Freeport Yellow Jackets

Another Who’s Who night at Rostraver – The faithful and frolic were out in full force last night as Miss Jane’s Romper Room saw the Western Pa elite fans as Dave ‘5:30 to get a table’ Scott, Gateway’s Dan Serakowski, Ray ‘Mr Underground’ Leith’ Dennis Shannon, Plum’s Stu Relnick and Jerry ‘Dr Evil’ Bass, ESPN’s Mark Madden , ‘Big Bern’ Chmiel and Audrey, WJPA’s Earl ‘ Mr Hockey’ Bugaile, PG’s Marky ‘AC/DC’ Bilson, Shady Side’s Lenny Semplice and Bob Kennedy, Ron ‘No Shenanigans Mort’ Steedle, Penn Hills Kenny and Ryan Jones, Gateway retired Brian-trust Zach Flora, Dave Himes and Matt Kopaczynski, Slippery Rock Bobby Black, Latrobe’s Ron Makoski, Mt Lebanon’s Paul ‘doing an impression of Luke DeLorezo’ Taibi, Ron ‘Mr Hospitality’ Pusz and Meadville’s Bulldog staples Chip and Carol MacEarlane along with Hap and Haz [Plunkett’s college pals] and the imfamous Bob Montana were all ‘in the House’ as frills and thrills of the Penguins Cup playoffs reached a crescendo ! Meadville defeats CC & is back to Penguin Cup for first time since 1999 ROSTRAVER – Central Catholic and Meadville is one of the best rivalries in all of High School Hockey. The mutual respect between the programs has been developed since Kevin Zielmanski took the helm at Central in 1998 and they defeated Meadville in the Penguins Cup and went onto the play LaSalle for the State Championship losing 3-2 in the waning moments. The two teams have played many memorable games since then including the 1999 Final, which Meadville won in overtime on a Nick Tucci goal and last years overtime thriller in Meadville, won by Central Catholic on a goal by Thomas Grossman. The Vikings defeated Upper St Clair 9-6 and Baldwin 6-3 to reach the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals at Rostraver. Meadville head coach Jamie Plunkett has had tempered excitement about the Bulldogs chances this year and is trying to get his team back to the State Final for the first time since 1999’s triple overtime loss to Conwell Egan. The Bulldogs look as if they are starting to peak and may just be getting hot enough on the goal scoring side to pull it off to go along with their smothering defensive work and excellent goaltending of Danny O’Sharuk, as they have defeated North Hills 7-1 and Plum 4-1 yielding very little shots in both games and even less scoring chances. Meadville continued their stellar defensive play against Central Catholic in the first period at Rostraver, thwarting scoring chances with great back checking and even better control of rebounds in front of O’Sharuk. Christian Nickerson converted a breakaway at 7:36 of the 1st to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. On to the second and Central Catholic tied the game on a pretty passing play as Matt Urso found Matt Capalongo streaking down the slot and Cappy buried a shot past O’Sharuk and the game was tied at one apiece at 13:43. Central Catholic was now back on track and after Brian Adamczak made an excellent glove save on Ricky Thomas at 7:36, the game appeared to be leaning the Vikings way. That was all put to rest as Brian Bahurinsky scored on a rebound at 6:02, just sneaking a shot past Adamczak on the short side and giving the Dawgs the lead 2-1. Meadville wanted this game a little more and came out in the third with fire outshooting the Vikings 25-16 of the evening. Christian Nickerson hit the post at 13:39, but made the best of another breakaway as he just slipped a shot past the CC goaltender for a huge insurance goal and a 3-1 lead. Central showed their frustration as Meadville went on a 5 on 3 with 6:43 left in regulation, but could not score as Adamczak kept Central alive and down by two. Justin Wehrle sent the Central fans to the exits as the big defenseman blasted a slapshot from the right point, which had the Dawgs faithful dancing in the far stands and in Murph’s Pub at Rostraver with a 4-1 lead. Nickerson put an exclamation point on a breakthrough game for the speedy Meadville forward as he picked up the hat trick with an empty netter with :16 left sending Meadville to their first Penguins Cup since 1999. Franklin Regional ends a great run by Bethel Park & moves on ! ROSTRAVER – The toughest part of the Penguins Cup playoffs for players, coaches, parents and fans is the disappointment of being eliminated from the opportunity to compete for a State Championship. For the past three years, head coach