Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

MONROEVILLE - Please do not adjust your cursor or try to scroll to the top of the story because this line is the first line of the story. You can look at the 3 inches above this story in one of two ways.....one would be the Golden Mile Parking lot covered in snow or the other would be what happened in the first two periods of the Class AAA showdown between Gateway and Central Catholic. .......And for Viking coach Kevin Zielmanski, that would just be fine because he probably figured that the more boring the game is the better. Coach Dan Serakowski's Gateway club has put it on some teams this season and has the explosive kind of offense that can snatch victory from defeat as it did against Baldwin in its first game. So coach Z had to like the 0-0 tie after two periods. The most excitement was the near misses by the Vikings Zach Crisafio, who fanned on an opene net at 9:50 of the 2nd and the Gators Zach Flora, who fanned on an open net at 5:29 of the second. At 12:09 of the third period, Central Catholic went on the power play an they would cash in at 10:12 when Crisafio redirected a Michael McGurk pass thorugh the legs of David Himes to give Central a 1-0 lead. The Vikings continue to carry the play to Gateway and with only 1:33 to play Matt Urso scored on the deke past Himes to give CC a huge goal and a 2-0 lead. Urso added an empty netter with :08 left to salt away a 3-0 victory an a shutout for Bryan Adamczyk.

CRANBERRY - {Special to Pa Hockey} Bethel Park outshot North Hills 38-9 on the evening but the only score came off the stick of NH's Tyler Cummings, who scored with :02 left in regulation to give the Indians a 1-0 victory over the three-time defending Pa State AAA Champions.

HARMARVILLE - CC INVITATIONAL SEMI-FINALS Upper St Clair had surprised alot of people with their performance in the 2002 Central Catholic Invitational by reaching the Semi-Finals. There is no question the Panthers will be a strong team in the upcoming years, but they will have to add a little discipline to their resume. Kip Guenther's young squad took a penalty at 6:22 of te first period and Dunbarton's Jay Brookings scored at 8:34 to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead. Then another penalty late in the first period resulted in a Dunbarton power play goal with just :19 left by Brent Dalliday to give Dunbarton a 2-0 lead after one. On to the second and the Panthers rebounded outshooting Dunbarton 13-3 and pelting Spartan goaltender Bryan Scott, who was equal to the task until 5:18, when Anthony Sirabella scored to cut the lead to 2-1 at the end of two periods. In the third period, USC carried the play but could not beat Scott, who preserved his team's lead. The Panthers became frustrated which resulted in a double minor which put the lethal Spartans on the power play and they made USC pay with goals from Matt Fettes at 2:38 and Mike Tantsis at 3:48 to break open a tight 2-1 game and give Dunbarton a safe 4-1 lead. Matt Wyles added an insurance tally as Dunbarton, from near Pickering Ontario advanced to the CC Invitational Finals.

TJ mounts big comeback in OT ! HARMARVILLE - 2002 CC INVITATIONAL - SEMI FINALS Central Catholic was looking to capture its first Invitational in 14 years and came very close last years final losing to Bethel Park in the finals 2-1. Thomas Jefferson, who captured the title in 1998, was looking to capture some past glory and return to the coveted finals again. After a scoreless first period, just 45 seconds into the second period, Michael McGurk gave the Vikings a 1-0 lead. Then after killing off a Thomas Jefferson penalty, Matt Urso chipped the puck past the Jaguar defense and beat Bryan Adamczyk on the forehand to extend the CC lead to 2-0. Central was coasting and an errant clearing attempt found its way on the stick of Daryl Nath who buried a wrist shot at 2:34 to get TJ on the board 2-1. The Jaguars tied the game with a little over ten minutes remaining in regulation as Andrew Olmstead scored to make it 2-2. The game went into overtime and Olmstead caught the CC defense pinching which created an odd man break and he threaded a perfect pass to a streaking Derek Kelly, who buried a shot at 8:33 of the OT and sent the Jaguars to the Finals.

Dunbarton captures Central crown ! HARMARVILLE - 2002 CENTRAL CATHOLIC INVITATIONAL FINALS Dunbarton took a little tour through Western Pennsylvania and head coach Bill Dalliday wanted to make sure he had all the bases covered. First it was Bethel Park, then Fox Chapel, then North Allegheny and finally Upper St Clair....but just to make sure the Spartan coach took a little drive to Murrysville to get some sticks fixed at Center Ice Arena for the Championship matchup with Thomas Jefferson. The Spartans broke out on top as Matt Wyles scored on a beautiful wrist shot inside the post to make it 1-0 at 4:58. Danny Hartman kept the Jaguars in the game with some excellent goaltending. Dunbarton added two more goals in the middle frame as Jay Brookings scored on a rebound at 11:09 and Matt Pemeroski added another at 10:38 to give the Dunbarton squad a 3-0 lead. Brookings, Brent Dalliday, Matt Fettes and Pemeroski added goals in the third period as Dunbarton captured the Central Catholic Invitational in convincing fashion with a 7-1 victory over the Jaguars. Luke Wawrzeniak broke the shutout with 5:44 remaining in the final period. Spartan defenseman Brian Campbell was named the recipient of the Bill Downey Memorial Award as Dunbarton became the first International Champion of the Central Catholic Invitational.