Freeport Yellow Jackets

BETHEL PARK – Shaler and Penn Trafford met on December 9, 2002 in a regular season contest in Harmarville, with the Titans skating to an easy 7-1 victory over the Warriors. Coach Rich Michalowski’s club finished with a 9-14-1 record and didn’t exactly light the world on fire the last month of the season, so he had to be a little concerned about facing a team his team had handled so easily. Penn Trafford on the other hand made the playoffs for the first time in their history last season at Class AA and did it again at Class AAA. Coach Gary Artz has a very young club with six freshman, but can relay the voice of experience to his freshman and sophomores from his playing days at Churchill, where he played in three consecutive Class AAA State Championship finals as a freshman, sophomore and junior, including the first Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships in 1975. So the Warriors were looking for a little advantage to reverse their fortunes against Shaler. The Warriors got into the post-season on a technicality involving a playoff rule invoked in 1999, which states that the 16th and 17th teams in the final standings will have a playoff if they are within 1 % and since Shaler and Penn Trafford were both 9-14-1, its brought us together for the geometric ‘neutral site’ game at Bethel Park of all places and the prize is a return trip to face the Blackhawks less than 24 hours later. Shaler broke out on top in the first period as Eric Taormina banged home a rebound of a Chris Szczpinski shot at 11:43 for a 1-0 lead. Shaler must have thought this was gonna be a repeat of December, but the young Warriors started to take the play to the Titans with an 11-5 shot advantage. PT’s Bobby Lane walked downthe slot and beat Eddie Stotts on the backhand to tie the game with 1:27 left. The Warriors came right back as Devon McCusker scored on a rebound of a Kyle Sidle shot with just 57 seconds remaining during a delayed penalty call for a 2-1 lead. Penn Trafford extended its lead in the second period as Bobby Lane scored at 10:57 for a 3-1 advantage. Lane scored again at 8:17 of the third and the Warriors now had a comfortable 4-1 lead. Freshman goaltender Joel Sterniak shut the door the rest of the way stopping 18 of 19 Shaler shots on the evening as Penn Trafford captured its first ever playoff victory 4-1 earning a return trip to Bethel Park Monday night.