Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

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CASTLE SHANNON - Steel Valley has been through an up and down season and coach Tom Fetsko knows this could be a rebuilding year with several Freshman and Sophomores paving the future. The Ironmen started off quickly with 3 wins to start the season, but have struggled through the middle part of the season. Johnstown knows all about struggling, as Tom Rizzo's club has been in a holding pattern for a couple of years now, but looks to be improving with some youngsters who will begin an upward trend in the program over the next few years. John Preffer's early goal in the first period gave the Ironmen a 1-0 lead which it held onto after one. Early in the second period, Tony Bonacorsa blasted a long slapshot past the Johnstown goaltender to give SV a 2-0 lead. After Johnstown's Terry Bodenshatz scored to make it 2-1 at 10:43, freshman Mike Ulicny scored to extend the Ironmen lead to 3-1 at 9:10. On to the third and Steel Valley exploded for four goals as Preffer completed the hat trick with two goals and Tom Scheetz and Bonacorsa added singles to pace the Ironmen to a 7-1 victory over Johnstown.

CANONSBURG - Thomas Jefferson coach Don Powell has been trying to get his team to trust the system employed by the Jaguars and if this past weekend's performance in the Meadville Bulldog Invitational is any indication, the young pirahna's of TJ just might be gettting the message as they tangled with AAA powers Cathedral Prep and LaSalle in two outstanding efforts. Canon McMillan coach Pat Rheam has to be pulling his hair out lately as the Big Macs haven't received too many breaks lately. For instance, they just happened to be the sacrificial lamb for Peter Twp after the Indians were upset by Canevin and then after Canevin was defeated by West Allegheny, they rebounded to defeat the Big Macs 3-2. So maybe CM could catch Thomas Jefferson off guard a little. After a scoreless first period, TJ defenseman Darryl Nath jumped into the play and swatted his rebound out of midair past CM goaltender Andrew Stanton to give the Jags a 1-0 lead at 12:39. The Big Macs came right back at 12:06 as Evan Hall found a loose puck in the slot and wristed past Danny Hartman to tie the game at 1-1, after some excellent work by CM's Adam Zeh in the slot. TJ's Dan Thomas missed a golden opportunity on a shorthanded breakaway with a little under ten minutes left in the middle frame. The Jaguars Zach Hanbury cashed in at 6:20 of the 2nd as he scored on the breakaway through the 5-hole of Stanton to make it 2-1. Thomas made up for his miss with just 27 seconds left in the middle period, taking a nice feed from Derek Kelly and TJ now led 3-1. Canon McMillan came out flying in the third and capitalized as freshman Doug Stanton took nice feed from Aaron Veydt and beat Hartman to cut the lead to 3-2 at 13:46. Both teams had opportunities on the power play in the middle of the final period, but could not score as Hartman held off Canon Mac and Stanton held off TJ, including a nice slding stop on Zach Hanbury with 5:40 remaining. Then at 2:59, Thoams Jefferson got a huge insurance tally as Luke Wawrzeniak found a loose puck in the slot and scored to give the Jaguars 4-2 lead. Canon Mac went on the power play and Josh Toney scored on a beautiful backhand high upstairs on he glove side past Hartman and all the sudden the Big Macs where within one with 1:53 remaining. Canon Mac pulled Santon and could not get the equalizer as Thomas Jefferson held on for a 4-3 victory.

