Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

Bishop McCort 3 Freeport 1 KITTANNING – Bishop McCort is 16-2-1 on the regular season and currently sits in 2nd position tied with old foes Serra Catholic, but owning the tiebreaker, for the upcoming Penguins Cup playoffs by virtue of a 1-0-1 record against the Eagles in the two meetings, the latest a 0-0 tie this past Sunday afternoon. The Crimson Crushers have a schedule with Freeport, Mars and Sewickley Academy and if they fall in one of those games could face one of them in round one of the playoffs. BM appears to be headed for a matchup with King Arthur’s Mighty Hilltoppers of Westmont, who they defeated to capture Head Coach John Bradley’s 200th coaching victory last week at the War Memorial. Freeport sits at 13-5-1 and holds a slim lead over Sewickley Academy team and with games against # 2 Bishop McCort, # 1 Quaker Valley and doormat Ferndale, it is likely that the Yellow Jackets will end up with the 4th or 5th seed and face Sewickley Academy unless of course the Panthers drop a pair in their 5 game stretch, which means they would likely face a very much improved and oncoming Mars club that has arguably been the hottest team in Class A outside of Quaker Valley. What Head Coach Daved Hepler has to be looking for in the final regular season games is to see if his team is capable of competing against the top teams and whether it can translate into an opening playoff win and a trip to Penguins Cup Semi-Finals for the first time since their only time in 2002, when the Yellow Jackets were beaten by eventual State Champions Serra Catholic. The Crimson Crushers opened the scoring in this contest when Zack Seidel gathered a puck in between the circles and fired a bullet high over the glove hand side of Tim Zahumensky with 5:36 remaining in the opening period. McCort upped its lead to 2-0 just a minute and a half later as Jordan Jaco found a loose puck to the left of the Freeport goaltender and shipped it past him at 3:51 putting the Yellow Jackets in a hole after one period. Freeport had a great opportunity to cut the lead in the middle of the second period with a 5 on 3 power play, but the Crushers survived. Bishop McCort went on the power play late in the second period, but the Yellow Jackets killed off the first minute of the disadvantage and headed to the locker room for the ice cut. Freeport tried to stretch the ice several times early in the 3rd period and it paid dividends at 9:53 with a power play. Just 6 seconds into the power play, the Yellow Jackets struck as Zach Hepler unloaded a wrist shot that beat Brent Troyan high over the stick hand side to cut the McCort advantage to 2-1. The Crushers showed why they are defending Penguins Cup champions at 8:05 as Paul Reilly scored on a wrist shot down low past Zahumensky to regain a two goal margin for McCort. Freeport went on the power play at 6:47, but Brent Troyan and the Crusher defense stiffened. Freeport pulled their goalie in the games final minute, but was unable to score as McCort was able to earn a 3-1 victory at the Belmont Ice Complex.