Freeport Yellow Jackets

CANONSBURG - Thomas Jefferson coach Don Powell has been trying to get his team to trust the system employed by the Jaguars and if this past weekend's performance in the Meadville Bulldog Invitational is any indication, the young pirahna's of TJ just might be gettting the message as they tangled with AAA powers Cathedral Prep and LaSalle in two outstanding efforts. Canon McMillan coach Pat Rheam has to be pulling his hair out lately as the Big Macs haven't received too many breaks lately. For instance, they just happened to be the sacrificial lamb for Peter Twp after the Indians were upset by Canevin and then after Canevin was defeated by West Allegheny, they rebounded to defeat the Big Macs 3-2. So maybe CM could catch Thomas Jefferson off guard a little. After a scoreless first period, TJ defenseman Darryl Nath jumped into the play and swatted his rebound out of midair past CM goaltender Andrew Stanton to give the Jags a 1-0 lead at 12:39. The Big Macs came right back at 12:06 as Evan Hall found a loose puck in the slot and wristed past Danny Hartman to tie the game at 1-1, after some excellent work by CM's Adam Zeh in the slot. TJ's Dan Thomas missed a golden opportunity on a shorthanded breakaway with a little under ten minutes left in the middle frame. The Jaguars Zach Hanbury cashed in at 6:20 of the 2nd as he scored on the breakaway through the 5-hole of Stanton to make it 2-1. Thomas made up for his miss with just 27 seconds left in the middle period, taking a nice feed from Derek Kelly and TJ now led 3-1. Canon McMillan came out flying in the third and capitalized as freshman Doug Stanton took nice feed from Aaron Veydt and beat Hartman to cut the lead to 3-2 at 13:46. Both teams had opportunities on the power play in the middle of the final period, but could not score as Hartman held off Canon Mac and Stanton held off TJ, including a nice slding stop on Zach Hanbury with 5:40 remaining. Then at 2:59, Thoams Jefferson got a huge insurance tally as Luke Wawrzeniak found a loose puck in the slot and scored to give the Jaguars 4-2 lead. Canon Mac went on the power play and Josh Toney scored on a beautiful backhand high upstairs on he glove side past Hartman and all the sudden the Big Macs where within one with 1:53 remaining. Canon Mac pulled Santon and could not get the equalizer as Thomas Jefferson held on for a 4-3 victory.