Seneca Valley Raiders

Thank you for the contributions to this report from Hempfield Hockey Hempfield coach Bruce Cameron has to be pleased with the start for his Spartan club, which sits at 4-2-0 behind Franklin Regional in the East Division. A win over Penn Trafford would tie Hempfield for the Division lead, which has been a rarity for the Spartans for the past few years. Hempfield goaltender Julian Yakubisin has lead Hempfield with some fine goaltending over the past few games. Penn Trafford coach Todd Purvis knows his team is a playoff contender because the Warriors have been to the playoffs the past two season with a very young squads and are looking to mature to make some noise in Class AAA. At 1-5-0, PT desperately needed a win to get back into the division race and would need some of its big guns to produce, including the swift Chris Cerutti, who has led the Warriors in scoring from the outset this season. One look at the schedule for Penn Trafford in November will tell you that this team has played Class AAA’s elite in losses to Bethel Park, Franklin Regional, Plum and Upper St. Clair, so the worst stretch of the schedule may be behind the Warriors. Hempfield wasted no time jumping on Penn Trafford as John Zurenski buried a backhand upstairs past Joel Sterniak just 30 seconds into the first period. Julian Yakubisin made a couple of stops on a nice flurry by the PT offense at 12:43. Dave Brammel got Penn Trafford on the board at 9:14 takinga beautiful pass from Anthony Scarpo to tie the game. Joel Sterniak preserved the PT lead stopping a wrist shot from Jeff Robinson at 4:53. Chris Cerutti scored a clutch goal after that as he buried a shot upstairs over Yakubisin to give the Warriors the lead at 3:24. The second period was penalty filled and pretty chippy and Penn Trafford dominated play outshooting Hempfield 22-14 through the first two periods. Chris Cerutti scored a huge insurance goal on the power play with 6:46 remaining and Penn Trafford took a 3-1 lead to the final period. At 10:50 of third John Zurenski scored on a rebound on the power play goal to get Hempfield back in it at 3-2. PT came back picking the Hempfield defense’s pocket as Cerutti went on the breakaway and deeked to lower right side of Yakubison at 8:43 of the third to make it 4-2. PT then made it 5-2 with 5:42 left when Anthony Scarpo came down the left side and fired a slapshot to the upper right corner over Yakubishin's glove and seal the victory for the Warriors.