Seneca Valley Raiders

Fox Chapel 5 Cathedral Prep 1 HARMARVILLE – After the fine staff of Harmarville BladeRunners was kind enough to set up an extension cord for the Bat Computer. The only Sunday night game between the Foxes and Ramblers would get under way in front of a sparse crowd at Harmar. Fox Chapel has been a pleasant surprise in 05-06 for head coach Jim Damp at 6-2-1 and holds one point advantage over North Allegheny in the North Division. The Foxes leadership one-two punch of Kyle Misour and Joe Budz along with the goaltending of Eric Thiessen has been outstanding, but the support players for FC have made the difference as they have been able to handle the teams below them in the standings with relative ease. If the Foxes expect to contend with the top teams, they will need to have a bigger contribution from those players to contend for the division and go further in the playoffs, which has eluded the program over the past few years, despite some pretty impressive regular seasons. Cathedral Prep a/k/a Goaltender University, whose 2005 graduate Ryan Zapolski, is now playing for Junior A Mahoning Valley of the NAHL and ranked one of the top keepers in the entire league entering December. Head Coach Pete McCormick, also a former goaltender at Prep on the 1984 Pennsylvania State AAA championship team, is blessed with an heir apparent to Zapolski in John Mioduszewski, who has been an integral part of a 5-2-0 start for the Ramblers, who have snuck into the Elite 8 with blemishes to # 1 Mt Lebanon and Franklin Regional. ECP is looking to make its 12th straight Penguins Cup playoff appearance, which will be a little tougher since the AAA playoff field has been reduced from 16 to 12 teams. Fox Chapel came out flying in the opening minutes and pelted Mioduzewski with shots before you could blink. On the games 8th shot at 10:48, Kyle Misour walked between the circles and fired a bullet past the ECP goaltender for a 1-0 lead. Misour nearly helped the Foxes go up by two as Steve Bartyinski just missed on a two on one at the 7 ½ minute plateau of period # 1. Prep tied the scored with 5:13 remaining as Robert Balikas banked one off something in front, which bounded past Eric Thiessen to make it 1-1. FC’s Joe Budz hit the post with 4:12 left as the Foxes outshot Erie Cathedral Prep 13-4. On to the second period and Fox Chapel took control of the hockey game outshooting the Ramblers 13-4 in the period. The Foxes would cash in twice as Joe Budz scored at 11:45 with a shot up under the crossbar to make it 2-1 and then scored a great goal using speed and a shot through the 5-hole of Mioduzewski with 5:39 remaining to give his team a 3-1 lead, which it took to the locker room. FC went to work on the power play and Dan Uminski made it count with a wrist shot at 14:29 that skipped past the ECP keeper to make it 4-1. Eric Thiessen stopped Prep’s Jimmy Callaghan from point blank range on the next shift. The Foxes played opportunist as Andrew McCoy was the recipient and deposited it for a 5-1 lead at 10:32. Fox Chapel would outshoot Cathedral Prep on the night 35-13 and cruise to a 5-1 win.