzo Areunlo just 13 seconds later to pull Greensburg Central within a goal. Kennedy would complete the comeback by firing a wrist shot past Stanton at 11:50 to knot the score at four. A methodical game had suddenly turned in to an offensive barrage. But while the excitement ran high, the goaltenders boarded up their nets over the next 9 minutes. Canon Mac freshman Nick Cusolito would put the scoreboard in motion again with a goal at 2:51 off a pretty feed from Cormack. The Centurions were once again able to answer with a goal of their own 19 seconds later by Robinson to lock the score at 5. The offense kept coming, though, as Jesse Patnesky was able to find the back of the net through a crowd to propel the Big Macs back in to the lead. With the goaltender pulled, Greensburg Central looked to counter once again. But it was not to be as Doug Stanton tallied his second of the night in to the open net. Patnesky added some extra insurance with his second marker in the game by diving over a sprawling defenseman and shooting the puck in to the empty net from his stomach with just 15 seconds remaining to put the Big Macs ahead, 8-5. Kennedy finished with 2 assists to match his two goals for GCC, while Canon-McMillan had a four-point performance of their own from Nate Bohn (1g, 3a). Drew Stanton would pick up the win with 21 saves, while Homanics took the loss with 18 saves.

HARMARVILLE ~ Fox Chapel 6 Norwin 2 Fox Chapel is looking forward to this season as a redemption to its greatest in club history as last season, they finished with a great regular season and then exited the playoffs courtesy of Upper St Clair. Jim Damp wants to prove the critics wrong and lead the Foxes to the Penguins Cup similar to his feat with Franklin Regional in 2002. The Norwin hockey program should be proud of one thing that they accomplished before the season even started. The Knights made a decision to stay in Class AAA rather than move onto to the ‘Glorified Junior Varsity’ Open Division and this will serve their program well going forward as they compete in Western Pa Hockey’s highest division. Head coach Dave Warren is back for his second campaign and was looking to pull off an upset in the opener. Fox Chapel opened up a 2-0 lead in the first period as Justin Kreps and Matt Quigley scored. Norwin matched FC stride for stride, especially in the physical play, which resulted in Fox Chapel running around a little and taking some penalties. Crafty Norwin forward Jim Recupero was giving the FC defense fits and almost scored at 11:28 hitting the crossbar. The Knights went on the power play at 8:10 and then a two-man advantage at 7:51 and finally cashed in as Recupero gathered the puck stopped on a dime in between the circles and beat Thiessen on a wrist shot through the 5-hole at 7:27 to cut the lead to 2-1. The Knights may have been a little too aggressive on their remaining power play with the dreaded pinching defenseman and this played right into Fox Chapel’s hands as Matt Quigley got behind the Norwin defense and buried a backhand upstairs for a shorthanded tally at 7:05. Just 8 seconds later, it was Quigley again completing the hat trick and banging home a rebound past Mike Pochan to extend the Foxes lead to 4-1. Adam Petrovich added another goal as he took a beautiful feed from Quigley and deposited it upstairs to take a 5-1 lead to the locker room. Norwin’s Jim Recupero [2nd] and Matt Quigley [his 4th goal in a 6 point night] traded goals in the 3rd period and Fox Chapel was victorious over Norwin 6-2.