Chartiers Valley Colts - 1986 AA

NEW KENSINGTON – Plum has been through the ringer in the second half of the 2003-2004 season with losses to contenders Meadville, Mt Lebanon, Bethel Park and Monday night’s division clinching loss to Fox Chapel, where the Mustangs outshot the Foxes, but came up short on the scoreboard 5-3 with an empty net goal. What Head Coach Stu Relnick is more concerned right now is securing a playoff berth and a home ice berth in the playoffs and Plum is currently sitting in 9th place in the overall standings, which would send them on the road. Shaler coach Ron Steedle has a different theory and he only could dream of having Plum assistant coach Mike Sargo [who scored over 100 goals in leading Gateway to the WPIHL AAA crown and Penguins Cup Semi-Finals in 1996] suit up in Shaler Blue and White or maybe borrow Travis Senchur for a half of season, the Titans could have capitalized during the unreal ten one-goal games in which Shaler and they would be talking about home ice advantage in the playoffs and not just trying to survive and avoid a first round trip to Meadville or Mt Lebanon, which equates to Siberia for Titans. Shaler has lost twice to Plum, 5-1 in St Margaret’s and a 5-0 whitewash in November and was looking to measure its progress over the season’s 2nd half. Shaler came out and took the play to Plum in the first period pressuring the Mustangs which would result in the opening goal as Graham Papciak on his off wing beat J.P. Balson low on the ice at 5:26 for a 1-0 Shaler lead. Then the Titans were whistled for hauling down a Plum player in the slot and the Mustangs capitalized on Shaler’s inability to clear the puck. Travis Senchur blasted a slapshot high over the shoulder of Ben Burns with 2:48 remaining in the first. Plum took the lead at 11:14 of the second period as Senchur took a Jonathon Smith feed and beat Burns between the legs for a 2-1 Mustang advantage. The Titans came back and tied the scored as John Shannon’s shot was like a pinball off defenseman and legs and sticks and ultimately J.P. Balson to knot the score at two apiece with 6:09 remaining in the middle period. The Mustangs would answer as Mike Dunlap would take advantage of a Shaler defensive meltdown in its own zone and beat Burns with exactly five minutes remaining in the middle frame. On to the third period and both teams had several chances to score but it was Shaler once again who had the better chances late in the game, but could not beat J.P. Balson who stopped 27 of 29 shots on the evening. Jim Rouda had a wide open net and the puck just would not go in for Shaler, who pulled the goalie and watched Josh Huber’s shot in the final seconds ring off the post and Plum held on for a 3-2 victory at the Palladium at Parnassus.

NEW KENSINGTON – Baldwin coach Mike Cox didn’t watch the Plum-Shaler game before their matvhup with Fox Chapel, but if he did he would see a lot of characteristics of his team with Shaler in the Highlanders inability to come up with the big goal when they need it. The Highlanders have been struggling to put pucks in the net but lets keep in mind who their opponents where ….Mt Lebanon, a 2-0 loss, Central Catholic, a 6-1 loss after being a one goal game in the middle of the second and Upper St Clair, a 5-2 loss. So the degree of who Baldwin was playing had a little something to do with it even though the theory is consistant. The equalizer to all of this is Matt King, who is arguably the best goaltender in Class AAA and a Pa Hockey Top 25 selection, who has carried the Highlanders and has them on the doorstep of the playoffs again after a long drought for the storied Baldwin program. Fox Chapel coach Keith Kearney on the other hand has the scoring and has the defense and his team is just looking for a little respect for their 17-2-1 record and clinching of the East Division title. The Foxes consider themselves a contender for the Penguins Cup and this writer agrees that if EVERY player suits up for them they are. The player who will swing the pendulum is sophomore Matt Quigley, who is in my opinion one of the top 5 players in Class AAA. The two games in which Quigley was not a factor were the two losses to top dogs Meadville [he didn’t play] and Mt Lebanon [he left in a 0-0 game in the 2nd period]. Thursday night is here and Quigley was in the lineup against Baldwin. The Foxes came out flying in the first period and took a 2-0 lead as Joe Bduz scored at 5:32 and Quigley scored his 1st goal on the evening at 4:33. The Foxes pounded Matt King with 13 shot to Baldwin’s 6. Fox Chapel looked like a machine in the second period as Quigley scored at 14:06 and then overpowered King with a blistering snapshot upstairs at 9:35 to give the Foxes a commanding 4-0 lead. Baldwin did not quit and picked their game up at this point and began to chip away at Fox Chapel with nine shots on Todd Hendry. Lou Del Greco finally broke the ice at 3:31 of the 2nd to get the Highlanders on the board 4-1. Things started to get interesting as Michael Joyce found the net just over a minute later and the FC lead was now only 4-2 at 2:24. The next goal would be huge and Baldwin would get it as Garrett Beisinger caught Hendry in no mans land as he intercepted a bad clearing attempt and slid the puck past the diving Foxes goaltender to pull Baldwin within one at 4-3 with 14:07 remaining in regulation. FC would go on the power play, but the Highlanders would capitalize as Dave Stock found his way around the FC defense and scored on the breakaway beating Hendry just inside the far post to tie the game at four apiece with 10:59 left in the 3rd period. Fox Chapel would pound away with 15 more shots on King and a 38-23 shot advantage for the game. With 6:49 remaining Jason Kreps fire a bullet to the glove side of King, who juggled the puck but could not control and fell on the door step. Matt Quigley found it and tapped it in with a great display of speed to beat the Baldwin defense to the puck and give Fox Chapel a 5-4 lead which they would not relinquish.

