Montour Spartans

Greensburg CC 6 Latrobe 2 GREENSBURG – Latrobe was off to a great start and leading the East Division with a 5-2-1 record. The Wildcats dropped two contests against Canon McMillan and Pine Richland to end the first half of the season, which puts them back on the playoff bubble in Class AA. Coach Ron Makoski’s club is young and should mature in the second half of the season, but it will be important for the Cats to put up some W’s in January and February should they have playoff aspirations. Greensburg CC is off to a 6-3-1 mark, which gives them a one game lead over the Wildcats in the East Division. The Centarians are fresh off an appearance in the Ice Line Extravaganza, where Bill Buchholtz’s club lost in the finals to 2005 Flyers Cup AA champions Haverford High Fords 4-3. GCC should have confidence after a very strong showing in Philadelphia, to spearhead a nice run in the 2nd half of the season and position themselves for the playoffs. Marc Perez opened the scoring for the Centurians with a rebound goal with 11:19 remaining in the opening period as GCC held a 9-2 shot advantage for the games first 9 minutes. Evan George capitalized on a Latrobe defensive turnover at 4:18 of the 1st beating Jason Hendrick to the stick side to make it 2-0. Latrobe’s Matt Mesaros cut the lead to 2-1 and beat Ryan Homanics with a blistering slapshot high to the stick side with 1:09 remaining in the period. On to the 2nd period and Ryan Homanics made a terrific stop on Jeff Joe Regula with 13:01 remaining to keep the Centurians on top. GCC extended their lead to 3-1 at 7:02 as Alfonso Arevalo score from in close. GCC scored a very big insurance goal in this contest as Evan George capitalized on a partial break and buried a backhand high over the short side of Hendrick to make it 4-1. In the third period, Ryan Homanics continued to frustrate the Wildcats as he stopped Michael McCurdy at 13:53 on a sprawling save. Latrobe finally broke through on the power play at 10:45 as Brad Roth scored on a rebound beating Homanics, who could not recover in time and the score now stood at 4-2. Jason Tetkoski’s shot from the point on the power play was tipped by Shane Purvis and snuck past Hendrick to make the count 5-2 with 8:45 remaining in regulation. With 4:52 remaining, Marc Perez used the Latrobe defenseman as a screen and whistled a wrist shot past Hendrick’s stick side to make it 6-2. Final shots were 29-26 in favor of the Centurians.

2005 Ice Line Extravaganza AAA Division Standings 1st St Mary's [NY] 3-0-0 2nd Gonzaga [Md] 2-0-1 3rd University School [OH] 2-1-0 4th LaSalle 1-1-1 Holy Ghost Prep 0-3-0 Malvern Prep 0-3-0 Preliminary Round St Mary's [NY] 5 LaSalle 4 Gonzaga [Md] 2 Malvern Prep 1 University School [OH] 1 Holy Ghost Prep 0 Gonzaga [Md] 0 LaSalle 0 St Mary's [NY] 9 Holy Ghost Prep 3 University School [OH] 2 Malvern Prep 0 LaSalle 6 University School [OH] 1 Gonzaga [Md] 8 Holy Ghost Prep 1 St Mary's [NY] 7 Malvern Prep 3 Playoff Round - Semis St Mary's [NY] 4 LaSalle 3 [OT+SO] Gonzaga [Md] 3 University School [OH] 0 Playoff Round - Finals St.Mary's [NY] 4 Gonzaga [MD] 3 Comgratulations to St Mary's for winning the AAA Extravaganza 2005 Ice Line Extravaganza AA Division Standings - Red Conestoga 0-2-1 4th Greensburg CC 2-0-1 West Chester Henderson 0-2-1 2nd Neshaminy 2-0-1 Preliminary Round Neshaminy 2 Greensburg CC 2 West Chester Henderson 2 Conestoga 2 Neshaminy 3 Conestoga 0 Greensburg CC 3 West Chester Henderson 0 Greensburg CC 6 Conestoga 2 Neshaminy 5 West Chester Henderson 2 Standings - White Calvert Hall Prep [Md] 0-3-0 1st Kittanning 2-0-1 8th Pennsbury 1-1-1 7th Springfield 2-1-0 Preliminary Round Springfield 5 Pennsbury 2 Kittanning 5 Calvert Hall Prep [Md] 0 Kittanning 4 Springfield 1 Pennsbury 4 Calvert Hall Prep [Md] 3 Springfield 4 Calvert Hall Prep [Md] 3 Kittanning 3 Pennsbury 3 Standings - Blue 6th Downingtown West 2-1-0 3rd Haverford High 2-1-0 Landon School [Va] 0-3-0 5th LaSalle II 2-1-0 Preliminary Round Downingtown West 3 LaSalle II 1 Haverford High 10 Landon School [Va] 1 Haverford High 3 Downingtown West 1 LaSalle II 3 Landon School [Va] 1 Downingtown West 4 Landon School [Va] 3 LaSalle II 4 Haverford High 3 Playoff Round - Quarter-Finals 1st Kittanning 4 8th Pennsbury 1 2nd Neshaminy 3 7th Springfield 1 3rd Haverford High 4 6th Downingtown West 3 OT 4th Greensburg CC 2 5th LaSalle II 1 Playoff Round - Semi-Finals Greensburg CC 3 Kittanning 2 Neshaminy 2 Haverford High 6 Playoff Round - Finals Greensburg CC 3 Haverford High 4 Congratulations to the Haverford High Fords for winning the AA Extravaganza

St Edwards 5 McDowell 1 Padua 4 McDowell 1 Benedictine 3 McDowell 2 Mt. Lebanon 2 Upper Arlington 0 Mt Lebanon 1 Padua 1 Mt Lebanon 1 St Edwards 1 Championship Game St Edwards 2 Mt Lebanon 1 HIGHLIGHTS: Tied after 4 on 4 OT and thus went to a shootout.

