Butler Toronadoes

NEW KENSINGTON ~ Freeport coach Dave Hepler is in his first year and takes over a team two years removed from a Penguin Cup semi-final appearance. Nick DeCroo was a big part of it as the junior forward scored over 50 goals to lead his team to the promised land, but Nick didn’t play for Freeport last season and only plays on Monday’s this season according to sources close to the team [I’ll give you all 3 guesses as to why ?]. So when leading scorer Dustin Gaworski went down with an injury and the coaches son Zach Hepler went down to an injury, that leaves the Yellow Jackets with just nine healthy skaters. So in a growing trend in Interscholastic Hockey, Freeport is nearing the danger area of not being able to field a team and another sad state of affairs for Western Pa Hockey, which has lost 15 Varsity teams since the PIHL was formed in 1999-2000. Deer Lakes Al Palowski has his own problems with lack of numbers, but has gone the route of bringing in foreign exchange students to fill the void. The Lancers added a new player to their roster in the form of Mike Watson, who has made his mark as an excellent amateur player and is a welcome addition to DL. Deer Lakes had its low point of the season losing to South Division doormat Linsly , but has rebounded with a couple of big wins including a 4-3 upset of Elizabeth Forward and is looking to move into playoff position. Freeport held its own in the first period and forged a 0-0 tie mostly on a great effort by defensive duo of Tommy Ferrante and Scott Gallagher, who only left the ice to get a drink of water. Deer Lakes coach Pawloski had to be concerned, but the newcomer got things started as Mike Watson scored at 13:47 to give the Lancers a 1-0 lead. Matt Romutus continued his hot hand at 10:01 extending the DL lead to 2-0. Watson scored his 2nd goal at 7:54 to expand the lead to 3-0. Josh Schreckengost got Freeport on the board at 6:56, but that was as close as it would get as Rich Bigley scored twice at 6:39 and 2:53 to turn this one into a rout 5-1. On to the third period and Troy Barker pulled Freeport back to 5-2 at 8:43. Deer Lakes countered with three goals of their own as Watson completed the hat trick at 4:02 and Stefan Karsay added two more [3:12 and 2:46] for an 8-2 victory. Jiri Frkal stopped 25 of 27 Freeport shots as DL outshot the Yellow Jackets 28-17 on the evening.

HARMARVILLE ~ Special Report provided by Fox Chapel Hockey Club ~ After a rough 4-0 defeat against Mt. Lebanon on Thursday last week, Fox Chapel found themselves at the bottom of the Elite 8 through the weekend. Fox Chapel head coach Keith Kearney looked to keep his squad together and positive coming into their last game of their tough three game stretch, starting with a win over Erie Prep 6-1 last week and the loss to Mt. Lebanon. The game against Plum scheduled for Monday night was clearly the most important of the three, being that the winner would take over the lead of the East Division. However, the Plum Mustangs, with a 7-0-0 record, were ranked #1 in the Elite 8, with just Upper St. Clair remaining with an undefeated record (6-0-1). Plum's schedule hadn't been the toughest in the league so far, with no wins over any teams in the Elite 8, but 7-0-0 is still 7-0-0. At the start of the game you wouldn't doubt that Plum's preseason win over Fox Chapel, 4-2, in the St. Margarets Fall Face-Off was lingering in the back of the Foxes minds. Although power forward Ryan McDonald is still in the stands for Fox Chapel, struck with illness, it still did not take any wind out of the scoring power of the Fox Chapel. Matt Quigley struck first with 5:17 remaining in the first period from a rebound off of Plum's net minder J.P. Balson. PIHL's Penguin Player of the Month for November, Joey Budz got an assist, along with Dan Thiessen. Just four minutes later, Captain Jason Kreps fired a slap shot from the blue line that deflected off of a Plum defenseman and past Balson right in front of the Plum-dominated crowd. Thiessen again got an assist on the goal. Fox Chapel led after the first period, 2-0, but was out shot by the Mustangs, 6-5. The second period began with Plum again becoming relentless with shot after shot, but when Fox Chapel went on the power play, a loose puck at the blue line was picked up by a Plum penalty killer and brought it down on a breakaway for a prime scoring opportunity. Salvation for Fox Chapel would again come in the likely form of senior goaltender Todd Hendry, who snagged the shot headed for the top shelf with his glove. Hendry continued to shut down Plum's offensive strike, and Plum broke again with another Jason Kreps goal with 7:06 remaining in the second period. The Foxes seemed to be content with their 3-0 lead, but Plum was not ranked #1 for no reason, hot scorer John Kalichuk took a shot from the blue line that deflected off of FC defenseman Brad Sullivan, faking Hendry out and going into the far side of the net for Plum's first goal. The second period would end with a FC 3-1 lead, with Plum again out shooting the Foxes 13-8 in the period, with an overall 19-13 lead in shots. Fox Chapel seemed to have the game sealed at 10:09, when PIHL's leading goal scorer Joe Budz put another one past Balson with a Matt Quigley assist. The Mustangs still would not give in to the Foxes 3 goal lead. Plum's Travis Senchur then took center stage on the Power Play and walked between 2 FC defensemen and put one top shelf on Hendry to cut the lead to 2 goals with 5:10 remaining. Conceivable? It didn't seem so as another breakaway was shut down by Hendry late in the third period. But then, with Balson on the bench and the extra attacker on, Senchur again lit the light behind Hendry as he rang one off the crossbar and down into the net on a sniper shot from the point with just 35 ticks remaining. Plum would get 2 more good scoring chances before the final buzzer rang and the Fox Chapel victory was official. Plum again out shot FC in the third period 10-9. Overall shots were 29-22 in favor of Plum, but it’s the score that matters, and with a 4-3 victory over the formerly undefeated Mustangs, the Foxes move into first place in the division with their next three games against Woodland Hills, Penn Hills, and Gateway before the holiday break. Plum will face Gateway, Woodland Hills, and an improving Baldwin squad before the holiday break.

