Freeport Yellow Jackets

West Allegheny 4 Greensburg CC 2 GREESNBURG – West Allegheny is off to one of its best starts in its history at 6-0-0 after a disappointing end to the 04-05 season being upset by Elizabeth Forward in round 1 of the playoffs. Coach Norm Cook’s squad has been impressive in beating Canevin, Canon McMillan, & Thomas Jefferson among the better competition in Class AA, but all of those games were at home, so this evening’s test against Greensburg CC would be a test against a good team on the road. Ryne Savisky and Ryan Kumpfmiller have led the charge offensively and one could only imagine if Mark Polidor, who is not playing for the Indians and only playing for the Penguin and this is after he had a terrific Chicago Showcase, representing West Allegheny. Anyway, West A looks to challenge in AA this season and by the looks of their start could make noise in March. Greensburg CC is off to a 3-2-1 start after a championship in the 2005 GGC Invitational in October. First year coach Bill Buchholz’s team has had its up and downs losing to Thomas Jefferson and Pine Richland in relatively close games. The Centarians should be in the mix of Elite 8 teams but will have to display better discipline, which cost them offensive stud Alfonso Arevalo during a recent contest to suspension. In order to compete with the top teams, they will have to have all of their guns in the lineup and also will rely on the superb play of sophomore goaltender Ryan Homanics. West Allegheny opened the scoring at 5:35 of the opening period as Tony Lutz pounced on a rebound and beat Ryan Homanics. The Centurians went on the power play at 2:46 GCC power play, but West Allegheny went on the power play as GCC committed two separate penalties at 1:43. With :36 seconds left in the opening period, Jeff Rich chipped the puck past the GCC goaltender to make it 2-0 for the Indians. The Indians went on the power play early in the 2nd and Homanics made a terrific sliding stop on Jeff Rich at 11:32. Homanics continued to hold his team in the game as West Allegheny dominated play through the opening 30 minutes with a 25-11 shot advantage and a 2-0 lead heading to the ice cut at Kirk Nevin. On to the third we went and at 12:53 Ryan Kumpfmiller scored a big insurance goal from right on the doorstep to make it 3-0. Central had a 5 on 3 in the middle of the final period of regulation for well over a minute and finally cracked the West A armor as Dan Seijk slipped a shot through the 5-hole of Kyle Mortimer with a little under 6 minutes to go to make it 3-1. With 4:34 left, the Centurians went back on the power play, but could not score. After a timeout by West Allegheny, GCC came back and scored as David Ulishney scored on a Shane Purvis rebound with 1:49 remaining. West Allegheny came right back just 18 seconds later as Ross Midgely scored from right in front of Ryan Homanics to give WA a two-goal lead again at 4-2. The Indians outshot GCC 31-22 on the evening and moved to a perfect 7-0-0 mark.