Peters Twp Indians - 2014 AAA 2002-2003-2005 AA

St Edwards 2 Mt Lebanon 0 2007 Meadville Bulldog Invitational MEADVILLE - After Mt Lebanon lost to Sylvania Northview 3-1 in the 2007 Meadville Bulldog Invitational opener, head coach Paul Taibi called a midnight practice with his team to remind them the commitment it takes when you are defending Pennsylvania Class AAA State Champions. After the Blue Devils lost to Bethel Park a week ago, coach Taibi was less than satisfied with the effort of his team, but turned it around in three days and earned a 2-2 tie against the Blackhawks. Consistency is one of the toughest feats for a team who aspires to be champions. And while everyone is entitled to a bad game here and there, there is no excuse for lack of effort and coach Taibi has a tradition at Mt Lebanon of hard working and well prepared squads and he sees the potential for the Blue Devils to make noise in March. A coining process after Lebo’s impressive 2-0 victory over a very good Gilmour Academy team limiting the Lancers to just 10 shots on goal. So Lebo 66 who won the Bulldog a year ago is now Lebo 49 a/k/a Lebo 46, who are not half the team they used to be. Whatever percentage you would like to assign, Mt Lebanon is working toward defending their title, both at the Bulldog and the Pennsylvania Class AAA crown they earned a year ago. St Edwards from Cleveland is a perennial power of Ohio Interscholastic Hockey winning 10 Ohio State Championships. Head coach Rob Whidden is in a battle in Cleveland for supremacy with defending Ohio champions Padua with the goal of ending in Columbus the second week in March. The Eagles rebounded from an opening loss in the Bulldog Invitational to upend Sylvania Northview 2-0 and the bracket is now wide open with the winners of Saturday’s contests advancing along with LaSalle and Toledo St Francis to the semi-finals. St Edward’s opened the scoring at 11:56 of the first period on a goal by Charles Wisniewski to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead, which they held through the first period. Mt Lebanon went on the power play at 8:24 of the 2nd period, but the Eagles killed it maintaining a 1-0 lead. St Ed’s went on the power play at 6:27 and could not score. Mt Lebanon would have another chance at 4:10. The Eagles seized control of the hockey game at 7:40 as Charles Wisnewski’s shot from sharp angle beat Robbie Behling on the short side to give St Ed’s a 2-0 advantage. Lebo 46 was now in an uphill climb needing 3 goals over the games final 7 ½ minutes, which has been the Achilles heel of the Blue Devils and a favorite Sunday Conversation of Dr Denton (off on assignment in Cleveland) and King Tut. With 3:33 to go the Lebo power play would have one last gasp and St Ed’s goaltender Everett Graves made two nice stops of Jon Wilen with 2:23 to play. The Blue Devils penalty shortly thereafter was the death nail for Lebo as St Edwards would now advance to play Toledo St Francis in tomorrow’s semi-finals and LaSalle will face Sylvania Northview. Mt Lebanon outshot St Ed’s 23-18. The loss will bring an end to the two year run of Mt Lebanon and LaSalle meeting for the Bulldog Invitational title.

MEADVILLE - The Meadville Hockey Program started the Bulldog Invitational in 1996 to bring the best teams from Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Pennsylvania, Ohio and surrounding states to compete for three days at the ‘House of Chills’. The Bulldogs won their own tournament only once in 2003, which just happens to be the last time that they won the Pennsylvania Class AAA title. The Bulldogs are off to 9-3-0 start in League play and have shown periods of strength and weakness in that stretch, which historically includes play against non-league opponents, that Jamie Plunkett uses to hone the Dawgs run at State supremacy. In a non-league game earlier this season in mid-November in the National Invitational Scholastic Showcase in Jamestown NY, Meadville played arguably one of its best games of the season against Illinois power New Trier Green, but fell 4-3 giving up two shorthanded tallies in the third period. Coach Plunkett will tell you that these are the types of games that build playoff runs in March when you win them and toil in inconsistency in you don’t. The Bulldogs will have to start knocking off some contenders for Pennsylvania’s ultimate prize in the regular season or in non-league contests if it hopes to compete for the Penguins Cup and ultimately the Pennsylvania High School Hockey Championship at year’s end. LaSalle Head Coach Wally Muehbronner loves coming to Meadville to compete against excellent competition and has done so now for 8 years. The Explorers have expanded their horizons traveling to the Northeast to play in the Mount St Charles Invitational, which they did in late December to play against hockey powers from Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire among others and in addition compete against New Jersey Prep powers to hone their run at the Flyers Cup. Losses against Delbartan NJ, the Hill School and Wyoming Seminary were all close, but the Explorers have been pretty dominant in League play with a perfect record thus far and good enough to rank them # 1 in the recent Pa Hockey Elite 8 Flyers Cup poll and # 1 in the State of Pennsylvania in the same Elite 8 statewide poll. LaSalle is ranked ahead of Bethel Park, who beat the Dawgs in December at the ‘House of Chills’ 6-3. LaSalle showed no sign of bus legs in the opening period as they skated Meadville into the ground from the opening bell. The benefits started just 23 seconds into the contest as Ross Denczi crashed the net and poked home an Adam Berkle rebound to give the Explorers a 2-0 lead. LaSalle continued good transition play out of