DELMONT ~ North Hills has been an enigma ever since its Penguin Cup Semi-Final appearance in 2001 and coach Dave Ciotti has been called upon to right the ship. The Indians have left of 2003-2004 where they ended 2002-2003, losing a couple close games against Bethel Park, and then winning an overtime contest against a much improved Connellsville club, what I am sure the coach scratching his head are the wipe outs against Fox Chapel 7-0 and Plum 4-0, which have put NH in the middle of the pack, striving for some consistency. Gateway, on the other hand, has a very young team with a sprinkling of veterans from a team who has a very bright future and may happen in the middle to late in this season. Coach Lou Biancanello has a hard working club, which is still adjusting to the Varsity level, but when they do, this could be a team that will pull off some upsets and sneak into the playoff picture. North Hills dominated the first period outshooting the Gators 7-2 as Jeremy Kubit opened the scoring to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. Gateway just kept on coming and Corey ‘Rudy’ Tucek banged home a rebound at 11:01 to tie the score. It didn’t take long for the Gators and Tucek to gain the lead as the Gateway forward found the net again just 46 seconds later for a 2-1 lead at 10:15. This would be the Gators night as Brendan Miles fired a slap shot from the right point that caromed off Matt ‘Little Scotty’ Scottbehind Casey Dudt-Mulzet, for Scotty’s first ever Varsity goal and a 3-1 Gateway lead. The Gators held a 13-8 shot advantage in the second period and would move onto the third with a 3-1 lead. On to the third period, and when Gateway failed to score on a 5 on 3 power play, North Hills had new life and capitalized as Dave Hansell’s shot from a weird again found its way past J.D. Domenick and cut the lead to 3-2 at 9:57. North Hills called on Casey Dudt-Mulzet to keep it a one goal game as he stoned Scott Lyons and Craig Leith at 8:45. North Hills took a bad penalty with 3:22 to play, but killed it and stormed the Gateway zone with under a minute to play and the goalie pulled. Domenick made a couple of great saves and Leith found a loose puck and sent it 150 into an empty net giving the Gators a hard fought 4-2 victory at Center Ice.

Thank you for the contributions to this report from Hempfield Hockey Hempfield coach Bruce Cameron has to be pleased with the start for his Spartan club, which sits at 4-2-0 behind Franklin Regional in the East Division. A win over Penn Trafford would tie Hempfield for the Division lead, which has been a rarity for the Spartans for the past few years. Hempfield goaltender Julian Yakubisin has lead Hempfield with some fine goaltending over the past few games. Penn Trafford coach Todd Purvis knows his team is a playoff contender because the Warriors have been to the playoffs the past two season with a very young squads and are looking to mature to make some noise in Class AAA. At 1-5-0, PT desperately needed a win to get back into the division race and would need some of its big guns to produce, including the swift Chris Cerutti, who has led the Warriors in scoring from the outset this season. One look at the schedule for Penn Trafford in November will tell you that this team has played Class AAA’s elite in losses to Bethel Park, Franklin Regional, Plum and Upper St. Clair, so the worst stretch of the schedule may be behind the Warriors. Hempfield wasted no time jumping on Penn Trafford as John Zurenski buried a backhand upstairs past Joel Sterniak just 30 seconds into the first period. Julian Yakubisin made a couple of stops on a nice flurry by the PT offense at 12:43. Dave Brammel got Penn Trafford on the board at 9:14 takinga beautiful pass from Anthony Scarpo to tie the game. Joel Sterniak preserved the PT lead stopping a wrist shot from Jeff Robinson at 4:53. Chris Cerutti scored a clutch goal after that as he buried a shot upstairs over Yakubisin to give the Warriors the lead at 3:24. The second period was penalty filled and pretty chippy and Penn Trafford dominated play outshooting Hempfield 22-14 through the first two periods. Chris Cerutti scored a huge insurance goal on the power play with 6:46 remaining and Penn Trafford took a 3-1 lead to the final period. At 10:50 of third John Zurenski scored on a rebound on the power play goal to get Hempfield back in it at 3-2. PT came back picking the Hempfield defense’s pocket as Cerutti went on the breakaway and deeked to lower right side of Yakubison at 8:43 of the third to make it 4-2. PT then made it 5-2 with 5:42 left when Anthony Scarpo came down the left side and fired a slapshot to the upper right corner over Yakubishin's glove and seal the victory for the Warriors.

HARMARVILLE ~ Special Report to Pa Hockey courtesy of Central Catholic Hockey Club Central Catholic scored 10 goals in the first period, 4 in the second and 5 in the third to defeat Allderdice. Central was led by four goals each from Eddie Martin and Joe Coulter and 3 from Matt Urso. Josh Martin, Bryan Dietz, and Billy Connelly each scored twice as Michael McGurk and Matt Capalongo picked up 5 assists each. CC outshot the Dice 74 - 3 (1st 30-1, 2nd 20-2, 3rd 24-0) and Bryan Adamczak picked up the shutout. The win marked the 400th Regular Season victory of the Central Catholic Viking Hockey club marking the 3rd school in Western Pennsylvania history to do so along with Kittanning / Armstrong and Upper St Clair. The Vikings began play in 1972 and are competing in their 32nd consecutive season of Varsity hockey. The next program to achieve this elite company appears to be Mt Lebanon, who now has 377 wins as off Thursday night, Congratulations to Central Catholic !