Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

Bethel Park 7 North Allegheny 0 BETHEL PARK – Semi Who’s Who night with Batman, Robin ‘the Boy Wonder’ and Alfred headlining the featured guest list including Central’s Tom Pandolfo, Cal’s Jan Battista and Justin Berger, Bobby and Bonnie Black from Pine Allegheny, NA’s Denny Sheran, the Bethel Park tailgaters before a sparse but vocal crowd at the Bethel Park BladeRunners on the campus of the University of Bethel Park. Bethel Park and North Allegheny played in the St Margaret’s Fall Face Off and held on to defeat the Tigers 5-4 after building a 5-1 lead. These teams and programs are so familiar with one another that former NA coach Pandolfo was scouting North Allegheny just as much as BP. The Blackhawks are widely regarding as one of the favorites to capture the Penguins Cup and were ranked # 1 in the Pa Hockey Pre-Season Coaches poll.The Tigers of NA were ranked a close 3rd behind Meadville, who was upended by Central Catholic in the opener 6-3 on Monday night. There is no question that when the playoff bell rings in March that both of these teams will represent the top teams in Class AAA. Home ice advantage is always worth a goal advantage or perhaps a penalty call for the home team and BP received the first power play in the opening period. At At 10:14 Graham Cohen found Matt Seifert on the back door who deposited the puck past Max Richards to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. At 8:28 of the first Wes Waldschmidt had a couple of Hawks draped on him and just miss and it resulted in an NA power play. At 5:20 of the first period a big scramble the occurred in the front of the NA net and the Hawks kept banging away and the puck squirted past Richards and the whistle blew and the goal counted and it was 2-0 Bethel Park. On to the second and at 11:07, the Hawks struck again as Tommy Whetsel found Kenny Lehman to cap off a 2 on 1 to give BP a 3-0 lead. Bethel made it 4-0 when David Spadacene blistered a wrist shot down on the ice to the stick side with a little over 9 minutes to play to make it a 4-0 hockey game and chasing Max Richards in favor of Adam Lutty. Graham Cohen cashed in with 7:04 remaining in the 2nd period to turn this into a 5-0 hockey game. Bethel cruised to a running clock in the third period as Graham Cohen scored on a backhand with 10:08 remaining and capitalized on a Tiger defensive lapse at 8:20 of the final period to create a running clock and a 7-0 whitewash of North Allegheny by the Hawks. Bethel, many of whose players play on a split season amateur team looked like a team in the middle of their season and North Allegheny didn’t. Although it is only March, the Hawks made a statement and it will be up to the rest of AAA to answer over the next five months.