Freeport Yellow Jackets

HARMARVILLE – 2005 Penguins Cup Semi-Finals – Class A Serra Catholic dominated the 2004-2005 season from the outset running off a 19 game winning streak until falling to Bishop McCort and Quaker Valley in the seasons final month. Coach Tom Mooney’s Eagles captured the # 1 seed in the Class A playoffs, which is very important mainly to avoid Quaker Valley and Bishop McCort until the finals resulting in a pretty easy path to the finals including facing an under .500 opponent in the 2nd round and getting the # 4 or 5 seed in the Semi-finals. Serra is no stranger to the Penguins Cup as the Eagles have competed for the Class A crown for the past five years, winning it on 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004, with three Pennsylvania State Championships in the first three years. Last years loss to Radnor, may still sting for the veterans like Justin Lubash, Joey Manning, Ray Gillis and Josh Jones among others and this gives the Eagles an added incentive to get back to the finals in Hershey. The experience of being part of the process over the past five plus years has helped them be able to handle just about any situation, but motivation by the loss to Radnor and the 2003 Penguins Cup final fall to Westmont may be just enough to spur this group of the ‘Eagles’ back to the title game in Hershey. Conversely, Sewickley Academy is just happy to be here, I mean happy their program has been through the ringer just to field a team. In 1999, 2001 and 2002, the Panthers played Junior Varsity and finally hit the Varsity level in 2003 with a 6-15-1 mark. The 2004 season was a turnaround for SA as they compiled a 15-7-0 record and recorded their first ever playoff victory. In 2005, further improvement as the Panthers reached new heights with a 16-6-0 record and an unreal 9-0 pasting of Westmont Hilltop in their playoff opener last week. Facing Serra is a different animal for SA as they dropped both decisions this season to the Eagles 9-3 early in the season opener and 10-6 in the last game of the season. So it would be a David and Goliath if you will and part of coach Hoolihan’s pre-game probably speech revolved around the Panthers 4-3 win over Serra at the end of the 2003-2004 season. Needless to say the Sewickley fits the role of a Cinderella team if there ever was one, especially if they pull off which would be one of the great upsets in State Playoff history by beating Serra. It didn’t take long for Serra to strike at 14:38, Steven Gruhalla scored on the wraparound for a 1-0 lead. The Panthers went on the power play at 13:42 with a chance to get back in the game and they did as Conner Blood scored on a long shot through traffic past Nick Koroly 13:14 for a power play goal bringing the intimate gathering of Sewickley fans to their feet with a 1-1 score. At 10:37 Koroly came up big stopping Conner Blood from point blank range. Nick Koroly came up big again at 5:51 on Blood and Brad Watts. At 4:45, the Panther goalkeeper Matt Solter robbed Ray Gillis from right on the doorstep. At 3:21, Josh Jones showed why he is a strong defenseman breaking up a Panther 2 on 1 and Serra went on the power play at 2:58. The Eagles struck right away as Steven Gruhalla scored on the rebound at 2:49. Alec Shannon came right back after Trevor Heck won the faceoff beating Koroly on a wrist shot at 2:38, just 9 seconds after Serra scored. Back came the Eagles at 1:36 as Ray Gillis beat Solter on a slick move to give Serra the lead again 3-2. The big goal came with just 8 ticks left in the period as Josh Jones took a Phil Ivkovich pass and buried low to the stick side for a 4-2 Serra lead after one. At 12:37 of the 2nd, the Panthers came back and pulled within one as Brad Watts scored a knuckleball, which fooled Nick Koroly and tightened the score to 4-3. At 7:39, Serra got too fancy in the offensive zone and turned it over and Alec Shannon raced the loose puck and reeled a shot wide which caromed off the boards and Trevor Heck backhanded past Koroly at 7:39 to tie the game at four apiece. Trevor Heck lit it up at 6:29 as he undressed the Serra defense and beat new goaltender Jeffrey Smaracheck on the backhand to give the Panthers the lead 5-4. At 5:52, Steven Gruhalla picked up the hat trick with a shot just inside the post to tie it at 5-5. With 3:11 left in the 2nd, Serra went on the power play and a chance to get the lead again and they did as Ray Gillis scored on a tip of a Joey Manning shot with 2:51 left to give the Eagles a 6-5 lead on a power play goal. With 1:06 left, Serra Catholic had a prayer answered as Josh Jones scored a 120 icing which bounded past Matt Solter in an unreal change of events as Serra scored three unanswered goals in the final six minutes of the second to take a 7-5 lead into the third. So as Clark Kent, the Serra beat writer for the McKeesport Daily [News] Planet handed coach Tom Mooney some more Kryptonite for the Sewickley goaltending tandem to handle for the third we started it. At 13:45, Phillip Ivkovich got his stick on a puck passed by Aaron Nolte and directed it toward the net and it went in again to make it 8-5. At 13:19, Justin Lubash started the train toward Hershey rolling burying a wrist shot past Jimmy Barbuto to make it 9-5, making the Eagles shooting percentage better than the basketball Pitt Panthers. Our first save of the 3rd came as sopped a record two in a row. Serra was at it again as Ray Gillis completed the hat trick on a nice pass from Gruhalla the hat trick with 8:29 left in regulation to make it 10-5 and six unanswered goals since the Serra goaltending change at :29 of the 2nd. At 6:12, Joey Manning turned it into an 11-5 rout in a game, which was 5-4 in the middle of the second in favor of the Panthers. As I mentioned in the playoff previews, Sewickley would need goaltending and unfortunately for the Panthers, it would be their downfall on their inaugural trip to the Penguins Cup Semis setting up a Bishop McCort – Serra Catholic final and rematch for the 5th year in a row, in which the Eagles have eliminated the Crimson Crushers, three times for the Penguins Cup in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and twice in the semi-final in 2003 and 2004. Sewickley got a little consolation with 3 seconds left to make the final 11-6 as Art Woods scored on a rebound.