Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

Kittanning Invitational Central Catholic 6 Kittanning 4 Kittanning coach Jeff Smouse has done an outstanding job over the past two season keeping his Wildcats focused and he understands that his team has to remained focused to reach the promised land and return to the Penguins Cup in 2004. The host Wildcats have had an excellent pre-season and opened the Invitational with impressive victories over Archbishop Carroll and Latrobe. The big test would be AAA power Central Catholic, who look to be one of the top contenders to unseat Meadville in the Penguins Cup race. Viking coach Kevin Zielmanski would have to beat Kittanning with depth with Matt Capalongo and Michael McGurk out of the lineup with a trip to the Kittanning Invitational finals on the line. Central came out storming in the first period as Eddie Martin scored a little less than four minutes in to give CC a 1-0 lead. Wildcat goaltender Adam Toy faced 7 Viking shots most of them quality and was under siege early on. Kittanning turned up the physical play and neutralized CC’s offense and it paid off as Eddie Germy tied the game with just 1:02 remaining in the opening period. Tyler Ochs slammed home a rebound with just 18 ticks left and the Wildcats took a 2-1 lead to the 2nd. Central continued to pressure Toy who was equal to the task stopping all 10 Viking shots in the middle period. Eddie Germy scored with just 23 seconds left in the period to take a 3-1 Kittanning lead to the locker room, but not before Toy stopped Martin on the breakaway before the buzzer. The Vikings took control in the third period as Martin scored at 13:05 and 11:15 remaining to knot the score at 3-3. What was a 3-1 for Kittanning evaporated as Matt Graboski floated a shot which had eyes and snuck behind Adam Toy to give CC its first lead 4-3 with 9:22 remaining. Matt Urso extended the Viking lead to 5-3 near the halfway point in period to make it 5-3 Central. The Wildcats pulled within one as Germy scored just 19 seconds later, but it would be Eddie Martin who would put the exclamation on this one adding his fourth goal late in the third to give Central Catholic a 6-4 victory and one win away from a trip to the finals. Indiana 5 McDowell 4 McDowell coach Marlin Coon was looking forward to turning his clock back on Sunday to start another campaign with the Trojans and if he had to do it all over he may have wanted to start John Cleary in goal for the Kittanning Invitational opener against Butler. Dom Glavech has a little goaltending controversy of his own at Indiana, but it may end up being a luxury for the Indians as they gear up to make a run at the Class AA crown. In a real physical battle in the first period, the teams battled to a 1-1 tie as McDowell’s Gary Peterson and Indiana’s Zach Diamond exchanged goals. The period featured some excellent goaltending by Cleary and Indiana’s Mike Kennedy. Indiana broke the tie in the 2nd period as Mike Nesper and Mike Hart tallied to give the Indians a seemingly safe 3-1 lead at the end of two. The Trojans came back in the third period as Peterson added his second goal and Ed Maras tied the game with 2:04 remaining after Zach Diamond extended the Indiana lead to 4-2 5 ½ mintutes into the final frame. The Indians Jason Boske swatted a rebound out of the air past Cleary with 1:12 remaining to give Indiana a 5-4 victory, a perfect 3-0 record in the tournament and a date in Sunday’s final. Archbishop Carroll 5 Latrobe 4 Patriot coach Bill Hammonds made his annual trip to Western Pennsylvania to see what Class AA has to offer on Friday and received a rude welcome from host Kittanning in the form of a 7-1 pasting at the hands of the Wildcats. Latrobe coach Greg Wano could empathize with Hammonds fresh from a 9-0 beating at the hands of Central Catholic on Friday and a 6-2 setback to Kittanning on Thursday. So both teams were looking for a victory in the Kittanning Invitational. In a seesaw game which saw a lead change from Latrobe to Carroll several times, the Patriots Shane Aldinger completed the hat trick with 2:22 remaining to give Carroll a 5-4 victory and keep alive slim hopes of reaching the final with a victory over Central Catholic. Derek Lutterman led Latrobe with two goals and two assists as Carroll outshot Latrobe 35-15. Butler 9 Unionville 1 Word was ringing through the Belmont that this was the best Butler team in years and I am sure coach Bob Hoehn would like to keep it a secret until about mid-February. The Golden Tornadoes surprised McDowell earlier in the day with a 5-3 victory after being edged by Indiana Thursday evening 4-3. Unionville was looking to rebound from its opening 5-0 loss to Indiana. This game was all Butler as they outshot Unionville 38-23 and coasted to a 9-1 victory. Spencer Crouse had the hat trick as linemates B.J. Tipton and Greg Rogerson chipped in a pair of goals.