Seneca Valley Raiders

SEMI-FINALS Fox Chapel 3 Franklin Regional 2 [OT] Sure Fox Chapel defeated Franklin Regional 6-2 last week in the St Margaret’s Fall Face-Off and it shouldn’t be a problem to assume the Foxes would handle the Panthers pretty easily in the Greensburg CC Invitational Semi-Finals since FR would again be without Jimmie Daugherty, who appears to be out for an extended period and Lou Levine and Mark Gigliotti, who are still on the gridiron. FC raced to a 2-0 lead in the 1st period on goals by Dan Thiessen [4:46] and Justin Kreps [0:27] and a commanding shot advantage of 9-3. Franklin Regional showed resolve in the 2nd period by pressuring netminder Todd Hendry with 10 shots to the Foxes 6. The third period was all Franklin as Luke Baughman and Jeremy Truxal rallied the Panthers to tie the game with 2:53 remaining to force overtime. Chris Fonzi turned away all 13 FC shots. Fox Chapel’s Adam Petrovich put the game on ice with a high shot from in between the circles past Fonzi to send the Foxes to the finals. Greensburg CC 3 Plum 2 Centarian coach Joe Dykta had to go to his backup goalie for the semi-final matchup with Plum as Jake Genes was helping the GCC Soccer team win in WPIAL playoff action, not to mention resting for the big football matchup with rival Jeannette Friday night. So the Mustang big guns were probably salivating over the prospects of facing Kent Weaver, but the GCC netminder was the games star through the first 20 minutes as he was keeping his team close at only 2-0, after goals by Plum’s Travis Senchur at 1:16 of the 1st and Phil Mains on a backhander at 4:22 of the 2nd. Weaver stoned the Mustangs barrage late in the middle period including a brilliant save on Jonathon Smith with under 3 minutes left. Then GCC got a break as Mains fell down allowing Marc Perez a breakaway, who buried a wrist shot past JP Balson to cut the lead to 2-1 with just 25 seconds remaining in the period. On to the 3rd period and GCC tied the game as John Kennedy poked a rebound home at 11:37 and we had a new hockey game at two apiece. Plum went on the power play with a little under four minutes left in regulation but could not beat Weaver, who stopped 28 of 30 Mustang shots. The Centarians got an odd man break after killing the penalty and Zach Cutrell made Plum pay as he waltzed down the right side and buried a wrist shot high over the shoulder of Balson giving GCC a 3-2 victory and a date with Fox Chapel in the finals.