Thanks to # 6 for providing a special report provided by the Indiana Hockey Club VALENCIA ~ The IHS Ice Hockey team showed what "Miracles" were made of by defeating #2 ranked Pine-Richland 5-3 Thursday night at the Ice Connection in Butler. Indiana scored first at 11:01 in the second period by Cory Mills, assisted by Alan Halapin. Mike Nesper had a short-handed goal and an empty-netter, while Zach Diamond added two goals for the night also. Assists were provided by Diamond and Boske with two apiece, and Joey Appolonia, and Mills kicking in one each. Mike Mentch provided an outstanding job in goaltending stopping 25 of 28 shots. Josh Fodor, Patrick Nicholas and Thomas DiDinato scored for Pinr Richland. Indiana outshot their opponent 35-28. Indiana now 12-4 drops Pine-Richland to 12-5, as they look forward to two home games next week.

JOHNSTOWN – Forest Hills coach Bobby Salata has to be happy with his team’s performance this season as the Rangers have posted a 9-5-1 record and clinched a playoff spot. The next step for his team is to defeat a team above them in the standings, something the Rangers have failed to do this season in falling to Bishop McCort [twice] and Serra in games that were not even close. A bright spot may have occurred last week as FH took Somerset into the games final minute down one goal only to fall 5-3 with an empty netter. Oh the rigors of coaching can be so rewarding and Westmont Hilltop’s Art ‘King Arthur’ McMillan can attest to over the past 15 + seasons. You see the Mighty Hilltopper has a streak at stake this season with 13 straight winning seasons and a 193-54-15 record over that time, the longest in Western Pennsylvania and ten straight playoff appearances, second only to Thomas Jefferson, who has secured their 14th straight playoff berth. After their first ever Penguins Cup championship last season, only to fall in a heart-wrenching 2-1 loss to Radnor in the State Finals, it has been a different story for Westmont-Hilltop with a 7-8-1 record this season. This may be one of McQuillan’s finest coaching performances as the Hilltopper lineup has just 4 returning starters from last years team and is dominated by freshman and sophomores, which will be a great accomplishment if the make the playoffs and even bigger if the finish at .500 or above. That accomplishment got tougher Wednesday as Forest Hills came out smoking in the first period and scorched Westmont’s Patrick Krumenacher for five goals en route to an 8-0 pasting of Westmont. Leo Lunetto, Dave Duncan and Bryan Parkinson each scored two goals and Kyle Single had a pretty non eventful night at the office with the shutout.

JOHNSTOWN ~ Many of teams have come to the Cambria County War Memorial over the years and many have been sent home by 5-time State Champion Bishop McCort over the past 15 years. Somerset coach Cliff Zeigler has witnessed it first hand and brought his Pa Hockey Elite 8 # 1 ranked and undefeated 16-0-0 Somerset team probably thinking this could be the year that the Eagles may be able to handle the ghosts of War Memorials past. Somerset has pounded Class A competition this season and has defeated Elite 8 ranked teams # 7 Sewickley Academy [5-0] # 6 Richland Cambria [4-2] and # 5 Quaker Valley [4-3] while outscoring their opponents 151-24. The big line of Bret Zeigler, Matt Rouch and freshman sensation Cullen Eddy leads all Western Pennsylvania in scoring and has posted ridiculous numbers. So a game that has been rescheduled a few times would finally take place as the War Memorial re-opened to a throng of what seemed like half of Somerset and the usual suspects of Bishop McCort with a crowd of somewhere around 1500 at the historic building. Bishop McCort knew one maybe two important factors about this much anticipated game. Head Coach John Bradley knew that this was a big game and also knew that his club has played in big games before this stage before and maybe this was Somerset’s first opportunity. Secondly, Bradley knows that hockey is a team game which requires defense, backchecking and a 20 man effort, which can play a major factor. The Crimson Crushers have put up some real impressive numbers with a 15-1-0 record and their lone blemish is to their nemesis of the past five years Serra Catholic, a 4-1 defeat earlier in the season. Maybe the most impressive factor in this Crimson Crusher team is that no one in Class [except Serra] has come close to beating them as they have won every game by at least four goals. Bishop McCort features the usual array of balanced scoring across their lineup which has been a trademark of the Crimson Crushers and their successes over the past 15 years in winning 5 Pennsylvania State Championships and 5 recent trips to the Penguins Cup final 4 only to be sent home by Serra Catholic the past four years. The first period was a close checking affair with a limited number of shots being yielded by both teams. Bishop McCort struck first as Corey Mock scored at 11:46 of the opening period. The Crimson Crushers extended their lead to 2-0 as David Champe found the net at 8:26. If there was a turning point of the first period and possibly the game it was in the middle of the first period as Cullen Eddy went down with an injury and left the game. Somerset cut the lead to 2-1 with just :40 left in the 1st period on a goal by Matt Rouch. On to the second period and the Crimson Crushers took control of this hockey game by putting Somerset goaltender Wesley Cramer under siege with 15 shots. The result was four goals for Bishop McCort as Chris Grady scored two goals, one just 8 seconds in to the period and his 2nd with 4:07 left, as the Crimson Crushers added tallies from Joe Delic [11:49] and Marc Domonkos [9:55] to open up a commanding 6-2 lead in the middle period. Bret Zeigler score for Somerset at the ten minute mark for the Eagles lone score. The third period was vintage Bishop McCort as they just worked the puck deep into the Somerset zone and killed the clock with excellent defense and disciplined play. Chris Mendillo added a goal for McCort at 11:06 to extend the lead to a 7-2 game and Zeigler closed out the scoring with just 2:46 left as the Crimson Crushers coasted to an impressive 7-3 victory over Somerset.