Freeport Yellow Jackets

2003 Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships Ice Line – West Chester, Pennsylvania March 30, 2003 Radnor overcomes a hot goaltender & scores their first State Championship! ICELINE ~ If Westmont Hilltop head coach Art McQuillan had scripted the perfect season for the Hilltoppers, he could not have imagined that his plan would go as well as the road to West Chester, which had brought Westmont to the Pennsylvania Cup Class A final in 2003. As the second half of the Western Pa season wound down, many were anticipating the match-up between three-time defending champion # 1 ranked Serra Catholic and the upstart # 3 ranked Mars Planets, winners of 18 straight victories to start the season. The ultimate match-up that never happened was foiled by Westmont, who upset Mars in the Penguins Cup semi-finals 3-2 and then upended Serra Catholic 4-3 in the Penguins Cup to capture their 1st ever berth in the State Finals after 16 straight Penguins Cup playoff appearances which ended in disappointment. The leaders for the Mighty Hilltoppers have been unquestionably Patrick Krumenacher, whose goaltending was unbelievable against Mars and Serra and Justin McCloskey, who scored the game winning goals in both games. Westmont is the first public school to win the Penguins Cup in Class A since 1992, when State College won it. Radnor started the 2002-2003 season with one goal in mind and that was to avenge their 5-4 loss to Serra in the 2002 Pennsylvania Cup final. So if coach Ed Ritti III was looking forward to playing Serra again after learning that the Eagles were in the Penguins Cup final, however pre-mature that may sound, he was probably getting a little ahead of himself. The Raiders ripped through the regular season and Inter-County play-down with an 19-1-0 record and ousting Springfield, who handed Radnor its only loss of the season. In the Flyers Cup playoffs, coach Ritti’s # 2 ranked team demolished the competition in four games outscoring everything in front of them 31-4 to put themselves in position to reach their goal of a 1st State Championship. The Raiders improved their overall team with balance across three lines, a stronger defensive unit and a measured improvement between the pipes with Joni Ek. The question remained if Radnor could complete the process by learning from a year ago and win their 1st Pennsylvania Class A Championship. Radnor came out in the first period much like they did against Serra a year ago by outshooting the Hilltoppers 14-4 in the opening period, but were held off the board by Krumenacher, who was very solid in not giving Radnor a lot of rebound chances. Westmont was whistled for two consecutive penalties at 2:47 and 2:08 to put Radnor on a 5 on 3 power play. The Hilltoppers killed off the first part of the penalties, but a great length of the ice rush by Chris Brennan, finished off by a great move on the forehand beating Krumenacher at 1:20 put the Raiders on top 1-0. Westmont killed off the remainder of the second period as Krumenacher robbed Eddie Devine from point blank range and kept the Hilltoppers within one. The second period was a little more even as Westmont began to get some opportunities as they picked up the physical play on Radnor. After Brennan was whistled for a retaliation penalty at 11:00 of the 2nd period, the Hilltoppers Brian Willet blasted a slapshot past Ek on the short side from the top of the circle and tied the game at 1-1 with 10:34 remaining. Ek and Krumenacher held their own for the remainder of the period as the 2003 Class A final headed for the final period at one apiece. Radnor could not score on the power play at 10:43 of the third, but used the momentum to gain a territorial advantage and the edge in shots for the final period of regulation of 18-5 in the 3rd. Krumenacher made several great saves and afforded his club a chance to pull off a third straight upset and a first ever State Title. The Raiders went on the power play at 7:48 and Brennan won the puck in the corner and moved it to Nick Ryder, who founded Ed Devine, who buried a wrist shot past a sprawling Krumenacher to give Radnor the lead 2-1 with 6:58 remaining. Radnor kept up the pressure and then turned to excellent fundamental hockey as the kept the puck deep in the Westmont zone in an effort to hang on. Some excellent work by forwards Lee Sinkow and Austin Cohen and the unheralded Raider defense with under 5 minutes remaining, moved the puck out of danger and helped the Radnor to hold on for a 2-1 victory and give Eastern Pennsylvania its first State Championship since Conwell Egan [AAA] in 1999 and first Class A Title since 1992, when Haverford defeated State College.