Seneca Valley Raiders

Prelimary Round Latrobe 1 McDowell 1 Nick DiSanti scored for the Trojans 12:38 of the first period to give his team a 1-0 lead. David Farah tied the score for Latrobe with 2:43 remaining in the 2nd period as the Wildcats and McDowell battled to a 1-1 tie. Latrobe goalie Jason Hendrick stopped 27 of 28 shots, while the Trojan combo of John Cleary and Tim Shea, stopped 20 of 21 shots. Baldwin 5 Downingtown West 3 Baldwin spotted Downingtown West a 2-0 lead as Eric Marino and Bobby Blanken scored for the Whippets early in the 1st at 14:08 and again early in the 2nd at 14:19. The Highlanders rattled off four straight goals in the second as Mike Kirk notched a pair and teammates Chad Revak and Brad Haas also lit the lamp to give Bladwin a 4-2 lead going to the third. Blanken’s power play goal with 2:10 remaining cut the lead to 4-3, but Mike Kirk added an empty netter for the hat trick to give the Highlanders a 5-3 victory and an outside shot at getting to the title game pending the out come of Serra Catholic’s final two games. Baldwin netminder Ryan Smith made several key saves in the third period stopping 19 of 22 shots in the game. Serra 8 Butler 1 Serra won its second game of the Invitational and set up an opportunity to go to the finals with a win or tie against Downingtown West with a convincing 8-1 victory over Butler. Josh Werner and Jared Matthews each scored a pair of goals as Steven Gruhala, Matthew Radovic, Michael Puskar and Aaron Nolte added goals for the Eagles. Serra outshot Butler 38-11, with Nick Koroly yielding only one goal to Zach Pennington. Conestoga 5 Latrobe 2 Conestoga won their opening game over Kittanning 4-1 in the opener of the Kittanning Invitational. A young Latrobe team had other ideas after a loss to the Kittanning Wildcats and a tie earlier in the day against McDowell. Mike Kimmel opened the scoring for Latrobe early in the first at 13:12 and Matt Mesaros made it 2-0 with6:06 left in the opening period. Conestoga went to work in the second period as Kyle Izett scored a natural hat trick with three goals in 2 minutes and 2 seconds as the Pioneers jolted to a 3-2 lead and took that lead to the ice cut. Insurance came in the form of linemate Billy Conlin, who had two assists on the Izett goals in the second period and added a huge goal with 10:27 left in the third. Kyle Izett capped of a four goal performance with 5:42 remaining as Conestoga outshot Latrobe 33-18 putting head coach Mike Grave’s Pioneers in the driver’s seat for a spot in the finals. Kittanning 5 McDowell 4 McDowell opened up the 2005 Kittanning Invitational with a 1-1 tie against Latrobe and the win would prove costly as starting goaltender John Cleary would be ejected and have to sit out this afternoon’s contest. Kittanning owned a victory over Latrobe and a loss to Conestoga and both teams would need help to get an opportunity to play for the championship. The Trojan’s Nick DiSanti opened the scoring at 11:33 of the opening period. Ethan Zimmerman knotted the score for the Wildcats at 4:33 of the 1st. After a scoreless second period Kittanning struck first as Joey Ford combined with Zach Avi to give the Cat’s a 2-1 lead. Ed Maras and Steve Murray scored at 9:02 and 4:53 and it looked like the Trojans would win this taking a 3-2 advantage. Back came the Wildcats as Evan Blodgett scored with 3:08 remaining to tie it and Nick Troup converted with just 1:11 remaining to give hometown Kittanning a heartstopping 4-3 win, despite being outshot 44-18. Joey Mecurio was stellar between the pipes stopping 41 McDowell shots.