Freeport Yellow Jackets

Greensburg CC Invitational September 13 - October 25 Final - Penn Trafford 4 Franklin Regional 0 ***GAME SUMMARY IS NOW AVAILABLE*** Semi-Finals: Franklin Regional 5 Fox Chapel 0 Highlights: Joe Ferriero 2 goals & 1 assist & Adam Treml with the shutout Penn Trafford 5 Plum 0 Highlights: Nick Whaley with 3 Goals & 2 assists, Kyle Sidle with 1 goal & 1 assist and Joel Sterniak with the shutout ***CLICK ON THE LOGO FOR THE COMPLETE SCHEDULE AND HISTORY OF THE GCC Invitational and check out GAME SUMMARIES for the 2004 GCC Invitational Final Story ...Only on Pa Hockey ***

Check out all the action on the Pa Hockey Network brought to by Bx Video as PA Hockey brings us on Demand Internet Television from Center Ice Arena ~ 2004 Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase Semi-Finals between Bethel Park and Upper St Clair DELMONT ~ Everyone in Western Pennsylvania knows how explosive that Upper St Clair is on the offensive side and coach John Harford’s club ripped through their bracket whipping Gateway 8-1, Chartiers Valley 14-4 and Indiana 8-0 to gain the medal round of the 2004 Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase. The Panthers are a very talented club who would be looking to put another notch on their belt against archrival Bethel Park. The Hawks entered the medal round after defeating Shaler 9-0, Thomas Jefferson 10-3 and Franklin Regional 4-2 to gain the medal round for the 2nd consecutive year. Coach Jim McVay’s club displayed their depth and was looking to shut down Upper St Clair’s scoring frenzy in the preliminary round. USC’s David Crockett would strike first at 11:46 beating Bryce Merriam with a wrist shot to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. Bethel Park answered at 5:58 of the 1st as Tim O’Brien scored after a nice feed from Ken Lehman to tie the game at one apiece. Upper St Clair would capitalize on rare sloppy play by the Bethel Park defense as Jono Lohman found a loose puck in Bryce Merriam’s feet and gave USC a 2-1 lead a 4:02. Coach Jim McVay replaced Merriam with Rick McLuckie and the Panthers didn’t waste any time baptizing the new BP goaltender as Mike Penkrot overpowered the Hawk goaltender with a blistering slapshot from the top of the circle just 6 seconds after Lohman’s goal to give USC a 3-1 lead with 3:56 left in the opening period. If their was a turning point of this hockey game it came midway through the second period when USC’s Andrew Blazek got loose behind the Bethel defense and ticketed a shot for the upper corner, but Bryce Merriam snatched the puck with the glove hand to keep the deficit at two goals for Bethel Park. The Hawks fed of their goaltenders big save and after some hard work by the 5 man BP unit, Graham Cohen scored from just in front at 2:50 to cut the USC advantage to 3-2. On to the third period and Bethel Park continued its siege on Panther goaltender Kevin Gorder, who face 31 Hawks shots on the evening. Tim O’Brien would score a beautiful goal at 13:35, as the lanky BP forward circled from behind the net and whistled a backhand upstairs over the glove of Gorder to tie the game and give the Hawks all the momentum. Bethel Park went on the power play at 10:40 and would take the lead at 10:07 as Michael Diethorn scored on an assist to Conner McLean and Ed Bendik. Bethel would add an insurance goal just 50 seconds later as Mike Poljak scored after a nice play by Ken Lehman, who picked up his 13th assist of the Showcase in just 4 games. The Hawks would shut down USC the rest of the way and move on to the Director’s Cup final for the 4th time in 6 years.