their zone and into Meadville’s and scored a beautiful goal at 9:54 as Tom Minton converted a great cross-ice pass from linemate Mark Schnupp to make it two zip. Minton would scored again at 4:57 of the 1st period on a weird angle shot from below the goal line which bounced off the back of Mike Licinski to make it 3-0. A critical penalty kill for Meadville in final two minutes of opening period negated LaSalle’s power play with a penalty against the Explorers with 18 seconds remaining, LaSalle dominated play in the opening period and the shots 12-4. After the ice cut and some words of encouragement from coach Plunkett we were on to the second period and the Bulldogs finally got on the board as Morgan Nickerson found Alex Drelick on a cross ice feed, who slipped a shot past Dan Pyne to get Meadville back in the hockey game at 12:32 at 3-1. Meadville was shorthanded in the 2nd period, but capitalized on an odd man break as Pat Leone fired a shot that Pyne with a little under 11 minutes to go in the middle period bringing the intimate but always boisterous House of Chills crowd to a thunderous roar making this a 3-2 contest. More penalty killing for Meadville with 9:06 to play in the 2nd, but the Dawgs adjustments lured LaSalle into the Meadville half ice game,which the home team excels at and the penalty was successfully killed. Another penalty with 3:39 remaining in the second period put LaSalle on the power play again. At some point the Explorers would need to capitalize on the Bulldog penalties and they did with 3:01 to go as Tom Minton’s shot trickled past Mike Licinski to give LaSalle a 4-2 and complete the hat trick for # 9 of LaSalle. With 14:33 to play in regulation, LaSalle took another penalty and Meadville had a 5 on 3 advantage for almost a minute, but the Explorers aggressive penalty kill prevailed. Meadville was able to get back in the game as Pat Leone banged home a rebound of an Alex Drelick backhand with 11:20 to play to cut the lead to 4-3, but took a penalty in the process putting LaSalle on the power play. With 9:47 to go, the Explorer’s made them pay as T.J. Laessig’s shot shot from the left point found its way through traffic and behind Licinski to make it a 5-3 count. The Explorers went on the power play with 5:46 to go in regulation with a five minute major assessed to the Bulldogs and they scored with 5:07 to go on a rebound goal by #12 Eric McLoughlin to extend the lead to 6-3. Meadville scored the games final goal as Aaron Nye scored on a slapshot from the left point with 2:15 to go, but Meadville ran out of clock as LaSalle earned a 6-4 victory at the House of Chills.

St Edwards 2 Mt Lebanon 0 2007 Meadville Bulldog Invitational MEADVILLE - After Mt Lebanon lost to Sylvania Northview 3-1 in the 2007 Meadville Bulldog Invitational opener, head coach Paul Taibi called a midnight practice with his team to remind them the commitment it takes when you are defending Pennsylvania Class AAA State Champions. After the Blue Devils lost to Bethel Park a week ago, coach Taibi was less than satisfied with the effort of his team, but turned it around in three days and earned a 2-2 tie against the Blackhawks. Consistency is one of the toughest feats for a team who aspires to be champions. And while everyone is entitled to a bad game here and there, there is no excuse for lack of effort and coach Taibi has a tradition at Mt Lebanon of hard working and well prepared squads and he sees the potential for the Blue Devils to make noise in March. A coining process after Lebo’s impressive 2-0 victory over a very good Gilmour Academy team limiting the Lancers to just 10 shots on goal. So Lebo 66 who won the Bulldog a year ago is now Lebo 49 a/k/a Lebo 46, who are not half the team they used to be. Whatever percentage you would like to assign, Mt Lebanon is working toward defending their title, both at the Bulldog and the Pennsylvania Class AAA crown they earned a year ago. St Edwards from Cleveland is a perennial power of Ohio Interscholastic Hockey winning 10 Ohio State Championships. Head coach Rob Whidden is in a battle in Cleveland for supremacy with defending Ohio champions Padua with the goal of ending in Columbus the second week in March. The Eagles rebounded from an opening loss in the Bulldog Invitational to upend Sylvania Northview 2-0 and the bracket is now wide open with the winners of Saturday’s contests advancing along with LaSalle and Toledo St Francis to the semi-finals. St Edward’s opened the scoring at 11:56 of the first period on a goal by Charles Wisniewski to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead, which they held through the first period. Mt Lebanon went on the power play at 8:24 of the 2nd period, but the Eagles killed it maintaining a 1-0 lead. St Ed’s went on the power play at 6:27 and could not score. Mt Lebanon would have another chance at 4:10. The Eagles seized control of the hockey game at 7:40 as Charles Wisnewski’s shot from sharp angle beat Robbie Behling on the short side to give St Ed’s a 2-0 advantage. Lebo 46 was now in an uphill climb needing 3 goals over the games final 7 ½ minutes, which has been the Achilles heel of the Blue Devils and a favorite Sunday Conversation of Dr Denton (off on assignment in Cleveland) and King Tut. With 3:33 to go the Lebo power play would have one last gasp and St Ed’s goaltender Everett Graves made two nice stops of Jon Wilen with 2:23 to play. The Blue Devils penalty shortly thereafter was the death nail for Lebo as St Edwards would now advance to play Toledo St Francis in tomorrow’s semi-finals and LaSalle will face Sylvania Northview. Mt Lebanon outshot St Ed’s 23-18. The loss will bring an end to the two year run of Mt Lebanon and LaSalle meeting for the Bulldog Invitational title.

