Freeport Yellow Jackets

ERIE ~ Cathedral Prep started off the 2002-2003 season like a ball of fire through mid-January with only one loss at the hands of Meadville in an early season affair at the ‘House of Chills’ 6-4. Coach Nels White’s squad looked to be in great form after defeating Eastern Pa power LaSalle in the Bulldog Invitational, but then dropped a lopsided game to Cleveland St Ignatius, which threw the Ramblers into a tailspin dropping games to archrival McDowell and Central Catholic. ECP has rebounded though and is back on track after a 10-3 pasting of Upper St. Clair earlier this week. Meadville is back atop the Class AAA Penguins Cup hunt and has played consistently well for a majority of the season. If Jamie Plunkett’s Bulldogs have an Achilles heal, it is that they sometimes have trouble finishing scoring opportunities, which has resulted in some ties and a loss to Gateway a week ago 3-2 and they need timely scoring entering the playoffs if they would like to end up in the winner’s circle in the Penguins Cup. After an adventurous drive to the Tullio Erie Civic Center, a crowd of an estimated 700 people braved the snowstorm to watch top of the top Western Pa schools get it on with the Class AAA West Lake Division title and some bragging rights at stake. This game took on significance for McDowell, who is in chase of Prep and many of the McDowell Trojans players were on hand to root for Meadville. The Ramblers opened the scoring at 10:52 as Pat Figurski found a rare loose puck in the Meadville slot and beat Danny O’Sharuk between the five hole for a 1-0 lead. O’Sharuk made several key saves as Prep continued to pressure the Bulldog backline on Jeff Dionosio at 9:30 and Jon Merriott at 5:42. Andrew Topa intercepted a Meadville clearing attempt and found a streaking Kyle Rogers, who went top shelf at 4:26 to give Prep a 2-0 lead. Meadville was now scrambling and the Ramblers had them in trouble as O’Sharuk stopped Doyle on the breakaway with 2:23 remaining and Pa Hockey top 25 selection David Moyer made a diving breakup of an attempted pass to a wide open Prep forward in the slot with 1:03 left. The Bulldogs began their efforts to build momentum early in the 2nd period and Phil Siverd made it count as he took a Brian Bahurinsky pass and buried it past Rob Allison to cut the lead to 2-1 at 11:25. Allison preserved the Rambler lead with point blank saves on Rick Thomas at 8:37 and Bahurinsky at 5:56. Then a puck and Kyle Rogers got behind the Bulldog defense with a little over a minute remaining….O’Sharuk came out to try to beat Rogers to the puck and Kyle also dove to poke in past O’Sharuk, which he did and while on his knees and an open net in front of him could not guide the puck in and give Prep a 3-1 lead. On to the third period and Prep was trying to get that two goal advantage but Danny O’Sharuk came up big as he stopped Jon Merriott on the breakaway at 10.25 and coupled that with several key stops on a Rambler power play at the ten minute mark. Then the Bulldogs went on the power play at 7:42 and Phil Siverd took a pass from Dan Craven out of the corner and blasted a slapshot through traffic on the short side past Allison to tie the game with 6:19 left. Meadville looked to take the lead and Allison came up big with stops on Harbaugh at 5:55 and Jeffrey Holabaugh at 4:15. The game then turned into a tight checking contest through the overtime in a hard fought 2-2 tie.