Seneca Valley Raiders

Fox Chapel 5 Upper St Clair 2 HARMARVILLE – When you enter mid-February, it’s all about playoff positioning and for Upper St Clair (11-5-0) and Fox Chapel (12-5-2), the most important part of preparing for this post season [since both teams have clinched playoff spots] can be spelled out in one word, avoidance. If you are a Class AAA school and you capture spots 8 through 12 in the upcoming playoffs, the prospects of advancing to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals are slim to none. Why? Because your team will be staring the Mt Lebanon steamroller, with twelve shutouts in 19 games to their credit, and it WILL be a short postseason. Upper St Clair has six games remaining entering the tilt with Fox Chapel and has taken a Blue Devil beating twice this season, so coach John Harford knows all about what needs to take place over the season’s final two weeks. The Panthers will also have to make a choice of goaltenders for the playoffs in either freshman Max Daurora or veteran senior Kevin Gorder and that choice will likely fuel any playoff run for USC. Fox Chapel on the other hand has a no-brainer in between the pipes as Eric Thiessen has been one of the best goaltenders in Class AAA and along with fellow top 25 selection Meadville’s Bryan Danczak, have been a major reason why the Foxes and Bulldogs are up near the top of the heap. If you think Head Coach Jim Damp’s team starts and ends with goaltending, that would be a mistake as FC has found leadership in Kyle Misour, Joey Budz and more recently Justin Kreps, who along with a nice support cast make the Foxes an interesting and equally dangerous playoff team come March to knock off a couple of teams and waltz into the Semi’s, where as we know anything can happen. The game involved very tight checking early on as FC and USC kept the scoring chances to a minimum until Panther scoring machine Mike Penkrot got loose behind the Foxes defense, but Eric Thiessen made a terrific save to keep the contest scoreless. Fox Chapel built momentum off their goaltender and struck first as Zack ‘not Eddie’ Crowe found a loose puck on the doorstep and buried it to give FC a 1-0 lead with 5:31 remaining in the opening period. On to the second period and the Foxes Kyle Misour weighed in to the game burying a wrist shot past Daurora at 14:12 to extend the lead to 2-0. Fox Chapel put the Panthers on the power play and paid for it as Mike Penkrot walked off the near boards and rifled a snap shot up under the crossbar beating Thiessen, who appeared to have the angle, but could not score a major league shot at 12:06 of the 2nd. This game appeared to be headed for a key turning point in the next few minutes, with the next team who scored being able to take a stranglehold of this game. Fox Chapel capitalized on an odd man situation as Joey Budz converted a great pass by Kyle Misour to give the Foxes a 3-1 lead at 9:59. USC had a chance to cut the lead back to one as David Crockett was in on the breakaway, but Thiessen came up big at 8:38. Fox Chapel smelled a wounded Panther and started to press and dominated the later part of the second period scoring chances and converted twice as Dan Uminski beat Daurora low to the glove side for a power play goal at 4:45 and then Chris Hughes scored a big insurance goal at 4:04 to open up this game to a 5-1 Fox Chapel runaway at the end of two periods. Fox Chapel and Thiessen beared down in the third period and limited Upper St Clair’s chances and any momentum. David Crockett scored for the Panthers with 13 seconds left to make the final count 5-2 and give the Foxes a big win in their quest to capture the 7th seed or better with upcoming games against McDowell and the aforementioned Blue Devils.