Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

Meadville 7 Pine Richland 1 11/23/03 ~ Bulldogs capture 5th CC Invitational crown ! Pine Richland advanced into the finals of the CC Invitational for the first time ever and coach Jimmy Black had to be satisfied with his teams effort in knocking off the Class AAA Elite. Next up would be PA State AAA Champ Meadville in a first ever meeting to my recollection of the two schools. Meadville was looking for a record 5th CC Invitational Title including a 4 year run from 1991 through 1994 and coach Jamie Plunkett would like to start another run for the Bulldogs. A glimpse of the future would be in order as injuries forced the Dawgs to insert some freshman and sophomores into the lineup in the Central Catholic final. Pine Richland struck first as super looking forward Josh Fodor beat Michael Licinski to give the Rams a 1-0 lead with two minutes gone in the hockey game. The Bulldogs would counter shelling Dan Gazzo with 11 shots in the first period to PR’s 4. Meadville just kept coming in waves in the second and D.J Durkee scored just :24 in from in front on a nice feed from Christian Nickerson. Pine Richland looked to be tiring a little and made a mental mistake with a too many men on the ice penalty and a 5 on 3 Bulldog power play. David Moyer looked like Bobby Orr as he made a great play to keep the puck in the zone and then went for a nice skate around the zone twice as the players on both teams watched in amazement, then the big Meadville defenseman buried a slap shot down on the ice in the stick side with 11:00 left in the 2nd and the Dawgs were off and running 3-1. The Rams had a great chance to cut the lead as Josh Phillips had a shorthanded breakaway but hit the post at 9:56. Championship teams have a redeeming quality in their relentless pursuit to put away teams and put and exclamation point on it and Meadville may have created the PA Hockey version in the early 1990’s. What was most impressive about the game between Pine Richland and Meadville was the young players in Red, Black and White stepping to the forefront in this championship game as Pat Leone scored 11:46 of the third to make it 4-1 and Shawn Harbaugh put the game out of reach 5-1 just 58 seconds later. The Bulldogs continued their onslaught as Tournament MVP and Bill Downey award recipient Christian Nickerson tied the all-time CC Invitational scoring mark with a goal at 6:09 left in the third to make it 6-1 and Chris Leone closed it out on a nice feed from Tyler Learn with just 1:01 remaining for an impressive 7-1 stomping of Pine Richland and the 2003 Central Catholic Invitational Championship for Meadville.