Freeport Yellow Jackets

DELMONT - Franklin Regional coach Jim Damp was liking Thursday night as his squad slid into first place as Gateway fell to Cathedral Prep and Plum lost earlier in the week to defending State Champions Bethel Park. The Panthers had a golden opportunity to hold the loss column and seize the division lead. The tall task at hand would be Central Catholic, winners of 5 of 6 coming off a 2-2 tie Thursday night against a hot Mt Lebanon club. Coach Kevin Zielmanski would only have to look into the eyes of his players to see the motivation of his players, who were being given the raz of the Franklin student section with the getting old fast 'Tea Bag' routine. It took an old Franklin nemisis in the form of former Gator Matt Capalongo, who knows the formula to shutting up the Franklin faithful during his days at Gateway....score early and often....and the Viking junior opened the scoring early in the first to give CC a 1-0 lead. Then it was Eddie Martin's turn with 1:57 left in the opening period as he beat Brandon Stallard on the stick side to make it 2-0. Early in the second Capalongo and Matt Urso could not convert a great passing sequence as Stallard slid out to stop the Vikings and keep the score at 2-0 at 12:05. Franklin Regional cut the lead in half at 10:25 as Michael Roth scored on the rebound and the CC lead was 2-1. Central controlled the play through two periods outshooting FR 21-10 and Martin broke Franklin's back at 7:26 with a beautiful wrister through the five hole from the off wing to extend the Viking lead to 3-1. The third period was all Cetral Catholic as Pete Dolan, Matt Urso, Michael McGurk and Chris Niznik added to the Central assault which resulted in a 30-13 shot advantage and an impressive 7-1 victory over Franklin Regional.