Jim McVay and the Bethel Park program has been the standard of Interscholastic Hockey not only in Western Pennsylvania but across the State as well. There is no question that the three consecutive State Championships have brought a little animosity amongst people who face the Blackhawks as every team wants to test their skill against the Champions and it is inevitable that sooner or later the Champs would be de-throned. Having said all of that Bethel Park was back at Rostraver and haven’t lost a Penguins Cup playoff game since 1999 in a double overtime thriller to Meadville 2-1, which is just been a fantastic run for the Hawks. So a team which lost a busload of seniors from last years squad was trying to complete another run with wins over Penn Trafford 4-3 OT and North Allegheny 2-1. Franklin Regional is back to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals for the first time since 1996 when the Panthers lost to North Catholic in a nailbitter at the Civic Arena in the Class AA Penguins Cup. That group of Panthers went home empty from four consecutive Penguins Cup Finals appearances and is still trying to erase it from memory. In 1998, the Franklin Regional program move to the brand new Center Ice Arena in Delmont and has built their numbers and is now reaping the benefits of having a rink right in the community. Long time Allegheny Hockey Association coach Jim Damp took the helm at Franklin this season, with renewed vigor as he has coached many of the Panthers since they were toddlers. A great performance in the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase in which the Panther reached the finals before bowing to Peters Twp made this team believe that maybe the Panthers could surprise everyone make a magical run in the playoffs and the addition of the very talented Luke DeLorenzo, would really give this group of FR players a legitimate shot at a dream season. Then it hit home when Franklin defeated Bethel Park on senior night 6-3 in front of a packed house at CI, that this was a reality and they have carried it through the playoffs defeating Latrobe and Mt Lebanon in a classic 5-4 overtime thriller to advance to Rostraver. Franklin Regional fought off their nervousness in the first period and channeled their energy on the ice. Dakota Drew hit the post at 10:56 and Brandon Stallard was standing tall for the Panthers as he stopped Brandon Hanley at 8:42 and Grady Clingan at 5:33. Bethel Park had several chances on the power play but could not score the opening goal in a scoreless first period. Bethel had a great chance early in the second but Stallard made another great save on Clingan at 14:34. Franklin play opportunist as Luke Baughman stole the puck from the Bethel defense and poked it home past Matt Feige at 13:14 and Franklin had a 1-0 lead. Bethel could not score on power play # 4 as Stallard stopped Clingan again at with a glove save at 8:31 of the 2nd. After Feige made an excellent save on Michael Roth at 6:50, he could not stop Luke DeLorenzo, who picked up a rebound of a Sean Buckley shot and gave Franklin a 2-0 lead at 5:24. Brandon Hanley just missed getting the Hawks back within one as his shot sailed just wide of the net at 4:38. Then Franklin extended its lead at 3:03 as Dakota Drew tipped in a Buckley shot from the left point past Feige and Franklin Regional was shocking the world 3-0. Brian Bakowski replaced Feige and Bethe Park appeared to get on the board at 1:10, but the goal was disallowed and the score stood at 3-0 Franklin at the end of two. Bethel Park was now desperate and came out pressing the attack and their night would be indicative of a play at 10:47 as the usually deadly Brandon Hanley missed a wide open net as Franklin worked to keep Bethel out of their end for the majority of the third period. Jimmy Daugherty would want to put the exclamation point on this one and he did at 4:45 as the speedy and feisty Franklin forward scored on a spin-a-rama slapshot over the shoulder of Brian Bakowski and Franklin now was in control 4-0. The champions Bethel Park never gave up and scored two late power play goals by Conner McLean at 2:59 and Grady Clingan at 1:23 sandwiched between a FR Joe Ferrario empty netter at 2:12 making the final outcome 5-2 and sending Franklin Regional to the Penguins Cup AAA Final for the first time ever to face the Meadville Bulldogs, a rematch of a rough affair in January won by Meadville 4-1.