Seneca Valley Raiders

3/22/04 ~ Serra Eagles do it again… over who else but McCort PITTSBURGH – The year 1999 was only 5 years ago, must seem like eternity for Bishop McCort head coach John Bradley. You see, that was the year that the Crimson Crushers defeated Archbishop Ryan 9-3 at the Grundy Arena in Bristol, Pa. As over 1000 fans traveled over 5 hours by bus to witness the first # 8 seed in playoff history win the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Class A Championship. McCort has 13 straight playoff appearances including 5 State Championships, a 306 – 124 – 15 record over 19 seasons and probably the most staggering statistic is that the Crimson Crushers have been to the Penguins Cup semi-final round 12 out of 13 years and the Penguins Cup finals nine of those years. For most Interscholastic Hockey programs, these figure are in another planet, but for the Red, Gold and White from Johnstown, their measurement is justified in one way and that is the last game of the season is the one they want the most and for Bishop McCort, the last four years have been in the form of a loss to the Serra Catholic Eagles. It all started back in the 1995-96 season, as John and Tom Mooney took the reigns at Serra and played in the WPIHL East Division and took a beating at the hands of the Johnstown teams for a 6-13-0 record. The move to the SHIHL in 1996-97 brought new life to the Serra program as the team moved from the Golden Mile to the Rostraver Ice Garden and a great improvement to 10-10-2. It was the 1998-99 year that the Eagles first started to make their move in Class A with a close battle with defending State Class A champions Seton LaSalle for the SHIHL title and their first playoff appearance in six years. The next season would start one of the most prolific runs in State playoff history as the Eagles would go all the way beating defending State Champions Bishop McCort in the 2000 Penguins Cup finals at the Erie Civic Center and then Flyers Cup champion Pennsbury 3-1 at the Civic Arena for their first Pennsylvania Class A championship. In 2001, Serra defeated Bishop McCort at the War Memorial in a wild affair before over 1500 fans 6-3 and went on to win the State Championship over Springfield, with a 5-4 comeback victory and a coming out of sorts for a freshman goaltender named Timmy Johnson. In 2002, Johnson shut out the Crimson Crushers again at the Mellon Arena 3-0 and then the Eagles defeated a very good Radnor team in my opinion the best Class A finals ever 5-4 at the Rostraver Ice Garden on a late goal by Devon Kane and another outstanding performance by Timmy Johnson, who held Radnor off the board with several spectacular saves. In 2003, Serra made it four years in a row over McCort in the Penguins Cup semi-finals, but fell to Westmont-Hilltop 4-3 in the Class Penguins Cup at Neville Island. So like we haven’t had enough, here we are back again for round 5 of the Serra – Bishop McCort playoff saga. The Crimson Crushers came out stormin in the first period with a 6-0 shot advantage. Serra went on the power play, but McCort’s Joe Delic stripped the Eagle defenseman of the puck and proceeded to move in and beat Timmy Johnson between the legs for a 1-0 Crusher lead at 7:20. The Eagles got their first shot on goal at 6:42 and then Justin Lubasch took advantage of a non-call in the McCort zone, as a Crusher was hauled down, and beat Ron Stenger with a blistering wrist shot high to the glove side to tie the game at one apiece. Serra apparently scored at 5:50 but the goal was waved off due to the net being dislodged as Tony Duco’s goal would not count. On the next shift, Serra would take the lead as Ray Gillis scored on the backhand after some great work down low by Joey Manning and Lubasch at 5:11. The Crimson Crushers would come back at the one- minute mark on the power play as Joe Delic got his own rebound and beat a sprawling Johnson to tie the game at 2-2. On to the second period and McCort had a golden opportunity to take the lead but Ryan Noone made an all-world defensive play knocking the puck off of Chris Grady’s stick at 11:26, who had a wide open net after a great pass from Delic. The teams were jockeying for territorial position and the Crimson Crushers looked to be finding their game. One thing we need to remember is that the Eagles always find a way when it come to Bishop McCort and Timmy Johnson would stop all eight Crusher shots in the second and Justin Lubasch would provide the killer goal. McCort got a little sloppy in their defensive coverage and Lubasch made them pay as he found a loose puck on the doorstep and roofed it up over a fallen Ron Stenger at 6:47 and Serra had the lead 3-2. On the next shift and 13 seconds later it would be a great play by last weeks hero Philip Ivkovich to keep the puck in the zone on a bad Crusher clearing attempt, a great presence by Tony Duco to throw the puck toward the net and a streaking Steve Gruhalla to deposit a shot into the empty net for a 4-2 Serra lead and sending Bishop McCort to the locker room and possibly to the bus back to Johnstown. The third period was an exercise of Serra just holding off McCort, getting the puck deep and frustrating the Crimson Crushers. Although McCort had 10 shots all of the frustration would end at 3:27 when a Crusher shot trickled past Timmy Johnson and laid on the goal line for what seemed like five years probably to the McCort players, fans and head coach John Bradley. ‘No Goal’ said goal judge Paul Plinta, ‘No Goal’ said Referee Dave Donatelli, ‘No Goal’ said PA announcer Bob Sebastian as the McCort players could just sit and watch and Serra and Timmy Johnson just said ‘No Goal’ in a big way and when Joey Manning buried a wrist shot 14 seconds later to make it 5-2 at 3:13, it was a time to celebrate as Serra was off to its 5th consecutive Penguins Cup sending the Crimson Crushers packing for the 5th year in a row. When seldom used players Alex Bulischeck and Matt Radovic hit the ice for Serra in the games final minute, Timmy Johnson took a little victory lap around the Mellon Arena ice and bang his stick on the ice to let McCort know that Serra Catholic will go on to meet Somerset in the 2004 Penguins Cup final on March 28 at noon at the Mellon Arena.