Freeport Yellow Jackets

MEADVILLE - Ah... the summer is officially over and a little a drive up I-79 in the Big Blue Jeep crossing into Crawford County and into range of WMGW Sports Radio and the voices of Gary Clark [voice of the Bulldogs beginning his 17th season] and his faithful sidekick Dick Tedesco, previewing a opener between two teams who have built quite a history against each other ….# 1 Meadville vs # 2 Central Catholic. When we last saw the Bulldogs, it was pandemonium at Ice-Line in Philly as Meadville stormed back to capture their 8th Pennsylvania State Championship, but probably the sweetest due to the drought that existed since 1996, when the Dawgs last won it all. Head coach Jamie Plunkett’s squad is filled with new blood and some of the key cast of characters from last years championship team namely goaltender Danny O’Sharuk, stud defenseman David Moyer and the hero of last year’s playoffs Christian Nickerson, who was donning the “C” for leading Meadville to the promised land. So if Plunkett was gonna give some advice to his counterpart Kevin Zielmanski of CC, it would be patience. You see 1998 was coach Z’s first year with the Vikings and as he begins his 8th season at the helm, the thought is maybe this will be the year that CC goes all the way. And wouldn’t it be nice to spoil the banner raising ceremony before an overflow crowd at the MARC. Central had to feel pretty good about its chances with Russ Hefner back between the pipes in Meadville for the first time since a 5-4 overtime victory in the 2002 playoffs. This would be a goaltending battle early on as Danny O’Sharuk stopped Central’s Neil Kennedy from in close at 9:26. The Vikings showed their depth as Chris Urso slammed home a rebound after O’Sharuk robbed Ryan Gebler to give CC a 1-0 lead with 5:22 left in period # 1. Meadville had a couple of good chances as D.J. Durkee took a long lead pass from Anthony Scarpino and walked the CC defense and just missed at 1:10 and with just 13 ticks remaining Hefner stoned Christian Nickerson from point blank range. On to the 2nd and Michael McGurk pick the Bulldog defense’s pocket at the blue line and buried a backhander past O’Sharuk for a 2-0 CC lead at 13:53. Meadville went on the power play at 9:55 and then went on the 5 on 3 with 9 ½ left in the middle frame. Zielmanski used his 3 top players to kill in a big point of the hockey game as the Vikings lost the services of captain Andrew Wroblewski for 12 minutes. After a great steal and clear by Eddie Martin CC got caught on a bad line change which created an odd man break and Christian Nickerson made them pay beating Hefner on the backhand to cut the lead to 2-1 with 8:07 left. The Dawgs came right back on a 2 on 1 and Anthony Scarpino buried a wrist shot upstairs after a great feed from Nickerson to tie the game at 6:15. Central Catholic came out and was the aggressor in the third and had all sorts of chances as Neal Kennihan was stoned by O’s Haruk at 11:37. Connor Hickton hit the crossbar after a Michael McGurk rebound as Central dominated play early in the 3rd. The Vikings went on the power play at 8:54 and McGurk won the faceoff cleanly to Matt Urso, who walked between the circles and buried a wrist shot through the 5-hole and Central Catholic reclaimed the lead 3-2 after just 4 seconds of PP time. Now close hockey games sometimes have twists but the key to winning them is poise, discipline and sometimes a break along the way. Meadville was still in the game down a goal and why Tyler Learn chose this time to pick a fight with J.R. Hess was absolutely not a good situation, the result was that tempers flared forcing referees Mark Klimow and Ray King into a decision regarding Learn, who would not leave go of Hess facemask, which in normal situations is a Match Penalty and 30 days ! With 4:57 remaining the last thing the official’s want to do is determine the outcome, but they had no choice. The result was a 5-minute power play for Central and a break and as cause and effect would have it Meadville was behind the 8-ball. Now professor Zielmanski had five minutes left to put the Dawgs on ice. Do they try to score or just kill time and the ever thinking coach Z reverted to the Dean Smith [legendary North Carolina basketball coach] 4 corner offense. Matt Friday, Matt Urso and Eddie Martin took the puck down below the goal line and cycled puck for 3 ½ minutes and put the Dawgs to sleep on the porch. As an old friend from Toronto once told me when he said [and he was right about 19 years ago and now] “if the other team does not have the puck they cannot beat you !” and that’s what CC did ….lulled Meadville and then in an instant Eddie Martin threaded a perfect saucer pass to Matt Friday who made no mistake and sent the Bulldogs faithful to the parking lots with :52 left and a 4-2 Central Catholic victory.