Check out all the action on the Pa Hockey Network brought to by Bx Video as PA Hockey brings us on Demand Internet Television from Center Ice Arena ~ 2004 Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase Semi-Finals between Penn Trafford and North Allegheny DELMONT ~ Penn Trafford was enjoying their first trip to the Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase and although Head Coach Todd Purvis has been here before, ironically as the coach of North Allegheny, the Warriors players were experiencing the medal round for the first time. PT gained a spot in the semi-finals with two impressive victories over the # 1 ranked in Class AA, Canon McMillan and Central Catholic, by identical 6-2 scores and a 3-2 victory over Greensburg CC. North Allegheny is the defending Director’s Cup champions and head coach Tom Pandolfo was looking to make the 2004 Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase a hat trick after the Tigers captured the St Margaret’s Fall Face Off in October and the Central Catholic Invitational in November. NA reached the medal round with wins over Plum 5-1, South Park 5-1 and a hard fought 3-3 overtime tie with a very good Montour team. Early on in this semi-final game, Penn Trafford and North Allegheny displayed some real physical play, but the Warriors may have gotten too involved at 12:03 being whistled for interference and putting the lethal Tigers on the power play. North Allegheny would capitalize at 11:42 as Garrett Waldschmidt scored to give NA a 1-0 lead. The Tigers would hold the lead into the second period as the teams settled onto a very physical and defensive battle. Penn Trafford was able to match North Allegheny with 11 shots apiece but could not beat Jeff Kristan. NA would extend the lead at 4:15 of the middle frame as Garrett Waldschmidt would pick up his second goal on an assist from brother Wes at 4:15 to make it 2-0. Penn Trafford came on in the third period and held the Tigers to just 3 shots, but Wes Waldschmidt would make the most of one of the at 11:40 to give North Allegheny a 3-0 lead. Penn Trafford just kept on working and finally broke Kristan and the NA defense on the power play at 5:36 of the 3rd as Tim Cortazzo scored on a Chris Cerutti rebound to cut the lead to 3-1. The Warriors continued to press to get back in the contest, but the Tigers would hold them off and gain the Director’s Cup final for the second straight year.

INDIANA - Indiana has been one of Class AA many surprises as the Indians have lost only once as the season nears the half way point. Coach Dom Glavech’s team has been on a mission pummeling every opponent in sight including some pretty good teams like Montour, Kittanning and Pine Richland to post a 8-1-1 record. What is probably motivating Indiana is the ‘one that got away’ or maybe the ‘two that got away’ if we are including Peters Township in the conversation. The 2002 Penguins Cup at the Mellon Arena, a game that Indiana very well could of won, but Peters survived 3-2 and went on to win their first Pennsylvania AA State Championship over Archbishop Carroll. The 2nd one that ‘got away’ was last years Penguins Cup final again against Peters Twp, a devastating collapse and another Indiana disappointment. So this game against Peters Twp would be a rematch and maybe a chance for retribution. Peters Township is the three time defending Penguins Cup champions with a Pennsylvania AA State Championships in 2002 and 2003. Oh yeah and Peters remembers 2004 too even though they completed a miracle comeback win over Indiana in the Penguins Cup, when the PT Indians trailed 4-1 with under six minutes to go and came back to tie it with 6 seconds left and won it 5-4 in overtime on a breakaway goal by Si Bishop to move on to the State Finals. Fresh for Mark Cooper is the loss to Archbishop Carroll in the State Final and his current group has all of the makings of a team who can return to the finals and avenge that loss. Currently, after a great start, Peters has lost two straight to # 1 Canon McMillan 7-4 and last Friday night’s shocker to South Park 4-3. So a date at Indiana may be just what the doctor ordered and to get back on the winning track. The first period was as wild a period as both teams looked as if they were in overtime of a basketball game. After returning from the games first penalty, Corey Mills struck beating Justin Mahramas on the backhand at 12:42 for a 1-0 Indiana lead. Peters would tie it just 22 seconds later as Jeff Hannan beat Mike Kennedy on a wrist shot to the glove side at 12:20. Kennedy stopped Bryan Papciak on a breakaway at 11:40, but Papciak would give the Indians the lead scoring on a wide open net at 9:43 to make it 2-1. The PT Indians went on the power play at 8:21 and received an early Christmas present as Jeff Hannan threw the puck to the net and it glanced off an Indiana defenseman and behind Kennedy for a power play goal at 7:27 and a 3-1 Peters lead. Mahramas robbed Corey Mills from in front at 5:20 with Indiana on the power play, but Nick Onusheck snuck a rebound past the PT goaltender to cut the lead to 3-2. Brandon Tingle extended the Peters lead to 4-2 from point blank range on a nice set up by Dustin Roux at 2:44. Back came Indiana late in the period as Corey Mills found the rebound after a scramble in front and pulled Indiana within one at 4-3 with 1:35 remaining in a wild opening 15 minutes. One to the second period and Mills almost had the hat trick at 14:40 but hit the post. Joe Appolonia would find the net at 13:35 on a wrist shot beating Mahramas to tie the game at four apiece. The big play of the hockey game came at 12:32 as Dustin Roux pulled up coming out of the corner and buried a wrist shot up under the crossbar over the glove side of Kennedy to give the PT Indians the lead back 5-4. Eric Windmiller would deliver on the power play at 7:07 taking a sharp pass out of the corner and beating Mike Kennedy through the five hole to extend the lead to 6-4. Michael Jack got Indiana back within one with a snapshot over the glove side of Mahramas to pull the score to 6-5 late in the period. The third period was defensive and Peters had a great opportunity to put the game out of reach with 6 ½ remaining in the 3rd, but Indiana killed the penalty and went on a power play with 4:13 left and could not get the equalizer as PT stiffened and came away with a 6-5 road win, outshooting Indiana 27-25 on the night.

