Central Catholic Vikings

HARMARVILLE - Butler has a very young club this season which includes a lot of players which have been forced to play at the Varsity level due to players who have chosen amatuer hockey over high school. Therefore, coach Ed Bernot has witness a shooting gallery for his goaltender Bucky Holt. Fox Chapel on the other hand is looking to challenge Central Catholic for the North Division lead and was looking to rebound from a heartbreaking loss to McDowell 8-7. Keith Kearney's squad has some nice looking skaters, some so fast that the officials had trouble keeping track of the goals. The Foxes raced to a 6-0 lead in the first period and never looked back in a 9-2 victory. Fox Chapel was paced by four goals by Jason Kreps and a pair by Matt Quigley and Matt King. The goal that never went in was via Joe Budz, but the officials called it a goal and it stood. Greg Rogerson and BJ Tipton scored for the Golden Toronadoes.

MONROEVILLE - Gateway coach Dan Serakowski knows nothing about last season where the Gators tied or lost 13 games where they had the lead or were tied going to the third period and frankly I don't think that matters with this years team because Gateway has had only one bump in the road in a 6-1 start. North Allegheny on the other hand started this season like gangbusters defeating Meadville in the opener and coach Brian Hershberger had to be wondering where it all went after NA were handed a 6-1 pummeling at the hands of long time division nemesis McDowell last week. An undisciplined Gateway penalty in the first period resulted in the opening cscore at 1:51 on the power play as Jake Ridey popped home a rebound to give the Tigers a 1-0 advantage. Early in the second period, the Gators had a 5 on 3 opportunity with alot of perimeter passing with very limited scoring chances and no goals. Maybe the best philosiphy sometimes is to just shoot the puck and that's what happen as Zach Flora shot a wrister at Bobby Daley on the shortside which handcuffed the NA Netminder and tied the score at 1-1 at 10:42. NA's Joe Rosenberg came right back at 9:42 as he tipped in a Jason Ryan shot from the point past David Himes to make it 2-1. Gateway went to work on the power play and it was the Gators little big man Lucas Pepper stationed in front, who took a nice pass from Chris Gyke and beat Daley upstairs to tie the game at 7:49. North Allegheny's Marc Clermont missed a golden opportunity late in the second at 2:15 with a wide open net and a down and out Himes but could not control the bouncing puck and the score remained tied. On to the third and the Gators struck early as Gyke threw the puck out in front where Pepper fought off an NA defender and threw the puck to the net at 14:08 which glanced off another Tiger and into the net for a 3-2 Gateway lead. The Gators picked up the pace and Matt Kopaczynski, who if he hit the net half the time would score 50 + goals, struck paydirt and made his eight shot of the evening beat Daley to give his team a two goal edge 4-2. While he was hot, Kopaczynski did it again at 6:06 getting his own rebound and scoring to extend the Gator lead to 5-2. NA's Neal Lancaster scored with 18 seconds remaining to make it 5-3 and as it proved to be too little ...too late and Gateway went on to a 5-3 victory setting up a big matchup with Cathedral Prep on Thursday.

CONNELLSVILLE [Special to Pa Hockey] - On December 23, 2000 Pa Hockey was only three days old and Connellsville defeated Woodland Hills 8-3 at the Ice Mine. The Falcons had gone almost 30 games winless until tonight with an 8-2 victory over Woodland Hills.

BETHEL PARK - Plum coach Stu Relnick was looking forward to this game with Bethel Park as a measuring stick for his young club, which had reeled off seven consecutive victories after an opening night loss to Franklin Regional. The Mustangs were ranked # 3 in this weeks Post Gazette poll and it seemed worthy of the ranking, but a notch in their belt would be a win over the three time defending state champion. Bethel Park is ranked fourth in the poll after a couple of stumblings against North Hills and Baldwin left the Hawks at 4-1-1, Head coach Jim McVay was looking for his club and maybe some of his leaders to step to the forefront from a stiff challenge from the Mustangs. A very well played first period saw both teams play excellent defensive hockey through the opening ten minutes. Then Plum took an undisciplined penalty at 3:10 of the first and Bethel made them pay as Brandon Hanley scored on the wrist shot through the 5 hole of B.J. Schreib to make it 1-0. Plum came back in the second period as Phil Mains tipped a Danny Coyle shot from the right point past Brian Bakowski to knot the game at 1-1 at 13:47. Plum seemed to be taking the play to the Hawks, but Grady Clingan shot a puck from a wierd angle which hit off Schreibs back and gave Bethel the lead at 10:46 at 2-1. Another undisciplined penalty by Plum led to Hanley walking off the near boards and firing a wrist shot upstairs on the glove side past Schreib at 7:11 on the power play and extended the Bethel lead to 3-1. Just a minute later, Clingan came over the blue line and unleashed a big slapshot past Schrieb to give Bethel a 4-1 lead. J.P. Balson relieved Schreib and played well keeping the Hawks off the board. The Mustangs had a great chance late in the second to get back in the game with a 5 on 3, but Bethel performed some excellent penalty killing and took the starch out of the Mustangs and the score stood at 4-1. In the third period, Bethel Park was up to its old tricks as the Hawks stymied Plum with the territorial advantage and in shots at 10-4. The Mustangs pulled the goalie and Hanley scored on a 180 foot slapshot into an empty net to complete the hat trick and pace BP to a 5-1 victory.

CRANBERRY - Sewickley Academy Erik Hoolihan knows the rigors of starting a Varsity Program in Interscholastic Hockey and now that the Panthers are returning to Class A competition in the 2002-2003 season for the first time in three years, he has to have little advice for Linsly skipper Darryl Crews about patience. The Cadets have started off their inuagural season at 0-5 and have not been real close to victory in any of their starts thus far, so when Matt Jividen gave Linsly a 1-0 lead in the first period, coach Hoolihan probably sensed a false sense of security on the opposing bench. The Panthers Trevor Heck tied the game with a power play goal with 5:26 left in the opening period at 1-1. The second period saw Sewickley Academy have the better of the play and made it count as captain Jake Creese scored at the 8:35 mark to give his team the lead 2-1. Linsly attempted to pressure SA early in the third and the Panthers made them pay as Creese used good speed to get a breakaway goal at 13:40 beating Linsly keeper Keith Bramer on the backhand. Just nine seconds later, freshman callup Bradley Watts scored at 13:31 to give the Panthers a 4-1 lead. Lightning struck again as Watts bettered himself only seven seconds later beating Bramer on the glove side and chasing the Linsly goaltender from the nets at 13:24 and giving Sewickley a 5-1 lead. Alce Shannon closed out the scoring at 1:20 as Sewickley ended a 5-game losing skid with a 6-1 victory. Karthik Reddy stopped 16 of 17 Cadets shots between the pipes.