Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

Greensburg – Penn Trafford and Franklin Regional is not yet hockey a rivalry which is the stature of a Meadville – Cathedral Prep or Fox Chapel – Central Catholic or Bethel Park – Mt Lebanon or Bishop McCort – Westmont Hilltop, but given the recent rise in the PT program via their first ever division championship in 2004 and overtaking FR to do it, I think things could heat up quickly for the two Center Ice Arena tenants. The Panthers and Warriors both navigated nicely through the preliminary rounds of the Greensburg CC Invitational with 5-0 records and both gained the final with 5-0 victories over Fox Chapel and Plum, respectively. Penn Trafford has been very impressive over the past few years offensively, but it is the defensive effort that has Western Pa buzzing about the Warriors, who shut down Fox Chapel and Plum in recent games. Franklin Regional, on the other hand, has been a pleasant surprise under Jim Daugherty, and looks to be a very hard working and well balanced team. The first period was Penn Trafford on the attack outshooting Franklin 12-6 in the opening period. Franklin looked to build some momentum late in a the period by killing off a 5 on 3 as Adam Treml made several good saves to keep the game scoreless. The Panthers went on the power play early in the 2nd period, but their advantage was killed by an ill-advised interference call in the offensive end of the rink. Penn Trafford wasted no time taking advantage of this sudden turn of events as Chris Cerutti re-directed a Kyle Sidle feed high over the glove side of Treml for a 1-0 Warrior lead with 11:20 left. A little over two minutes later, Sidle found Nick Whaley open in the slot and all of the sudden Penn Trafford had built a 2-0 advantage with 9:11 left. The Warriors were not done as Whaley won a faceoff to the left of Treml, beat his man and slipped a backhand just inside the post at 8:26 for a 3 goal outburst in less than three minutes. Franklin threw 15 shots at Joel Sterniak, but could not capitalize and PT held a 3-0 lead at the end of two. On to the third period and the game took on a chippy flavor as both teams engaged in some chatting and a little extra stick work. Chris Cerutti would put an exclamation point on this game as he scored on a backhand in traffic from between the circles on the power plat at 8:36 of the third period making the final 4-0 in favor of the Warriors. PT’s Joel Sterniak shut the door frustrating the Panthers by stopping all 31 shots and posting a shutout for the 2004 Greensburg CC Invitational champion Penn Trafford Warriors.