Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

HARMARVILLE - Franklin Regional coach Jim Damp knew his team had a little confidence after its Director's Cup final appearance in the Scholastic Showcase earlier this week and why not ? ....two overtime come from behind overtime victories and all without a full lineup. Well, coach Damp would have to go after it again without forwards Jimmy Daugherty and Luke Baughman, who watched from the stands. Keith Kearney's knows all about less than full line-ups, you see two of his top forwards Lorenz and Baker where at a conveniently scheduled 9:00 PM on a school night Junior B non-sense practice, which has been a common distraction for high school teams in this area. So the Foxes were a little shorthanded as well. Franklin Regional's Luke DeLorenzo opened up the scoring with two goals in the games first five minutes to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead at 10:03. Dakota Drew scored at 8:54 and the Panthers were off and running with a 3-0 lead. Seemed safe enough until FC's Pat King threw a puck to the net off the far boards, which fooled Brandon Stallard and ended up behind him and the Foxes where on the board 3-1. At 10:45 of the second, Fox Chapel went on the 5 on 3 power play and Franklin was able to kill it and maintain its lead. At 6:34, FC freshman sensation Matt Quigley beat three Franklin defenders after going coast to coast on an outlet pass by goaltender Todd Hendry and beat Stallard on the stickside to cut the lead to 3-2. DeLorenzo completed the hat trick at 5:59 as he slipped the puck through the FC center on the faceoff and roofed one upstairs to make it 4-2 Panthers. Quigley came right back at 2:51 on the power play with a wicked wrist shot and the Foxes were within one heading to the third period 4-3. Fox Chapel's fortunes looked good early in the third as Hendry stopped Michael Roth on the breakaway at 13:24, but Franklin Regional kept on coming in waves as DeLorenzo added his fourth [11:21] and fifth [7:29] goals of the evening and Louis Levine and Michael Roth added two more to pace the Panthers to an impressive 8-3 victory.

2003 Penguins Cup Finals ***GAME SUMMARIES*** Class A - Westmont Hilltop 4 Serra Catholic 3 Class AA - Peters Twp 6 Kittanning 3 Class AAA - Meadville 8 Franklin Regional 3

HARMARVILLE - Everybody knows about the 'Christmas Story' reruns where Ralphie dreams of getting the Red Rider BB Gun from Santa Claus. Deer Lakes coach Al Pawloski has to feel like he's the kid who got his tongue stuck to the flagpole at Deer Lakes High School as he has preached defense to his high scoring group and the Lancers have given up some big numbers on defense this season. The Westmont Hilltoppers on the otherhand is like a family gathering every night as they boarded the bus from J-Town with the usual suspects lead by Bob 'the Bus Driver', 'Super' Fan Dan Lenzi, 'the Boy Wonder' Assistant coach Brace Moran, the lovely Hilltopperette Team Managers and of course 'King Arthur' McQuillan amongst the Westy faithful. The Hilltoppers are on a roll since a couple of early season setbacks to undefeated Mars and Quaker Valley and they ignored the warnings of Ralphie's Mother and School Teacher of the Red Rider BB gun lore of 'you'll shoot your eye out' or maybe they just misinterpeted it 'like an eligibility case of the PIHL'. Anyway........ a well played first period saw Deer Lakes and Westmont in a scoreless defensive battle, which was ok for coach Pawloski, who was taking in the game from the stands. While that was going on coach McQuillan sounded like a Penguin crowd during a power play ......shoot .....shoot....shoot that Westy Red Rider BB Gun and one of the 8 shots in the first period found its way at exactly five minutes when Kevin Gleason rammed home a rebound to give the Hilltoppers a 1-0 lead. Westmont's Justin McCloskey got into the spirit in the second period while killing off a penalty, he beat the Deer Lakes defense and scored to extend the lead to 2-0. At 5:15 of the second, it was McCloskey to make it 3-0. Then it was the backbreaker as Anthony DeMarco scored with just :24 seconds remaining in the middle period to make it 4-0 Hilltoppers. On to the third and at 11:50 McCloskey completed the hat trick on a pretty backhand to the short side. Just 39 seconds later, the Lancers got on the board as Sean McIntyre beat Pat Krumenacker on a quick shot to close the lead to 5-1. Westmont added two more tallies in the final period and went on to an impressive 7-1 victory over Deer Lakes.