MONROEVILLE - North Hills has had a true roller coaster season in 2002-2003 as the Indians have had their highs in handing Bethel Park their only loss 1-0 and the lows in losing to a couple of sub .500 teams. Chuck Parkinson, has taken over the helm from departed John Daley and has the team at 9-7-0, which is respectable in the AAA South. Gateway would be looking to put a stranglehold on the AAA East Division lead and a little distance between themselves and Franklin Regional. Coach Dan Serakowski's squad has been tripped up by Cathedral Prep, Bethel Park, Central Catholic and Plum while winning 11 games thus far. In a scoreless game, North Hills Mark Rombach slammed home a rebound with 3:38 remaining in the opening period to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. NH was throwing out body checks like it was the first of the month including a bone jarring check by Tyler Cummaings on Matt Kopaczynski after the opening goal. North Hills contined putting good pressure on the Gators which resulted in an Indian power play a 11:25 of the 2nd. Off the ensuing faceoff, Mark Keyser gathered a loose puck in the slot and beat David Himes through a screen on the stick side and all the sudden North Hills led 2-0. Keyser scored again at 4:25 of th middle period on a nice give and go out of the near corner. With their backs to the wall, Gateway responded on the power play at 3:28 as Lucas Pepper scored on the rebound t give Gateway a big goal and cut the lead to 3-1. Pepper was not done yet as he would not be denied dring a big scramble in front of Casey Dudt-Mulzet as he scored with no time left on the clock and Gateway went to the locker room iwth a slim 3-2 disadvantage after two. On the power play, North Hills secrued a two goal lead as Keyser scored on th rebound at 12:15 to give the Indians a 4-2 lead. Matt Kopaczynski came right back as he caught the Indian defense flat footed and beat Dudt Mulzet high to the glove side and the Gators were back within one at 4-3 at the 8:49 mark . The North Hills took two undisciplined penalties to put Gateway on a 5 on 3 with 5:07 remaining. With the game on the line, Gateway was a little impatient with the two man advantage, but the trio of penalty killers for North Hills was fabulous limiting Gateway to mostly outside opportunities. Tyler Cummings made a huge play as he intercepted a back door passing play and cooley cleared it from danger tomaintain the 4-3 lead for NH. Te Indians would hold on for a huge win and more confidence as they knock off their second division leader this season.

HARMARVILLE - A rematch of an overtime thriller in last years Penguins Cup semi finals took place last night before a good crowd at Harmarville. Central Catholic was looking for payback from the overtime defeat suffered at the hands of Bethel Park, which spurred the Hawks on to their third straight Pennsylvania AAA crown. Coach Kevin Zielmanski's squad has been strong through the middle of the season with a 9-0-1 mark in its last ten games and was looking foward to facing its nemesis Bethel Park. Bethel Park has matured after losing a bus full of seniors from last years squad and some leftover Hawks and some new ones have molded into a pretty mature and poised club through the midway point of the season. Head coach Jim McVay has to be pleased that some of his younger players have filled the jerseys very well in leading the Hawks to a 12-1-2 start. The first period was tight checking and featured some excellent defensive work and backchecking by both clubs and remained scoreless. With Bethel on its second power play of the evening Jacobus Bleik lofted a shot from the left side which Viking netminder Bryan Adamczak kicked aside, unfortunately for Central, Michael Diethorn was positioned perfectly high in the slot and he buried a wrister to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. The second period was much like the first as the teams worked to gain opportunities while limiting mistakes. Bethel Park started to stretch the ice and Brandon Hanley looked to be onside behind the Viking defense, but the breakaway was blown dead on the offsides with a little over four minutes left in the middle frame. That would turn out to be huge as Eddie Martin found Matt Capalongo behind the Hawk defense and he beat Matt Feige with the backhand to tie the game at 1-1 with just 36 seconds left. On to the third and CC had a golden opportunity on the power play at 13:20 as Joe Coulter was alone in front but just missed an open shot on Feige. Central had power play opportunities, but a combination of poised Bethel Park penalty killing and impatience by the Vikings kept the score tied at 1-1. Then McVay got the line mismatch he wanted and with 4:51 Brandon Hanley found Grady Clingan [who had five penalties in the Hawks prior game against North Allegheny which should have been a Game Misconduct but was eliminated when the penalty was changed by the referees after the game] alone in front and he chipped the puck past Adamczak to give Bethel Park a 2-1 lead. Central Catholic came right back as Michael McGurk got loose behind the Bethel Park defense and beat Feige on the backhand at 3:19 to tie the game with just 3:19 left. But the Hawks showed their resilience as Brandon Hanley, on a great individual effort, warded off all-star defenseman Chris Niznik and as he was falling down got enough stick on his shot to score in the lower corner and give BP the lead with exactly 3:00 to go. Central was not done yet as they received a power play with 1:23 left and Coach Z pulled the goalie for a 6 on 4 advantage.....Bethel killed in with a little help from the Vikings, who lacked patience and forced shots. Matt Feige was outstanding again stopping 20 of 22 Central shots in a 3-2 victory for Bethel Park.