Freeport Yellow Jackets

INDIANA - Indiana came into this rivalry game off surprising loss to Somerset prior to Thanksgiving and rebounded with an exciting 3-2 victory on the road over Greens burg CC. The Indians returned home in front of a standing room only crowd at the HOKS Indiana Ice Center and head coach Dom Glavech was hoping to extend the I H S division lead with a big win. Kittanning has had an up and down season thus far including losses to undefeated West Allegheny and Canon McMillan and a 4-3 road win at Greensburg CC. Wildcat coach Jon Yackmack is looking for some consistency out of his young club heading into December’s schedule. The first period was fast paced and at 6:11 Corey Mills burst down the left side and lofted a powerful backhand past the short side of Peter Tolman to give Indiana a 1-0 lead. Kittanning held a slim 11-9 shot advantage in the opening period. Early in the 2nd period a power play for Indiana yielded several good chances and yielded 6 shots which Tolman turned aside, but the Indians gained momentum. Then at 9:07 a big hit by Michael Jack forced a turnover and Jack gathered the puck and moved it toward the net where Steven Geisel poked it past Tolman between the 5-hole and a 2-0 lead including a 12-1 shot advantage for Indiana at this point of the period. At 6:31 of the 2nd, Kittanning had 1:40 to work with on the power play and coach Jon Yackmack saw this as opportunity to get back in game and called timeout. Mike Kennedy made several good saves on Lee Heilman and Joel Shriver and at 3:51 Kittanning had puck on doorstep and apparently scored but puck was kicked in. All of the hard work paid off for the Wildcats as Joel Shriver got his own rebound and beat Kennedy to the puck to open the scoring Kittanning. The’Boys form the Belmont’ captured the momentum with most of their 8 shots in period to that point and Peter Tolman fed off this surge with a nice save on Corey Mills at 2:14. The big goal of the hockey game came at 1:38 as Nick Onuschuk stole puck at Kittanning blue line and moved in and beat Tolman low to the glove side for a big insurance tally and a 3-1 advantage. Indiana never looked back in the 3rd Period as at 12:18 Michael Jack’s big slapshot from right point found its mark high over the glove hand side through a screen past Tolman on the power play to extend the lead to 4-1. An errant clearing pass at 9:12 was intercepted by Nick Troup, who beat Kennedy clean from top of circle with slapshot to cut the lead to 4-2. Then with 7:55 remaining, Indiana’s Joe Appolonia overpowered Tolman after great play by Corey Mills, who intercepted neutral ice pass and drive skated Kittanning defenseman before threading a perfect pass to Appolonia in the slot to the right of Tolman for a final knockout punch for the Indians and a 5-2 victory at the ‘House of King Samuel’.