Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

VALENCIA – Hampton 5 Kittanning 3 Kittanning advanced to the 2006 Penguins Cup before bowing to Pine Richland in the final at the Mellon Arena in March. The Wildcats opened up their quest for the 2007 Penguins Cup with a 4-3 victory over Peters Township. Coach Jon Yackmack will realize soon enough that Class AA is full of many hopefuls with aspirations to unseat Pine Richland this season and has tooled his team with plenty of depth as Kittanning has nearly 25 players who could see action this season as he welcomed back Colin McKelvey and Lucas Sasala back to action from Football that ended just last Friday. The Cats have stiffened their schedule to include a trip to Jamestown, New York this weekend to compete in the Inaugural National Invitational Scholastic Showcase against the top teams from Texas, Illinois, New York, Indiana, Florida, Eastern Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania to seek tougher competition and experience. Hampton has struggled over the past few seasons with players who left the program to seek Midget AAA glory leaving the program almost depleted of enough players to field a competitive Varsity team that has not had a winning campaign wince 2003. Allen ‘Whitey’ Walsh enters the 06-07 season with more hope as Hampton has a core group of personnel that looks a like a Hampton team ready to compete with Pine Richland and Kittanning for the North Division crown. A 3-3 tie against the defending AA State Champions Rams in the St Margaret’s Fall Face Off was a start and an opening win over 2006 Penguins Cup semi-finalists Canevin was another bright spot for the Talbots. After a 3-18-0 season in 2005-2006, any positives for the Talbots is a plus. Hampton opened the scoring at 14:18 of the opening period as Bryan Relihan picked up a loose rebound and beat Joey Mecurio on the backhand for a 1-0 lead. Kittannning battled to tie the game in the 1st and the best chance came as Nick Troup was stopped by Lance Hutton from point blank range with 3:17 left. With 11:53 to play in the 2nd period, Kittanning’s Joey Ford tied the game from right in front of Hutton and then the Wildcats took the lead as Jergen Koster scored on a rebound of brother Deiter Koster to make it 2-1 at the 11:05 mark. Hampton came right back at 9:36 of the middle period as Jordan Del Torre blasted a slapshot high over the glove hand side of Joey Mecurio from the left point to knot the score at two apiece. With 7:10 to play in the 2nd period, Lance Hutton stopped Lucas Sasala on the breakaway to keep the game tied. With twelve minutes remaining in regulation, the Wildcats went on a 5 on 3 power play, but the Talbots turned the tide as Chase Evans stole the puck and race in on a breakaway and beat Mecurio with 10:30 to play and :12 seconds left in the Kittanning man advantage. The Cats came back as Nick Troup beat Hutton on a slapshot low to the glove side to tie the score 3-3 with 8:21 left in the 3rd period. Hampton would score the big goal as Jason Bateman scored from the doorstep with 4:16 to play to give the Talbots a 4-3 lead. Chase Evans salted the victory with an empty netter with 37 ticks left and Hampton moved to 2-0 for the first time in a long time and tied with Pine Richland for 1st place in the North Division, which may not be a big deal at this point of the season, but is a great accomplishment for the Talbots program.