Freeport Yellow Jackets

DELMONT – Fox Chapel coach Keith Kearney knows his team is achieving a lot of firsts this season as they defeated Bethel Park last week to move ahead of the Hawks, Meadville and Cathedral Prep in the Elite 8 rankings. The Foxes have seen just about enough of Franklin Regional as they have defeated the Panthers twice this season in tournament action and would face them a third time in the regular season. Franklin Regional coach Jim Damp knows his team is working extremely hard, but needs that one additional boost to win the close games. Their gamebreaker Jimmie Daugherty looks to be sidelined for a while and the Panthers hope to have their leader back for another playoff run in February. Needless to say their infamous 21st man was their on crutches to root on his team against FC along with a racious group of Franklin students. Joe Budz continued to have the hot hand as he redirected home a Matt Quigley pass at 9:11 of the first period for a 1-0 Fox Chapel lead. Franklin took advantage of a Foxes miscue as Mark Gigliotti pulled the puck around a fallin down FC defenseman and wlaked down the slot and buried a wrister past Todd Hendry for a tie game at 1-1 with 2:14 left in the first. Fox Chapel came out physical in the second and coach Kearney’s move of Jason Kreps to offense paid off as he beat Chris Fonzi on the backhand as Quigley ran interference on the Panther defense at 13:17 for a 2-1 FC lead. Kreps just missed a 2nd goal as he just deflected a tip wide on a give and go with Dan Thiessen at 10:42. It didn’t take long after that for Fox Chapel to score as Ryan McDonald celebrated his return to the team with a beautiful goal as he walked off the boards and beat Fonzi upstairs at 10:03 to extend the lead to 3-1. Matt Quigley showed why many consider him one of the most dangerous players in Class AAA as he outraced the Franklin defense to the puck and in one motion backhanded a pass to Budz, who beat Fonzi on the backhand and all the sudden Fox Chapel was in control at 7:58 of the middle period 4-1. The Panthers picked up the pace and continued to pressure Todd Hendry outshooting the Foxes 24-13 through two periods. On to the third period and Franklin fed off their excellent work in the last 5 minutes of the 2nd and it paid off, as ‘Bugs Bunny’ or the ‘Eveready Bunny’, you take your choice, Luke Baughman made a great play with a move on the forehand beating the FC defense and Hendry to cut the lead to 4-2 at 10:22. Franklin stepped up the pressure on FC outshooting them 17-4 in the final period as they went on the power play at 9:40, which was killed by the Foxes. After a freak bounce in the Fox Chapel zone, Lou Levine found the puck in the slot and poked it past Hendry and all the sudden with 5:39 left it was now 4-3. Franklin looked to be in trouble as the Panthers took a penalty with 2:49 left, but FR killed the penalty and looked to tie the game with under a minute to play. Fox Chapel would be challenged and it would take goaltender Todd Hendry to make two big saves in the games final seconds as he robbed David Hopper with 4 seconds left and may have got a piece of Joe Ferraro’s shot which hit the post at the buzzer to preserve a 4-3 Fox Chapel win and a perfect 3-0-0 record.