Baldwin Highlanders - 1975 & 1988 AAA

CORAOPOLIS –

      Mars (13-0-1) has been pretty much on cruise control since their November 27^th beating of Quaker Valley at Cranberry. The Planets have outscored opponents 104-11, but a study shows that they have given up twice as many goals in away games than at home. The goal of all of this is for Mars to advance to their first ever Penguins Cup and the looming # 1 seed with a game and a half lead would receive a significant boost with a win over the Quakers. Let’s forget about the Post Gazette # 1 ranking that the Planets have held since the first weeks of the season and lets focus on the mental aspect facing this team that has plagued them in the past. While Quaker Valley was busy with competition over the holidays, coach Tim Coleman’s squad decided to rest and with the lack of competition in Class A, Mars will have to find a way to keep hungry and sharp down the stretch  to try to move on to the Penguins Cup and last week’s 1-1 tie with defending Penguins Cup champ Freeport, is just a reminder that ANY team is just one goaltending performance away from elimination and Quaker Valley will testify to that.

     Quaker Valley (13-2-0) lost to Serra Catholic and Mars in November and has reeled off a series of wins to become the hottest team in Class A since those setbacks. Taking into account that the Quakers had a semi-surprised return of Mik Lemieux as a Chirstmas present to QV’s fortunes  brings a whole different element to the offense, which now becomes multi dimensional with Lemieux, Colin South and George Jackson leading the offense and Noah Zamagias move back to defense to solidify a defense with Cody Scott. Head Coach Kevin Quinn’s smile was a little more noticeable as the Quakers got ready to take on # 1 Mars, who now stands in the path of the Quakers redemption of the Penguins Cup loss from a year ago and possibly a 2^nd State Title in 3 years. The underlying philosophy of the Lemieux return may be questioned in some parts and certainly I have been outspoken about Eligibility, but in this case it really has nothing to do about who he is, but the principal is that Mik Lemieux is a player who was developed in the Quaker Valley organization, played three years for the team and SHOULD be eligible immediately for those of you naysayers.

        Quaker Valley jumped all over Mars in the opening period as Noah Zamagias gave the Quakers a 1-0 lead. Mik Lemieux made his presence known as he set up Colin South on a nice passing play to extend the lead to 2-0 before the ‘Concerned Citizens’ of Mars and Quaker Valley could get settle in their sets, which was a nice crowd for the premier matchup in Class A for a scheduled 9:00 PM start courtesy of the promotionally challenged PIHL (who sent the Riddler to watch this games instead of someone who might know a little about hockey), who is more interested in promoting themselves than their teams. At 3:18 of the period, the Quakers nearly made it 3-0, but Mars Brady Sipe broke up a play between South and Lemieux with a tremendous backchecking effort to keep the two goal deficit for the Planets.

        The second period turned into a goaltending dual between Mars Greg Lewis and QV’s Zach Taylor as the teams battled for the all important third goal of the contest in the first five minutes of the second. Quaker Valley would get the prize as Lemieux took a Colin South feed from the top of the circle and whipped it past Lewis and the Quakers now had a 3-0 lead at 9:12. Mars answered on the power play as Brady Sipe took a shot from the left point and Jake Robasch pounced on the rebound and jammed it past Zach Taylor and the Planets were on the board at 3-1 at 6:08. That momentum didn’t last long as Colin South drew a penalty and put the Quakers on the power play at 4:44. South took a cross ice feed from George Jaskon and fired a bullet off the cross bar that appeared to go in, but just in case Mik Lemieux made sure and tapped it in for a 4-1 QV lead heading to the ice cut. Shots were 33-20 in favor of QV.

        Mars did not quit and they could have laid down in this game after Mike Heltman was stopped on the breakaway with 12:25 remaining in regulation. Mars had a golden opportunity with 11 ½ minutes left on a 5 on 3, but Zach Taylor made a great save on Mike Mazzota at 10:38 and Quaker killed it off. On a QV power play, Mars goaltender Greg Lewis made an unreal stop on Mik Lemieux, but left the game under his own power. Mars kept on grinding and finally broke QV as Ian Finney redirected a Michael Tracy shot from the left point through the 5-hole with 3:39 to go and give a glimmer of hope to the Planets. Any fire the Planets had was extinguished just ten seconds later as Colin South found an empty net after Marty Lamneck made a save on Mik Lemieux and it was now 5-2. Time ran out as Mars continued to pressed for goals as Mike Mazzota scored on a beautiful shot inside the post to make the final count 5-3 in favor of Quaker Valley, who pinned the first loss of the season on Mars, which could prove to be a preview of a third meeting and that would be in the Penguins Cup final in March.        

Woodland Hills fights off Kiski and penalties to score big win

DELMONT –

       When I glanced at the schedule for Monday Night for Interscholastic Hockey, I usually will try to find a couple games in Class AAA, AA and A to watch a couple of Penguins Cup contenders on one trip killing two birds with one stone. You’d figure in early January you could find some intruiging match-ups and on this night I could not. So plan B sent me to Delmont for a game between my former team Woodland Hills and Kiski. Both schools play in the Open Division and have avoided the Class AAA for several years now because the PIHL will not allow them to play in Class AAA nor Class AA nor Class A because they do not have developmental programs, which is their stance, but the reality is that they have pigeon holed all of these so-called Developmental teams in the Open Division.

