Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

HARMARVILLE – 2005 Penguins Cup Semi-Finals – Class A The Bishop McCort Hockey program started in 1985 and is the most successful Class A program in State History with five State Championships in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1999. The Crimson Crushers have been in the Penguins Cup twelve times in 16 years and the program can attribute the family atmosphere of the Blue Line club and the school support as part of the recipe, but the real key has been the continuity at the coaching level with Galen Head and John Bradley, who have been the only head coaches in the organization’s history. McCort has run into a roadblock the past few years in the form of the Serra Catholic Eagles, who have derailed the Crusher train’s plan of State Championships. The Quaker Valley program under their only head coach Kevin Quinn since 1998 at the Varsity level and has built their hockey the right way, which was the vision of Quinn, Cliff Benson, the late Jeff Rader and a handful of Quaker Valley hockey enthusiasts, who formed the program back in 1996 and vowed to do it right and get the Quakers to the Penguins Cup. QV made it to the Penguins Cup Semi-Finals a year ago only to fall to Somerset 5-2. The McCort –Quaker Valley matchup was even more interesting with the teams exchanging 2-1 wins on their home ice. What had to be even more appetizing for Quinn was that he would have his full squad for this game, which didn’t happen in the Quakers loss at the War Memorial and give the Quakers an advantage or so it seemed advantage of playing the Crimson Crushers with the full compliment. After McCort controlled the opening minutes, it was Quaker Valley who had the games first legitimate scoring opportunity as freshman Tim Hall undressed the McCort defenseman and tried to slip a backhand past Stenger at 12:50 to no avail. McCort kept up the pressure, but Zac Zinger made several nice stops as the goaltending at both ends was sharp in the opening period. At 2:28 of the first Chad James had a wide open net, but it appeared a QV player may have gotten a stick on it to keep the game scoreless. Then at 1:14 remaining in the first period, the Quakers difference maker Furman South was stationed at the side of the net and found a loose puck and buried it upstairs in the right corner to give QV a 1-0 lead. McCort had an opportunity on a 2 on 1 but Zac Zinger made the save with 10 ticks remaining. Quaker held a 12-11 shot advantage after the opening period. QV went on the power play at 14:02 remaining to open the 2nd with a great opportunity to go up by two. The Quakers seem to have an advantage of controlling the play with the lead in hand and by outskating and outworking Bishop McCort. Furman South had a chance at 9:39 and Ron Stenger made a stick save to keep his team’s deficit at one. At 7:53 of the 2nd, the Quakers committed a sin by taking a penalty in the offensive zone putting the Crushers on the power play. At 6:35 after Zac Seidel missed a golden opportunity, the Crimson Crusher capitalized as Mike Kiely found a rebound and deposited upstairs past Zac Zinger to tie the score at 1-1 for a power play goal. At 3:55 of the 2nd. Ron Stenger made two terrific saves on Furman South and Mikael Lemieux on the rebound. In between periods, we visited with Homer Bedloe [a/k/a Pa Hockey top 5 fan Bob Sebastian], who is still threatening to shut down the Canonball, as for one of these two teams the playoff train to Hershey would come to an end tonight. An inadvertent whistle at 14:40 when Ron Stenger had the puck, but he didn’t fell right on the stick of Furman South for an open pantry and a possible QV lead, but the play was dead, a huge break for McCort. Furman South made great back door pass at 12:23 to a streaking Grant Scott, who labeled a shot for the upper corner and Ron Stenger robbed him with unreal glove save. At 12:04, McCort went on the power play to build off the momentum of the Stenger’s goaltending. Matt Cooper fanned on an open net opportunity at 10:23 and David Champe just missed on a backhand over the crossbar at 9:54. At 9:22, Tim Hall was stoned by Stenger with a skate save. At 8:03, Cory Mock’s shot tumbled wide as Zinger may have had a piece of the rebound as the teams traded chances. Quaker Valley almost took the lead as Wil Forser’s shot with 4:59 left was tipped out of the air by Furman South, but Stenger stopped it. At 4:09, Zac Seidel was the opportunist getting his own rebound and backhanding past a fallen Zac Zinger to give the Crimson Crushers a 2-1 lead. McCort clamped down defensively, but got a little too aggressive resulting in the a power play for the Quakers with 2:42 remaining in regulation and could not score. And with 26 seconds left Marc Domonkos stripped the QV defense of the puck and scored on his own rebound to put the game on ice 3-1 and send the Crimson Crushers to the Penguins Cup again for the first time since 2002. The final shots were 33-27 in favor of Bishop McCort.