HARMARVILLE - The Post Gazette rankings are THE topic of discussion around the rinks this time of year and since yours trully is responsible for them when Plum's name appeared in the number 4 slot and Central Catholic, 7-0-1 in their last eight, disappeared from last weeks rankings.....that is just more than Coach Kevin Zielmanski could take. So the coach of sound mind and wanting to motivate his team pasted those PG Rankings up in the locker room. Wanting to explain that the PIHL BS C Power Rankings, a conglomerate of computer rankings which gives credence to running up the score on the likes of Connellsville and Woodland Hills, I entered the Central locker room to explain the the Post Gazette didn't get the rankings until after the deadline and used the wrong ones. I was accousted by Billy Zuri, who can engulf a Primantis Egg and Cheese with a turn of the head, for wearing the ill fated Viking rival Meadville hat on my mellon......you're welcome Coach Z ! Geared for more holiday cheer, I wandered down the hallway to the Plum locker room.....only to be greeted by coach Relnick and 'Dr Evil' Jerry Bass, who thanked me for motivating Central and told me to 'hit the bricks' as they prepared their team for battle. The Mustangs have played well this season and look to be a team to be reckoned with come playoff time and dare we say 'championship contenders' and those are words not heard since the 1998 classic WPIHL Championship between Plum and Central Catholic. And to add to the excitement former Mustang Dave Tunon and former Viking Bill Downey were in town on break from Penn State [# 1 team in the nation ACHA Division 1, who will play W & J January 3rd at the Mellon Arena] to take in the action. The first period saw plenty of good action with good physical play and great backchecking by both teams. CC's Brian Adamczak and Plum's JP Balson kept the crease clear until 1:08 when Matt Urso and Matt Capalongo double teamed the Plum defense and stole the puck, which Urso skated out of the corner and buried a wrist shot upstairs to make it 1-0. Special teams are usually a very important part of the success of any team and while Plum continued to get power play opportunties, Cnetral Catholic with excellent team defense and active sticks poked away and intercepted plenty of Mustang opportunties which would prove to be the difference in this game. At 12:34, after Michael McGurk won the faceoff, Zach Crisafio blasted a slapshot which Balson never saw on the short side and the Vikings were now on top 2-0. Another Plum power play at 9:27 and a golden opportunity as Chris Niznik was in the sin bin. Hard work by John Kalichuk and Travis Senchur paid off at 7:42 as they worked the puck to the front of the net and Robbie Tunon pounced on the rebound and all the sudden Plum was within one at 2-1. At 4:58 a Central Catholic power play and a key point in the game.....the Viking power play with patience, great puck movement and great skating without the puck capitalized, as Andrew Wroblewski tipped a Chris Niznik shot past Balson at 3:38 to extend the CC lead to 3-1. Adamczak continued to sparkle, as Plum was outshooting Central 21-11 after two periods, with big saves on Kalichuk and another on Senchur with 2 1/2 left in the middle frame. Central's JR Hess scored on a big slapshot from the point at 1:41 to make it 4-1. Plum came right back as Aaron Arnold poked home a rebound after Adamczak made a great save on Tunon to close he gap to 4-2. In the third period, Plum could not score although they had plenty of opportunities. With 3:47 left on a five on three, the Mustangs came close and Adamczak made an unreal save on Senchur, who along with his Plum teammates thought the puck went in but to no avail and that was the story on the night as Plum outshoot the Vikings 27-18 and came away empty handed. For Central Catholic, another big win over a ranked opponent and maybe a little respect from the would be rankings is due.

DELMONT - The PIHL changed Friday Night's big divisional matchup between Gateway and Plum at the Center Ice Arena from 9:20 to 7:20 and sometimes that works to the advantage of one team or another. Gateway's Dan Serakowski hoped that Plum wrestling the Eastern Division title off of the Gators in 2002 would be a motivation to grab the division lead and move into the Class AAA Elite. Plum has been struggling between the pipes as witnesed in the 6-5 loss to # 2 Cathedral Prep on Tuesday night. The Mustangs Stu Relnick went back to J P Balson to give his netminder a little confidence that he may be the man to put Plum in the drivers seat in the divisional race. Robbie Tunon opened the scoring in the first period to give Plum a 1-0 lead. Gateway's David Himes made several key saves including a 5 on 3 penalty killing situation to keep the game within one as the Mustangs enjoyed an 11-3 shot advantage in the first. Then at 4:53 off the faceoff, Travis Senchur beat Himes on the short side to give Plum a 2-0 lead. with just 53 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Senchur found aloose puck on the doorstep and made no mistake to give Plum a commanding 3-0 lead. Gateway had several power play opportunties in the middle frame but Balson and excellent work by the Plum defense kept them out and the score remained 3-0. Tunon added a power play goal onarebound at 2:39 to extend the lead to 4-0. Then, at 1:10 remaining in the second Ryan Griffin, tationed in the slot took a pinpoint pass from Mike Renna and buried it to turn the game into a one-sided affair 5-0. The Gators had a power play to start the third and Lucas Pepper scored to break Balson's shutout at 14:43 to make it 5-1. Any chance the Gators ha off mountig a comeback was thwarted by Balson who stopped Zach Flora on the breakaway at 14:24. Then the backbreaker for the Gators came at 13:09, as Ryan Griffinstrippedthe Gator defense of the puck and fed Ranna the puck, who beat Himes to put Plum ahead 6-1. To put an exclamation point on impressive Plum victory, Dave Dincau stole the puck from the Gateway defense and beat Himes on the glove side to make the final count Plum 7 Gateway 1. The victory put the Mustangs in sole possession of first place.