Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

MOON TWP - The Blackhawk season ended in a series of tiebreakers last season after the Cougars dropped their season finale to Center and missed out on a trip to the playoffs by percentage points. Quaker Valley on the other and saw its West Division title fold in the Belmont Arena in a stinging playoff loss to Freeport. Quaker head coach Kevin Quinn and the Cougars Dave Stepanian are looking to rebound this season and improve their respective finishes from a year ago. QV broke out on top in the first period at 9:35 as Jesse Taylor slipped a great pass by the Blackhawk defender to a streaking Ben Herring, who was bursting down the slot and beat goaltender Jason Brognano to make it 1-0. Herring tallied at the 6:43 mark on a no look pass from a QV teammate to make it 2-0, which the Quakers took to the break. In the second period, Cougar freshman Jake Polas scored a shorthanded tally on the ice past Jed Michael to cut the lead to 2-1 at 9:49. Then Polas played give and go with linemate Chris Fisher, who made a nice cross ice feed to the back door to tie the game at 2-2. Quaker Valley regained the lead as Sam Hairston walked off the boards and snapped a shot upstairs to give the Quakers a 3-2 lead at 3:54 on the power play. Then while killing a disadvantage, it was Hairston again as he picked up a loose puck in the slot and swung around Brognano and lofted the puck past the fallen Cougar goaltender at 2:40 to make the score 4-2. Hairston completed the natural hat trick as he blasted a shot off the faceoff behind the Blackhawk keeper and all the sudden the Quakers broke the game open at 5-2. On to the final period and Chris Fisher redirected a shot past Jed Michael just 11 seconds into the third to cut the lead to 5-3. Then at 8:02, Mike Wylie found brother Matt Wylie with a nice feed and Wylie beat Michael to cut the lead to one. Now the game was tight and it was Hairston who caught Bagnano off the post and tucked a wraparound inside the post and regained a two goal cushion at 6:59 and 6-4. The Quakers killed off the remaining Cougar threats and earned a 6-4 victory.

Check out the Final Standings through Friday 2/28/03 for Week 17 Final Pittsburgh Post Gazette and Western Pa Hockey Rankings Elite 8 - Week 17 !!

HARMARVILLE ~ The Public Address Announcer made a public service announcement "that fans should be aware that the PIHL is not responsible for flying bats and balls which may inadvertantly land in the stands". Now that the 'juiced puck' theory is in play, Derr Lakes head coach Al Pawloski and Quigley's Eric Glover can be heard preaching a little 'D-FENCE' to go with the 'oaf-fence' ! Lancer sluggers Matt Disanti [3 Goals] and Sean McIntyre [2 Goals] toyed with the Spartan defense as Deer Lakes coasted to an 8-5 victory before an intimate gathering for the late game at Harmarville. DL spoiled an outstanding performance by Kenny Lytle, who scored all five goals for Quigley.

KITTANNING - Kittanning head coach Jeff Smouse has been tossing and turning in his sleep lately. His Wildcat team proved all the doubters wrong last season by storming to a Penguin Cup Semi-Final berth before losing to Indiana. After his squad won the Kittanning Invitational, coach Smouse knew his squad was ready for a wakeup call if they weren't careful. Moon, on the other hand, has been a work in process for a couple of years now and has made the playoffs the past few seasons. The Tigers seem poised to make some noise this season and head coach Eric Boring has his squad going in the right direction as they faced a big test at the Belmont before a decent early season crowd. The Tigers were off and running at the 8:56 mark as Kodu Underwood gave Moon a 1-0 lead. Kittanning answered a minute and a half later as Joel Underwood took a nice feed from Zach Cain to tie the score on the power play at 7:16. Moon regained the lead as lanky power forward Hendrick Norden fended off a Wildcat defender and slipped a backhander past Adam Toy at 5:40 to make it 2-1. In the second period, the defense tightened and Moon was only able to muster three shots and that was all they would need as they made them all count to break open a tight contest. Norden intercepted an errant clearing attempt and wristed one past Toy at 11:25. Underwood converted a Brad Alayon pass from the slot at 10:47 and Alayon walked down Broadway at 8:33 to give the Tigers a 5-1 lead at the break. Moon's keeper Aaron Russell was stoning Kittanning at the other end stopping 28 of 29 shots on the night. While the Wildcats pressed to make something happen, Moon capitalized on an odd man rush as Underwood completed the hat trick at 9:21 on a beautiful setup by Hendrick Norden to put an exclamation point on a 5-1 Moon win.

MONROEVILLE - The Baldwin Highlanders have targeted the 2002-2003 seaon as the end of a drought. It has been twelve years since the Highlanders have tasted playoff competition and 15 years since they won a State Title in 1988. Head coach Mike Cox, who played for the Highlanders in the 1980's is in the second year of a rebuilding program which looks to be taking shape as his squad knocked off Upper St Clair in its opener. Gateway on the other hand is looking to extinguish its struggles over the past few years of not getting past round two of the playoffs and more recently a year ago when the Gators let tie games or leads in the third peiod slip away to 6 losses and 6 ties. Enter Dan Serakowski, two years removed from leading Allderdice to a Penguin Cup final appearance in 2001, to try to lead the Gators to the promised land. After a very evenly played first period, the game looked to go to the first intermission as a scoreless tie, but Zach Flora picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and bursted down the off wing and fired a shot past Baldwin's Matt King to give Gateway a 1-0 lead. Early in the second, Baldwin's speedy forward Alex Del Greco drove around the Gateway defense and beat David Himes cleanly on the forehand and the game was tied at one apiece. Gateway went on the power play a minute later and King stopped several chances until the Gators Steve Daniels found Flora with a cross ice pass and Zach buried it to make it 2-1 Gateway at 10:27. Lou Del Greco had a breakaway behind the Gator defense but Himes stoned him at 9:27 of the middle frame. On to the third and Baldwin's Ray Wilhelm tied the score at 2-2. The Highlanders had the better of the play in the third and went on the power play with 2:27 remaining. It took just 8 seconds as Chris Falce blasted a shot on the ice from the left point to give Baldwin a 3-2 lead with 2:19 left. Now the Gators had their backs againt the wall and they pulled the goaltender and Flora found that loose puck in the slot and wristed a shot past Matt King with :49 left and the game was tied 3-3. Off the faceoff, the puck found its way on to the stick of Matt Kopaczynski, who beat the Baldwin defender to the puck and pulled it around the Baldwin goaltender and fired home the game winner with 30 seconds remaining and Gateway pulled out a thrilling 4-3 victory on their opening night.