CASTLE SHANNON - Special Report provided by Plum Hockey The Mustangs snapped a 2-2 tie with a three-goal outburst in a span of 1:03 early in the third period to defeat the Baldwin Highlanders by a score of 5-2. Plum’s only two Seniors, Matt Giunta (2G, 2A) and Jonathan Smith (1G, 3A) each had four-point nights; and Sophomore goalie John Bronder turned in a solid 32-save performance for the Mustangs. After an evenly played first period that saw Plum outshoot Baldwin by the narrow margin of 8-7, Baldwin scored early in the second period. Sam Smith fired a shot from a sharp angle, and the puck caromed off of Bronder’s stick into the net to give the Highlanders a 1-0 lead. Plum answered that goal three minutes later. At 9:54 with Plum on a power play, Giunta muscled the puck to Jonathan Smith who found Junior Andy Weston open in the slot. Weston roofed the puck over Highlander goalie Ryan Smith’s blocker to knot the score at one. Just 38 seconds later, the Mustangs got their first lead of the game when Jonathan Smith took a Giunta pass in the slot and fired almost the identical shot that Weston scored on, beating the Baldwin goalie over the blocker, top-shelf style. With only 1:35 to go in the second, Baldwin caught Plum in a bad line change. The Highlanders found Mike Swindell all alone at the Plum blue line and sent him in on a breakaway. Swindell made a slick move to the backhand and slid the puck past Bronder to even the game at two. The Mustangs came out smoking early in the third, and it paid off early when Giunta score Plum's second power play goal on a rebound of a slapshot from Freshman Jon Gratton at 12:14 of the period. Weston picked up an assist on the goal. Fifty-seven seconds later, Giunta pounced on another rebound and rifled it into the cage to give the Mustangs a two-goal lead. Jonathan Smith and Junior Matt Eller each assisted on Giunta’s second goal. The Highlanders then called timeout to regroup, but it was Plum who took advantage of the time out. On the ensuing face-off, Plum dumped the puck into the Baldwin zone. The Baldwin netminder misplayed the puck, and Sophomore Anthony Sciulli made him pay by shoveling the biscuit into the Baldwin net just six seconds after the timeout, making the score 5-2. Junior Shawn O’Connor and Jonathan Smith assisted on the Mustangs’ fifth goal. The Highlanders continued to pressure Plum in an effort to get back into the game, but Bronder turned away all 14 Baldwin shots in the third to secure the win for Plum. The Highlanders outshot the Mustangs 34-26 on the evening.

North Allegheny 9 Norwin 0 DELMONT – Norwin has struggled this season to a 1-8-0 mark as the season hits the midway mark. Head Coach Dave Warren has his team entered in the upcoming Pa Hockey Scholastic Showcase against the likes of Central Catholic, undefeated West Allegheny and of course North Allegheny, the defending Director’s Cup champions. The Knights will look to start the second half of their season tonight as they have competed at the Class AAA level, instead of take the easy route as others have done in the Open Division. Norwin’s hockey program will be much better off in the long run by competing at a higher level as their Junior Varsity and Freshman numbers continue to grow toward fielding three full teams for the first time in recent memory. North Allegheny’s hockey program has never struggled with numbers and Tom Pandolfo has a very talented group of younger players, who are beginning to get comfortable at the Varsity level. The Tigers are now part of a process, which they should be each year, of the chase for the Penguins Cup. With 2005’s Penguins Cup fresh enough in memory to be motivation to get back there, this is a team that dominated Class AAA a year ago only to fall short of their goal. With Mt Lebanon firmly entrenched as the favorite someone in Class AAA needs to claim that they want to challenge the Blue Devils and that list is becoming shorter and will get shorter before we get to March’s playoffs. North Allegheny, Bethel Park and Meadville look to be there with possibly a handful of other wannabees and my question is who? The team who is even thinking about it better have goaltending, play strong physical defense and be able to survive the playoffs early rounds. Norwin played the first period like a team that is not 1-8-0 and skated with the Tigers stride for stride. A couple of penalty exchanges on the power play led to a 4 on 4 situation with 3 minutes to go in the opening period and Norwin took a penalty to put NA on the power play. Mike Pochan made several nice stops on the Tiger power play as the shots rang to 9-1 in favor of North Allegheny. Jeff Mihalo had a nice chance for the Knights with just under a minute to play but Adam Lutty made the save. Pochan stopped Chris Simanic with just 2 seconds to play in the first. At 14:41 of the second period, Wes Waldschmidt picked up a wide shot off the boards and slipped it past Pochan to give NA a 1-0 lead. Chris Simanic picked up his own rebound at 11:41 on the power play after another couple of nice stops by Pochan to make it 2-0. After Norwin changed goaltender’s, Danny Gaertner greeted the new Knight goaltender Stewart with a quick goal to make it 3-0 with 11:15 remaining in the period. At 8:20 of the 2nd, Paul Dittrich walked down the slot and unleashed a wrist shot up under the crossbar to make it 4-0 after a scoreless first. With 57 seconds remaining in the period on the power play, Alan Halapin unloaded a wicked wrist shot high over the glove side of Stewart to make the count 5-0 and the shots in the period 24-7 for the middle period. Norwin just ran out of gas and any hope in the third as the Tigers turned the game into cruise control and added four more goals and rung up a shot total of 43-10 for a 9-0 victory over the Knights. Danny Gaertner scored on a backhand at 13:16, Chris Simanic scored on a deke and backhand at 9:14, Nick Vaglia scored at 5:44, and Chris Gilson finished a nice back door pass from Simanic with 1:42.