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Westmont Hilltop 8 Center 3 BEAVER – The Center Hockey program returned to Class A from a 4 year absence from Varsity competition, when the program exited after the 2002-2003 season. The Trojans have not faired too well with a 0-10-0 mark scoring 24 goals and surrendering 107. With only 13 schools in Class A and the majority of the teams being above average, Center will likely go this season with no wins and if they do claim victory, it will likely be against a doormat team out of the playoff picture. The unfortunate part about it is that Center is a prime candidate to play developmental hockey or Junior Varsity, which is what the Open Division was supposed to be and not a feasting ground for the sandbagging AAA sized schools & West Virginia schools to pile up statistics so they can see them in the Post Gazette. Quigley, who Center leading scorer Sean Wormald played for two seasons, opted to go to the Open Division and use players from outside the Quigley School District, which should be considered an amateur team and like the other 8 impure teams in the Open Division have no business competing in High School Hockey. Westmont Hilltop began play in the 1980-81 season at the War Memorial shortly after the Johnstown area lost the Jets professional and the name McQuillan shortly made an impact in the player ranks with the program …………………although Art McQuillan did not play for the Hilltoppers, brothers Pat, Mickey and Kevin did and some played for their brother, which is very interesting and I am not sure happens a lot. The Mighty Hilltoppers have been traditionally winners and they do it their way a/k/a Art McQuillan’s way. The Westmont family has tradition, have loads of fun, a long line of brothers who have come through, a Penguins Cup in 2003, a great rivalry with Bishop McCort [which is maybe one of the best of all of Interscholastic Hockey] and they have Art McQuillan, who is in rare company of coaches, who have last 15 + years including Meadville’s Jamie Plunkett, Shaler’s Ron Steedle, Chartier’s Valley’s Eddie Schultz and maybe a handful of others who don’t come to mind. The opportunity to win 400 games is an important milestone, not only for the coach, but for the program, the has two more McQuillans on the way in Art’s sons Lane 6 and Cullen 9 to carry the tradition of their father. So sludgin trudging the Mighty Hilltoppers hit the ice and there was something special in the air at Beaver Ice Complex at Brady’s Run Park with the Tribune Democrat’s Mike Mastovich and the Super Techno Doug Heck making the trip to Beaver County, all the way from Johnstown, and the Super Techno also sampled the freshly baked Chocolate Chip cookies from the Beaver County Ice Complex’s refreshment stand. In the opening period, Westmont and Center traded goals as Center’s Sean Wormald scored just 30 seconds in to give the Trojans a 1-0 lead. Alex Rohal tied it for Westmont on the power play at 8:53 to tie the score 1-1. Center regained the lead as Zach Morrison scored less than a minute later at 7:56. Kyle Harnish tied the score at 6:16 for the Hilltoppers at 2-2. Shots were surprisingly 8-7 in favor of the Trojans. Westmont coach King Arthur McArthur McQuillan made a switch between the pipes inserting Ian O’Brien for backup Brock Rozich. The Mighty Hilltoppers opened the period on the power play and Chad O’Brien beat the Center goaltender Justin Gantz on the short side to give WH the lead 3-2. At 7:45 Kyle Hardish scored a nice goal on a drop pass from Chris Reid, which is typical Art McQuillan hockey to make it 4-2. Brendan Boyle circled around in the Center end and the lofted a wrist shot past Trojan goaltender Justin Gantz with 6:23 to make it 5-2. WH held a 22-4 shot advantage in the middle period. On top the third period and Steve Kohlers wrist shot clanged off the left post and trickled past Gantz to make it 6-2. At 11:46 Center scored as Sean Wormald picked up his second goal. At 11:31, Will Page converted a nice pass from Brendan Boyle on the power play to make it 7-3. Boyle closed out the scoring with 1:13 to play beating Justin Gantz on a wrist shot from in between the circles to make it an 8-3 final. All of the Hilltoppers contributed and gave their coach his 400th victory of all-time. READ THE TRIBINE DEMOCRAT'S MIKE MASTOVICH's Story by clicking on Icons