Seneca Valley Raiders

HARMARVILLE ~ Central Catholic opened up the regular season with a pair of victories against Meadville and Latrobe last week, which has the Vikings ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Week 1 poll. So if this CC team is thinking undefeated or State Championship after defeating the defenders, well who could blame them. Ever the concerned coach Kevin Zielmanski knows better and probably needed a ‘Hoosiers’ re-run that ‘we never talk about the next step until we handled the one in front of us!” for his team as Central faced off against former division rival Shaler. Now the professor Ron Steedle returned to Shaler after a two-year hiatus after 18 years at the helm, and the long-time coach understands that to put the Titans in the same breath as Central Catholic would take a special effort from his squad. Maybe a little motivation by the # 1 ranking or maybe the challenge of playing a top ranked team could spur Shaler to pull off the unexpected. Titan netminder sophomore Ben Burns pitched a shutout against Norwin in game one and would be called upon to do the same against CC. Shaler was the aggressor early in the first period and forced the Vikings out of their rhythm with hard work and some physical play. The result was that Shaler took the lead as Tom Carter beat Russ Hefner low on the ice at 7:03 after a nice feed from Josh Bauer. But Bauer got into a match of words with the Viking bench and was sent off for unsportsmanlike penalty putting the CC power play to work. After Shaler survived the # 1 unit of CC, it was the muckers and grinders for the Vikings who got the job done as Neal Kennihan pushed a loose puck past Burns after some hard work by line-mates Conner Hickton and Michael McGurk, who assisted on the play to tie the score at one apiece at 5:38, a PPG goal. A very even hockey game and a very interesting plot was developing as Shaler looked to keep the game close despite being outshot 8-4. With :11 left in the period, Matt Urso tied up the Shaler center on the draw and the crafty and slippery Eddie Martin chipped a seemingly harmless shot at Ben Burns through traffic, which just found its way over the shoulder for a 2-1 Central Catholic lead with just :08 left. On to the second and the Vikings had several power play opportunities but could not beat Ben Burns, who turned away 12 Viking shots. Russ Hefner had to be sharp while facing only 4 shots as the Titans almost tied the game late in the period as the teams headed to the locker room tied 1-1. In the third period, Shaler killed off a penalty and kept the game within reach. A partial break with a two on one was broken up by the Central D a near miss for Josh Bauer to tie the game in the middle of the period. Burns was holding the fort stopping all 11 Central shots and enabling his team to pull the goalie with a minute to play. All Shaler needed was a opening and had a couple of good chances but Hefner would deny the Titans and Central would hold on for a 2-1 victory before a packed house at Harmarville.