Freeport Yellow Jackets

HARMARVILLE - Check back later for this Game Summary !

CASTLE SHANNON - Upper St Clair coach Kip Guenther has inherited a nice young group of hockey players this season. In fact, there has always been talent at USC and the problem stems from years of not having a full lineup due to committments to amateur teams. The Panthers are still fighting that battle as Patrick Mullen was absent, while Kris McDonough is still nursing an injury. Even so, USC has scored some impressive performances against Bethel Park [3-3 tie] and their most recent win over Franklin Regional last Friday. Meadville, on the other hand, came into this evening's contest fresh from winning the Bulldog Invitational for the first time. Coach Jamie Plunkett's squad would have to play without top defenseman David Moyer. The # 1 Bulldogs were looking to maintain their division lead over Cathedral Prep. The first period was played quickly and both teams looked pretty rusty early on. The Panthers had a couple of decent scoring opportunities but the score remained 0-0 after one. Early in the second, both teams had chances to take the lead, but Meadville's Bahurinsky's shot at 14:17 rang off the crossbar and Matt McGinnis' shot with a little over ten minutes to go went sailing over the crossbar. Then Meadville opened the scoring as Christian Nickerson chipped the puck past RJ Vignetti at 7:46 to give the Dawgs a 1-0 lead. Upper St Clair came right back as Brian Gorder took an Ian Joyce past on the back door at 7:14. Then the Panther's got a huge to take the lead 2-1 as Ian Joyce scored at 6:15 on a big slapshot through traffic. Meadville answered at 5:24 as Nickerson took a Rick Thomas feed off the faceoff and beat Vignetti through the 5-hole. to tie the score at 2-2. The Panthers went on the power play early in the third and Brian Bahurinsky missed a golden opportunity to take the lead to no avail. Then at 9:55, Dan Duda scored on a rebound from the doorstep and the Panthers were smelling upset 3-2. Meadvile tied the game late in the third at 3-3, as Phil Siverd found a loose puck in the slot and buried it upstairs past Vignetti with 1:48 left and the Bulldogs salvaged a 3-3 tied with an impressive USC club.

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CASTLE SHANNON - Steel Valley has been through an up and down season and coach Tom Fetsko knows this could be a rebuilding year with several Freshman and Sophomores paving the future. The Ironmen started off quickly with 3 wins to start the season, but have struggled through the middle part of the season. Johnstown knows all about struggling, as Tom Rizzo's club has been in a holding pattern for a couple of years now, but looks to be improving with some youngsters who will begin an upward trend in the program over the next few years. John Preffer's early goal in the first period gave the Ironmen a 1-0 lead which it held onto after one. Early in the second period, Tony Bonacorsa blasted a long slapshot past the Johnstown goaltender to give SV a 2-0 lead. After Johnstown's Terry Bodenshatz scored to make it 2-1 at 10:43, freshman Mike Ulicny scored to extend the Ironmen lead to 3-1 at 9:10. On to the third and Steel Valley exploded for four goals as Preffer completed the hat trick with two goals and Tom Scheetz and Bonacorsa added singles to pace the Ironmen to a 7-1 victory over Johnstown.

CANONSBURG - Thomas Jefferson coach Don Powell has been trying to get his team to trust the system employed by the Jaguars and if this past weekend's performance in the Meadville Bulldog Invitational is any indication, the young pirahna's of TJ just might be gettting the message as they tangled with AAA powers Cathedral Prep and LaSalle in two outstanding efforts. Canon McMillan coach Pat Rheam has to be pulling his hair out lately as the Big Macs haven't received too many breaks lately. For instance, they just happened to be the sacrificial lamb for Peter Twp after the Indians were upset by Canevin and then after Canevin was defeated by West Allegheny, they rebounded to defeat the Big Macs 3-2. So maybe CM could catch Thomas Jefferson off guard a little. After a scoreless first period, TJ defenseman Darryl Nath jumped into the play and swatted his rebound out of midair past CM goaltender Andrew Stanton to give the Jags a 1-0 lead at 12:39. The Big Macs came right back at 12:06 as Evan Hall found a loose puck in the slot and wristed past Danny Hartman to tie the game at 1-1, after some excellent work by CM's Adam Zeh in the slot. TJ's Dan Thomas missed a golden opportunity on a shorthanded breakaway with a little under ten minutes left in the middle frame. The Jaguars Zach Hanbury cashed in at 6:20 of the 2nd as he scored on the breakaway through the 5-hole of Stanton to make it 2-1. Thomas made up for his miss with just 27 seconds left in the middle period, taking a nice feed from Derek Kelly and TJ now led 3-1. Canon McMillan came out flying in the third and capitalized as freshman Doug Stanton took nice feed from Aaron Veydt and beat Hartman to cut the lead to 3-2 at 13:46. Both teams had opportunities on the power play in the middle of the final period, but could not score as Hartman held off Canon Mac and Stanton held off TJ, including a nice slding stop on Zach Hanbury with 5:40 remaining. Then at 2:59, Thoams Jefferson got a huge insurance tally as Luke Wawrzeniak found a loose puck in the slot and scored to give the Jaguars 4-2 lead. Canon Mac went on the power play and Josh Toney scored on a beautiful backhand high upstairs on he glove side past Hartman and all the sudden the Big Macs where within one with 1:53 remaining. Canon Mac pulled Santon and could not get the equalizer as Thomas Jefferson held on for a 4-3 victory.