Butler Toronadoes

CORAOPOLIS – Quaker Valley ended the 2004 Penguins Cup playoffs with a disappointing loss to Somerset and the losses of several key players cast an uncertain future for QV. The pipeline for Kevin Quinn still looked pretty good coming into this season with several proven freshman from the amateur level and a proven scorer in Furman South, who was mysteriously absent from QV’s biggest game of this early season after two easy blowouts in their opening two tilts. Serra Catholic has won 4 out of the last 5 Penguins Cups and head coach Tom Mooney is pinching himself these days as the Eagles have gone from their customary 12 or 13 players on the bench to a full squad. For all the people who cry foul, many of them needed to attend this game and watch the ‘old guard’ Serra players of Justin Lubasch, Joey Manning and Josh Jones mentoring the newest Eagles how it’s supposed to be done. And believe me these new Eagles are fast learners, which translates into the FACT that Serra has excellent coaching and a very disciplined system of how to win. So # 1 vs # 2 would be contested or would it be? The Eagles started out with their normal feeling out process defensively in their own end, but Quaker Valley could not create any solid scoring chances. Mike Ellis held the puck in at the left point and fired a bullet, which Aaron Nolte tipped past Zac Zinger to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead at 11:56. Just 52 seconds later, with the Eagles shorthanded, Joey Manning show the patience of a surgeon as he held onto to the puck what seemed forever before moving it to the net where Josh Werner crashed and scored and Serra was quickly ahead 2-0 at 11:04. Eagle netminder Nick Koroly did his best Timmy Johnson impression as he stopped QV freshman Tim Hall at 9:22 and Kelly Elson at 6:20. After a questionable icing with under a minute to play in the 1st, Tim Hall made a great play off the faceoff, side stepping the Serra center and moving the puck to the net where a wide open Jason Burress popped home a rebound to cut the lead to 2-1 with just 17 seconds left in the opening period. Momentum is a big factor in big games and early in the second after Nick Koroly robbed Tim Hall from point blank range, it looked like QV was mounting a comeback. The very next shift was when Serra took control of this hockey game as Justin Lubasch, Philip Ivkovich, Steven Gruhalla and Josh Jones controlled the Quaker zone for well over a minute and put Quaker Valley on their heels. Josh Jones made a great play as the Serra defenseman walked off the far board and buried a snap shot through the 5-hole of Zac Zinger to make it 3-1 at 10:46. QV came back as Mikail Lemieux, took a great pass from Hall and scored low on the ice to cut the advantage to 3-2 at 8:22. The big goal in this game came at the eight minute mark as Bryan Hickey would not be denied scoring on a second rebound after a great save by Zinger to make it 4-2 Eagles. Quaker Valley seemed to deflate and Serra was the opportunist as Justin Lubasch added goals with 6:39 and just 35 seconds left in the second period to turn this one into a Serra rout through two periods. Championship teams know how the put the exclamation point in statement games and Serra wanted to send a little message to Class A teams that the Penguins Cup in theirs until someone knocks them off and the third period was a prime example as Joey Manning scored on a wrist shot at 14:06 and set up Justin Lubasch on a great play late in the final period to mark an impressive 8-2 thrashing of a very good Quaker Valley team, who should be one of the Eagles biggest threats in Class A.