Seneca Valley Raiders

Meadville refuses to go away quietly and storms back for 8th State Title! ICELINE ~ Malvern Prep had to feel a sigh of relief to know that they would not have to deal with Bethel Park during the week the Flyers Cup began in mid-March. The Friars have been the best team in Eastern Pa and demolished the Flyers Cup field in the preliminary’s and then defeated an excellent LaSalle team 2-1 for their 3rd straight Flyers Cup to give themselves a third straight opportunity for a Pennsylvania Class AAA State Championship. A major obstacle for Malvern Prep has been Bethel Park, who defeated the Friars in their past three trips to the finals 3-2 in 2002 at Rostraver, 2-1 in 2001 at Haverford and 4-3 in 1997 at Ice Line in three of the best State Final games in recent memory. When the Blackhawks were ousted in the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals at the hands of Franklin Regional 6-3, the Malvern Prep faithful breath a quiet sigh of relief. Class Head Coach John Graves club would be ready to capture Malvern’s first Pennsylvania Class AAA State Championship since a 1990 win over Upper St Clair 6-3 in Pittsburgh. To help them on was an overflow crowd of an estimated 1600 shoulder to shoulder, with a loud cow bell clanging and chanting Friar student section looking to give the home team a lift. For Meadville, it has been a long drought for Pennsylvania’s 7-time State Champions [6 at Class AAA]. Coach Jamie Plunkett and his Bulldogs were licking their chops to redeem the 1999 triple overtime loss to Conwell Egan at Grundy and capture their first State Title since 1996 in Johnstown, a 3-2 victory over LaSalle. The reason for such optimism this season is simple, for much of the Dawg’s season, which culminated in an 18-3-3 record, Meadville has been able to get key goals at key times late in the game to tie or win games maybe they should not have, which is a formula for great success in the playoffs. With their first ever title in the Bulldog Invitational in January 2002, the hopes where really high in Meadville, that this could be the year. The Bulldogs made it to the Penguins Cup with relative ease defeating their opponents the first three game including North Hills, Plum and arch-rival Central Catholic by a total of 16-3 and jumped all over Franklin Regional in the Penguins Cup for an impressive 8-3 win capturing their 9th Western crown. As usual a large contingent of Meadville faithful were standing the entire game with chants of ‘Let’s go Dawgs’. Meadville’s strategy against many of their opponent’s was to jump on them early in the first period. Malvern Prep turned the tables as the Friars used the huge crowd to their advantage and Mike Curran opened the scoring at 11:58 of the first period. Just 52 seconds later, Prep opened up a 2-0 lead as Chris Campanale took a Curran feed and beat Danny O’Sharuk at 11:06. Meadville cut the lead in half as D.J. Durkee scored upstairs past Mark Cetola at 7:12 of 1st period. In the second period, the Bulldogs looked to tie the game, but Campanale had other ideas as he blistered a slapshot past O’Sharuk at 12:33 sending the Friar faithful into a tizzy in the end zone. If there was a turning point of the hockey game it may have been at 9:33of the middle period as stud defenseman and Pa Hockey top 25 selection for Malvern Prep Andreas Wochtl was whistled for a two minute crosscheck, but was also given a 10 minute misconduct, which is a questionable call in a State Championship final, but nonetheless gave Meadville new life, which is a dangerous proposition. Christian Nickerson took an outstanding pass from Phill Siverd on the back door for a power play goal and more importantly cut the Malvern lead to 3-2 with 8:20 remaining in the 2nd. Justin Martin recaptured the two goal lead as he took a long lead pass from Tim Horn and beat the Bulldog defense and O’Sharuk on the breakaway at 8:20 and a 4-2 lead for the Friars. Meadville was now in trouble as the Malvern was pressing for the 3-goal lead, but O’Sharuk stood tall and the Dawgs got a huge break as the Malvern defense committed a huge sin by throwing the puck up the middle of the ice, which was intercepted by Justin Wehrle who in one motion bombed a wrist shot past Cetola on the stick side and cut the lead to 4-3 with 2:09 left in the second period. Meadville has been in this situation before and coach Plunkett inspired his team by telling them to ‘If Malvern is going to win it, lets make them earn their State Championship and not hand it to them’. The Bulldogs played inspired defensive and fundamental hockey in the third period, but the Friars matched them shift for shift. Malvern snipers Mike Curran and Chris Campanale both had good chaces in the third but could beat O’Sharuk, who faced only 8 shots but several good scoring chances for the Friars. Meadville gained the Prep zone with under five minutes left and a collision ensued between Phil Siverd and the Malvern defenseman and entangled goaltender Cetola, who was out of the crease. Meadville took advantage as Wehrle found Chris Claspy at the left point, who slammed a snapshot into the half empty net with just 4:41 left and the game was tied at 4-4. Meadville seized the moment just a little over a minute later as Brian Bahurinsky threw the puck to the net and Malvern just could stand and watch as the speedy Christian Nickerson beat the Malvern defense and Cetola to the loose puck and poked it home giving the Bulldogs its first lead 5-4 with exactly 3:00 remaining in regulation. Now the Friars backs where to the wall and they pulled Cetola for the extra attacker and had several chances, the best with under a minute to play as Curran beat the Bulldog defense, but the puck trickled off his stick in an attempted backhand. Meadville would hold on for a 5-4 victory and the Dawgs would capture Pennsylvania Cup # 8 in dramatic fashion. Coach Plunkett said it best when he said “you don’t appreciate something until its gone for seven years” and that that “this State Championship may be appreciated the most !”. The soft spoken Bulldog forward Brian Bahurinsky shared “that of all of the goals you can score in your career combined couldn’t compare with the big ‘W’ that the Bulldogs had achieved in 2003” and that really encompasses what the Meadville Hockey program is all about………winning their last game in the season and doing it as a team ! For coach Graves and Malvern, another disappointing finish to another great season falling one goal short for a third straight season, but the coach vowed to be back and capture that elusive State crown, sometimes the process takes a while and for coach Plunkett it was seven years since 1996 and the last one and for coach Graves, he will get that championship and when he does there will not be a more gracious winner than him.