Butler Toronadoes

HARMARVILLE – Upper St Clair coach Kip Guenther knows his team is a contender for this years Penguins Cup. The Panthers defeated long time nemesis Bethel Park 7-2 and 4-1 and played some very impressive games in a 3-3 tie versus top ranked Mt Lebanon and 3-2 loss at Meadville, so they know they can compete and beat the top level teams. The problem occurs, it seems when USC looks ahead of teams, which frankly makes them a candidate for a first round upset like the 5-4 loss to Butler a week ago. One thing we need to remember is that the Panthers are a young team and only a year removed from a sub .500 season, so this team has made great strides with the strong play of players like Kris McDonough, Ian Joyce, Jeffrey Greenberg and David Crockett. Shaler coach Ron Steedle, has watched his team compete with the top teams too and took Central Catholic deep into the 3rd twice before bowing, and watched closed games with North Allegheny, Butler and Bethel Park, slip away late in the 2nd period and early in the third with some spurts of offense by their opponents, who put the Titans away. With a team, who’s highest returning forward with 4 goals in 2002-2003, Shaler knows it must play tight defensive hockey to compete with the USC’s, Bethel’s, NA’s and Fox Chapel’s of the world in their quest to sneak into the playoffs. The Titans became the aggressor in the opening period as Mat Yost found Josh Bauer streaking to the net, who buried a one-timer past Kevin Gorder for a surprising 1-0 Shaler lead at 13:43. A back and forth first period with close checking ensued as the Titans took a slim advantage at the break as Nick Bennardo stopped several USC chances. On to the second and Shaler went on the power play early on and made it count as Al Gore blasted a slapshot upstairs through a screen in front past Gorder at 9:56 for a 2-0 Titan lead. USC picked up the pace forcing Shaler into some late 2nd period penalties and finally got on the board as Brian Gorder scored on the power play with 2:49 remaining to cut the lead to 2-1. The Panthers came right back as Anthony Sirabella, capped off a great second effort poking a loose puck past Bennardo inside the post to tie the game at 2:18 and we had a new hockey game 2-2 at the intermission. The third period was much like the first with great end to end action and excellent goaltending by USC’s Kevin Gorder and the Titan’s Nick Bennardo. Enter Shaler captain Graham Papciak, who took a super head man feed from Bobby Snyder and streaked down the off wing and loft a wrist shot over the glove side of Gorder to give Shaler a 3-2 lead with 12:33 remaining. The Titans had an excellent chance to go up by two goals, but John Shannon’s shot hit the crossbar with a little over 7 ½ left in regulation. Back came the Upper St Clair Panthers, as they outshot the Titans 10-4 in the 3rd and 25-18 on the evening, but the bounces would go Shaler’s way as Kris McDonough hit the post late and Ian Joyce and several USC players could not find the net and Shaler pulled of one of the biggest upsets of the season with a 3-2 victory at BladeRunners and improved their record to 7-7-1, after starting 1-4-0.