Freeport Yellow Jackets

HARMARVILLE - 2005 Penguins Cup AA Semi-Finals Pine Richland has a long history in high school hockey in Western Pennsylvania and has been very successful recently with twelve consecutive winning campaigns from 1993 to present. The period from 1996 thru 2001 saw the Rams contend for the Penguins Cup at the Class A level to the move to Class AA twice ... in 1996, losing to Bishop McCort at the then Civic Arena 2-1 and again in 2001 to Beaver 4-1 at the Cambria County War Memorial, as both teams they fell to went on to win their respective State Championships. Coach Jimmy Black has big aspirations for Richland and he is excited about the depth in the program at the lower levels and their would be no time like the present to show it off as the Ram lineup has only 3 seniors and is loaded with half a team of sophomores and freshman including two players, sophomores Tommy DiDinato and Phil Trombetta, who are turning their play up a notch along with Junior Josh Fodor and could make the future the present in a hurry. So a short drive down Route 910 could an indirect route to Mellon Arena, but a necessary step is to go through Indiana, who the Rams have split with during the regular season trading 4-1 road wins. Indiana is a team who could write the book on the school of hard knocks in the Penguins Cup playoffs as the Indians have lost in heartbreaking fashion including last years Penguins Cup to Peters and in 2002 and in 1996 to Greensburg CC. The sympathetic Arnold ‘Slick’ Ziffel has traveled all the way from Indiana and could be seen rolling around in the parking lot in anticipation of a double feature including the Indiana nemesis Peters Twp in the nightcap. Head coach Dom Glavech just keeps coming back for more and after Indiana’s miracle finish last week in overcoming an upset minded Elizabeth Forward squad 3-2 with a goal in overtime after Cory Mills tied the contest late in the game. So will the Indians atone for their shortcomings in the Penguins Cup playoffs, one thing I know is that they like their chances more now than they did with about three minutes left in the EF game and sometimes comebacks like those propel a team to never look back, which will be interesting to watch against Pine Richland. The early part of the was uneventful and Indiana brought their faithful to their feet at 8:25 as Adam Rusiewicz threw a harmless shot to the net which eluded Tommy Zajac to give Indiana a 1-0 lead. Pine Richland came right back as Josh Fodor beat the Indian defense to the puck and found a wide open Tommy DiDinato in front of an open net at 7:48 and the game was tied at one apiece. The Rams nearly took the lead at 7:03 in a big scramble in front , but came right back to take the lead as Phil Trombetta flew down the left side and unleashed a wicked shot low inside the post to give the Rams a 2-1 lead at 6:17. Indiana was in a little trouble and found themselves shorthanded at 5:22 and a 12-5 shot disadvantage, but the Indians killed the penalty and could think about re-grouping only down one. Pine Richland went back on the power play and Tommy DiDinato found himself alone again with the puck at its feet with :53 seconds left and turned and fired an off speed shot through the 5 hole of Mike Kennedy for a 3-1 Pine Richland lead at the end of one. Indiana started the 2nd with the power play and Michael Jack delivered with a blistering slapshot past Tommy Zajac at 13:53 to pull within one. Moments later Phil Patterson and a host of Indians had several cracks at a tie game but Zajac came up big at 13:08. Phil Trombetta was robbed by Kennedy at the 10:42 to keep it 3-2. At 6:56, as we said in the outset the continuing maturation of the Rams kept going as Phil Trombetta buried an overpowering wrist shot high over the glove side of Mike Kennedy at 6:52 for a 4-2 Pine Richland lead. Then it was Josh Fodor’s turn as he turned on the jets and beat Kennedy on the forehand with 5:55 remaining for a commanding 5-2 Ram lead. Indiana went on a near need power play with 2:57 left in the 2nd period and PR did a real nice job keeping the scoring chances for the Indians to a minimum taking a 5-2 lead to the final period of regulation. On to the third we went and Indiana was now in a real big hole and the Rams would be content with leaving them in there for another 15 minutes and continue their excellent team defense that yielded only 17 shots thru two periods. The leader of the defensive charge was the captain Josh Fodor, who was the one making the smart plays and the one making the simple plays and having said that coach Jimmy Black called a timeout with 7:01 remaining to remind his guys to get it deep, keep three guys high and bury any chances. With 4:30 left, Tommy DiDinato intercepted a pass and could not beat Kennedy, but he didn’t need to as his club had a three goal advantage and just needed to kill the clock. The Rams only yielded three shots in the third period and played textbook defense. But what happened next was not good unless you are Indiana. The PR defense played too much with the puck and Cory Mills made them pay soaring in on a breakaway and beating Zajac with 4:16 left to cut the score to 5-3 with now a lot of time left. The Rams made a fundamental error with 2:47 left and put Indiana on the power play called for too many men on the ice. The Indiana season went down in flames with 48 left as Josh Fodor drew a penalty with a 5-3 lead and the Rams were on their way to the Penguins Cup Class AA championship next Wednesday at Mellon Arena for the first time since 2001.