*****Game Summary provided exclusively to PA Hockey by Canon-McMillan Hockey***** CANONSBURG, PA -- Thomas Jefferson Coach Don Powell knows what its like to wear the target. His Jaguar teams have been so good over the past several years, every other team in the league circles the date they play TJ on the calendar. Powell and company have put together one of the strongest hockey programs in the area, but on this night, they'd be the team that was taking aim at the target. Unbeaten and top-ranked Canon-McMillan was the team in their scopes, and a win would be a big boost for the unranked Jaguars. The Big Macs, meanwhile, wouldn't feel complete if they didn't end their spectacular first-half with a perfect record. They had put together a string of impressive victories to claim the #1 ranking, and a win over Thomas Jefferson would put an exclamation point on an unblemished record. The game opened with TJ drawing first blood. Dan LaBarbera wristed a shot from the right point through a screen that tucked inside the left post, and the Jaguars were ahead 1-0 less than 3 minutes in to the contest. Gary Bucci and Brock Heinauer combined for the assists on the goal, which was LaBarbera's second on the season. Doug Stanton has been fire on ice for the Big Macs of late, and he responded to LaBarbera's goal by slamming home a rebound off a Jesse Patnesky backhander to tie the game at 1. Kyle Harnen added the second assist on the play, and the intensity was building. Canon Mac was able to grab the lead when Nate Bohn threw a lead pass to Justin Cormack, who made a nifty move around a defender before deking to his forehand for the goal. The first period ended with the home team leading, 2-1. The second period started with more fluid play than the first period, but the physical play increased, as well. A quick transition by TJ in the neutral zone led to a break down the left wing by Zack Hanbury, who fired a wrist shot off the tip of the outstretch glove of Drew Stanton and in to the net. Bucci picked up the lone assist on the goal, which tied the game at 2. Doug Stanton and the Big Macs took control from there, however. Stanton put Canon-McMillan back in to the lead with a power play goal off a pass from Justin Cormack, and the period closed with the score 3-2 in favor of Canon Mac. The score was close to start the third, but the momentum was on the side of the Big Macs. Just over a minute in to the final period, that momentum helped Canon Mac build on their lead. It was Doug Stanton who found the back of the net again with a blistering shot from the right wing to complete the hat trick and record his 23rd goal of the year. Cormack and Eric Lang picked up assists on the play, and the hats came flying to honor Stanton's feat. Cormack kept the momentum going after he took an outlet pass from Stanton and fought through a stick check at the red line to score off the rush. Patnesky notched his second assist of the night on the play, while Stanton and Cormack both pushed their point totals to 4 in the game. Thomas Jefferson wasn't about to give up, though, and Heinauer closed the gap with 6:10 remaining off an assist by Hanbury. Canon-McMillan looked to have restored their 3-goal lead a short time later when Cormack raised his stick after a wrist shot from the slot, but the puck neither referee saw the puck go in the net. That gave the Jaguars a chance to put out an extra attacker in an effort to pull within 1, but CM goaltender Drew Stanton kept them from doing so. The game ended with a 5-3 win for the Big Macs, who continue to conquer opponents in the third period. Drew Stanton made 21 saves to notch his league-leading 9th win of the year, while Mike Patterson and Craig Markovitz combined to make 25 saves for the Jaguars. The win improves Canon-McMillan's record to 11-0, and the loss gives TJ a 6-5-1 record heading in to the holiday break. The Big Macs open the second half of the season on January 3rd at home against Ambridge, and the Jaguars return home the same night to face Kittanning.