        The Open Division is made up of schools who no one else including the schools in Class AAA wants to play period. The are a unique way for the PIHL to bill for their poor service and an additional fine base for people who choose not to attend their boring but recently entertaining meetings, because some people are raising questions about their SECRET finances. Word on the street is that one of their former Treasurer’s companies is under Federal investigation, which does not surprise me and should not surprise any of you either.

        So you have 4 West Virginia schools (excluding Wheeling Park who opted for Class AAA), 9 Co-Op schools ranging from Carrick or Ringgold, who has several schools represented on its roster to Derry, who has just one or two players from another school, which tells me that they could not find ONE OR A COUPLE more kid in their district to put in uniform to become a pure High School Team from Derry Area (or maybe that one kid is pretty good ?). I am not here to pick on any one of those schools, but there is NO MOTIVATION for any other schools to build hockey programs if their players are plucked by surrounding schools, which has led to the demise of South Allegheny, West Mifflin, Steel Valley, Belle Vernon’s, Penn Hills, Blackhawk, and other schools who will never resurface as a hockey program EVER. How is this Developmental Hockey? It’s not, it’s a billing machine with bad processes.

         A quick glance at the Flyers Cup, which is a part of the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championships shows that Eastern Pa has a Class AAA division with only a dozen schools and the rest of the 100 plus schools is either Class AA or Class A. To delve even further, Massachusetts has it’s Super 8 Division and the 3 A, 2 A and 1 A Classifications. Illinois has the Red Varsity and then a combined State Championship for rural Co-Op teams. The point is that every school has an opportunity to play for a State Championship and there is not this mess of teams that no one wants to play [that is according to PIHL logic and NOT MINE] in any other State in the Country, but right here in Western Pa, with the exception of New York, which has the battle between Federation Sanctioned School Teams and USA Hockey Club teams, which is a whole other story.

           During the National Invitational Scholastic Showcase, two local Co-Op teams tried to schedule games right in the middle of our event, which goes to show you that this is not an exclusive problem to Western Pennsylvania. Co-Op Teams are NOT HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY, they are SELECTED PLAYERS WHO FORM A TEAM AND PLAY UNDER A PARTICULAR HIGH SCHOOL BANNER, which I still can’t understand how a principal can sign off on to validate a roster.

         To round out the Open Division lineup are nine schools including Holidaysburg, Altoona, Connellsville, Ferndale, Allderdice, Ambridge, Trinity, and tonight’s combatants Woodland Hills and Kiski. These schools and teams are the BEST at reporting scores and results to PA Hockey as they religiously send in their highlights and Pa Hockey is the place you can find out what is happening with the Open Division as we rank them weekly.  So why is Altoona, Holidaysburg, Woodland Hills, Connellsville, Allderdice, and Ambridge who all have pretty good teams not in Class AA where they could be competing for a State Title?

           And people wonder why the Kool-Aid serving Junior B,C,D and probably next E & F and Midget AAA [glorified AA teams] programs are flourishing, well that is the next editorial. So Woodland Hills and Kiski, with nothing more to look forward to than playing the other 5 Co-Op teams in their divisions and maybe Carrick [who wasn’t allowed to participate in the Open Division playoffs last year], continued their rivalry with one another in pursuit of Ford City [a/k/a Armstrong Central – Kittanning] for first place.

           After watching the first period, I came to the quick realization that both Woodland Hills and Kiski, would be pretty good Class AA teams and the Woodland Hills team I was watching had way more talent in their lineup than I had 11 years ago (when we competed pretty well [didn’t win a lot of games but competed] in Class AAA] and what a shame they are not playing for anything except their schools, which is more than we can say for some others, who choose to take the lazy Co-Op route. Woodland Hills took a 3-1 lead in a very close opening period courtesy of goals from Billy Sullivan, Nate Simon and Zach Brown and Kiski’s Phil Cappo scored the lone Cavalier goal.

          The second period was a barrage of penalties as Kiski had numerous power plays and outshot the Wolverines 21-5, but Woody High had the only goal courtesy of defenseman Matt Frank, who found enough energy to score while helping kill off several 5 on 3’s and other penalties. Ryan Hast was superb stopping all 21 shots in the second period.

          The third period continued to be a penalty fest as Woodland Hills continued to kill them off and Darren Pellegrino scores a shorthanded goal at 13:43 to make it 5-2 Wolverines. Kiski mounted a comeback with two power play goals by Colin Mahoney, but the Wolverines Zach Brown scored his second to close it out for a 6-3 WH win. Ryan Hast continued his strong play in the third period stopping 17 of 19 Kiski shots and 47 of 50 shots on the evening as the shot clock was more like a slot machine, courtesy of 12 Kiski power plays to only 3 for Woodland Hills, which was a little lopsided. 

       Maybe next time these teams meet, it will be in Class AA next year and for a Penguin Cup playoff spot.