Central Catholic Vikings

GREENSBURG - Plum and Greensburg CC squared off in the GCC Invitational finals in a renewal of two old WPIHL AA rivals through the mid 1990's. In fact the last time they played a key game a kid by the name of Umberger was skating for the Mustangs and GCC was coming off a AA State Championship. Anyway, Plum Head Coach Stu Relnick was looking to see how his young club would respond to a pressure game against a very well balanced Centarian squad with new skipper Joe Dytka. Plum scored first in the contest at 8:34 as Travis Senchur scored to givethe Mustangs 1-0 lead. Greensburg Central responded on the power play as Colin Ludwig took a Matt Ward feed in between the circles and fired a blast past BJ Schreib to knot the score at one apiece. In a game with good action and equal scoring opportunities Plum and GCC battled into the second period and the score remained 1-1. Then that combination showed another look as Ludwig cycled off a Ward pass and backhanded a shot upstairs past Schreib to give the Centarians their first lead at 5:04 of the middle frame at 2-1. On to the third peiod and the Mustangs were pressing for the equalizer outshooting GCC 8-3 . It was Jake Genes who snuffed Plum and held them off the board including a point blank save on John Kalichuk with 3:02 remaining. The Centarians went on to hold on and win their own Invitational and serve notice to Class AA that the will be a factor come playoff time.

Pa Hockey's Annual Poll is out ............ The 8th Annual Pre-Season Coaches Poll of Western Pennsylvania. Normally we give notoriety to the top dawg [if you will] in eachclassification the poll. Pa Hockey is displaying the school's in each classification who have made the biggest jump in the rankings according to the coaches. Click away to see the Pre-Season choices for 2002-2003 !!!

Sources close to Pa Hockey have informed us that Mercyhurst Prep will not play in the PIHL for the 2002-2003 season. Class A schools have confimred that the Mercyhurst games will not be played. Mercyhurst joins Seneca Valley, Keystone Oaks, Chartiers Valley, North Catholic, Belle Vernon, and Seton LaSalle to become the 7th school to commit to a Varsity team and not be scheduled. As reported earlier this year, due to the exorbitant fees associated charged by the league, teams with long standing histories like CV and NC and some newer programs are being forced out of business.

HARMARVILLE - Coach Brian Hershberger's North Allegheny squad waltzed through the last years Fall Face-Off and won the championship and frankly made it look easy and the question was could they do it again. With tight one goal victories over Plum and Shaler, the Tigers were looking for one more win to repeat. Franklin Regional, on the other hand was looking to exercise some demons of past St Margarets and North Allegheny. The Panthers reached the finals in 1996 and 1997 only to lose to Fox Chapel both times....well that wasn't happening this time because FR extinguished the Foxes 7-3 in Tuesday's semi finals. OK ....captain Mike Roth and his linemate Jimmie Daugherty had another reason and it was the double overtime loss to NA in the second round of last years playoffs which they had vowed to not let happen again. Add on the Panther Head Coach Jim Damp was a former Tiger coach, well then there was some real motivation ! .....And it didn't take long to see that motivation as just 3:45 into the opening frame, Daugherty took the puck in the NA zone turned and ripped a slapper past Bobby Daly to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. At the other end Brandon Stallard was stoning any and all Tiger threats. Late in the period Daugherty beat the NA defense to the puck and slid a beautiful pass to Mike Roth, who made no mistake deking Daly to make it 2-0. On to the second and Franklin showed its depth as David Hopper snapped one by Daly 3-0. Luke Baughman added another tally midway through the period as Stallard looked like Ken Dryden at the other end in shutting out NA. In the third, Franklin was looking for some salt to NA's wound and Joe Ferrierro provided it to put Franklin on top 5-0. The Panthers continued pressing and the Tigers were realing. Then NA's Brandon Lied finally got his team on the board at 11:14 to make it 5-1. The Tigers scored two more goals in the games final minute by Matt Zrebiac and Bill Waldschmidt to attempt a furious rally, but Roth added an empty netter and Franklin won its first St Margarets Championship 6-3.

HARMARVILLE - North Allegheny 6 Shaler 5 - A battle of two long time AAA rivals took place in the St Margarets Semi-Finals as Shaler and NA locked horns in a battle of the last two champions of the Fall FaceOff, as the Tigers [defending 2001 champs] and Titans [2000 champs]. The upstart Titans came out smokin in the first period and took advantage of their opportunities with two power play goals from Justin Thomas. NA killed off the third power play and caught Shaler napping as Brian Maloney scored a huge goal with just 23 seconds left to cut the Shaler lead to 2-1. On to the 2nd period and Thomas completed the hat trick to give the Titans a 3-1 lead. But Shaler got a little sloppy in their own end and Maloney scored two goals in ten seconds to tie the game at 3-3 ten minutes into the middle period. Shaler answered a minute later as Chris Szczpinski drill home a shot from the right circle to give the Titans the lead 4-3. After the teams traded goals, NA's Tim Ward found Brandon Lied in the slot to tie the game at the 6:28 mark of the third period. Matt Zrebiac put the Tigers on top for the first time on the evening and NA held on for a hard fought 6-5 victory. Franklin Regional 7 Fox Chapel 3 As rivalries go, another big St Margarets tradition involve Franklin and Fox Chapel, who met in the 1997 and 1998 Fall Face Off finals, with the Foxes coming with the championship both times. In a back and forth affair, the Panthers and the Foxes battled to a 3-3 tie wehn Pat King scored seven seconds into the third period. Franklin Regional regain the lead as Mike Roth tallied a minute and a half later to give the Panthers a 4-3 lead. Then a bounce of good fortune off Roths skate at the half way point of the final period found its way past Todd Hendry and FR was now up 5-3. Jimmy Daugherty added a big insurance goal just 24 seconds later as Franklin added an empty netter to march on to the St Margarets final. The win sets up a final between NA and Franklin Regional, which will be a rematch of the memorable first round double overtime thriller of the 2002 playoffs in March, when the Tigers beat the Panthers. It should be a great matchup.