Chartiers Valley Colts - 1986 AA

NA edges Plum in a thriller in 4 OT ! Championship North Allegheny 2 Plum 1 [4 OT] Plum enters the 2003-2004 season with lots of hope after an excellent 2002-2003 season under fourth year coach Stu Relnick. The Mustangs have an excellent balance of horses and role players. What has plagued the team in the past to getting to the promised land is the same that many other teams with promises of Penguins Cup dancing in their heads have, not enough horses. Plum will need Sergio Somma and Ian Beitler, who both attend Plum and are not playing for the team right now, if it wishes to entertain an opportunity to join the mix of Meadville, Mt Lebanon and Central Catholic as Penguins Cup contenders [somebody needs to fundraise some money to help this situation]. The Mustangs defeated Shaler 5-1 and a very good Fox Chapel squad 4-2 to reach the Fall-Face Off Finals for the first time to face a very deep and balanced North Allegheny team. North Allegheny, on the other hand, is a veteran of four Fall Face Off Finals in the past five years, defeating Hampton in 2001, while falling to Franklin Regional in 2002 and Seneca Valley in 1999. The Tigers have never had a problem starting well at the beginning of the season, their challenge is to be there in the end. New head coach Tom Pandolfo know this and has committed NA to being in great physical condition….thus far knock on wood, they look in excellent shape and displayed that in opening victories over North Hills 5-0 and defending Penguins Cup finalist Franklin Regional 6-1. The prime example is captain Bryan Maloney, who looks more like a Greyhound than a Bulldog as the Tigers captain, who has shed some pounds and picked up some quickness under coach Pandolfo’s early season regime. The first period was pretty even with North Allegheny having an advantage of shots 10-8, but J.P Balson made several nice stops to keep the Tigers off the board. NA was whistled for a penalty with a little over 6 ½ minutes left in the opening period to put the Mustangs on the power play. Enter Travis Senchur, who took a Ryan Griffin and Phil Mains exchange and ripped it upstairs past NA Goaltender Jeff Kristan with 4:08 left in the 1st for a 1-0 Plum advantage. On to the 2nd and the Tigers turned up the heat on Plum outshooting them 13-6. NA could not beat Balson, who made some real nice stops and kept the Tigers off the board. Referee Dave Kosick, was doing an outstanding job as he always does on his own which makes him one of the premier officials in Western Pa and finally through exhaustive efforts of Tournament Organizers, a second official entered the game. Plum was whistled for an obvious trip late in the period to put NA on the power play. The venerable ‘turkey was on the table’ and the Tigers knew this was a critical time in the hockey game. With just 59 ticks left in the period, Matt Pekins slammed home a loose puck past Balson and the game was tied at one apiece. The teams battled through the third period scoreless and entered overtime which displayed several nice chances but excellent goaltending by Kristan and Balson. Another OT and then another making it the longest game in St Margaret’s Fall Face Off history. Great hockey games always end one of two ways....either a bad goal from a mental mistake or break or a great individual effort. This one would have a little of both as Phil Mains clearing attempt took a fortunate or unfortunate bounce off the linesman and found its way onto the stick of Joe Smarto, who walked to the net and put Balson on Route 62 ripping a backhander upstairs under the crossbar and sending the Tiger bench into bedlum with a hardfought well-earned 2-1 victory over a very disciplined Mustang team. Consolation Game Fox Chapel 6 Franklin Regional 2 Matt Quigley and Joe Budz each had a pair of goals to lead the Foxes to a 6-2 victory over Franklin Regional. Fox Chapel netminder Todd Hendry stopped 29 of 31 Panther shots to earn the victory.

Fall Face Off – Day 2 Semi Finals Plum 4 Fox Chapel 2 Plum was a late entrant into the Fall Face Off and Stu Relnick’s was hoping to make the most of it, but it would be without the services of Travis Senchur, who was serving Krispy Kremes. Fox Chapel’s Keith Kearney will have to deal with the on again off again attendance of super sophomore Matt Quigley, who had an all important [my favorite subject of course] Hornet’s practice in October. J.P. Balson, the Plum goaltender could care less because he was more interested in keeping the Foxes off the board as he did stopping 13 shots in the 1st period and 32 of 34 on the evening. The big line for the Mustangs did the rest as Ryan Griffin scored twice while John Smith and John Kalichuk added goals for a 4-2 Plum victory. Kyle Misour scored twice for Fox Chapel. North Allegheny 6 Franklin Regional 1 North Allegheny has a long history of starting off great in the pre-season and coach Tom Pandolfo’s club is looking to start a new tradition which is to be there in the end. The Franklin Regional scoring machine was the opponent and coach Jim Damp’s team would be without the services of their leader Jimmie Daugherty. Derek Rubarsky tipped in a Ryan Sheran shot from the left point with 6:56 remaining in the opening period to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. NA then turned on the jets outshooting FR 34-12 on the evening for a 6-1 pasting of the Panthers. Joe Smarto chipped in a pair of goals and Matt Zrebiec, Matt Pekins and Brandon Lied tallied scores eliminating an opportunity for Franklin to repeat as Fall Face-Off champions. Consolation Round Pine Richland 2 Shaler 0 Ryan Tessmer and Josh Fodor scored as the Rams defeated the Titans 2-0. PR outshot Shaler 40-11 and negated an excellent goaltending performance by the Titans Ben Burns. North Hills 4 Hampton 2 Joe Alioto scored midway through the 2nd period to break a 2-2 tie against Hampton and Casey Dudt-Mulzet made it stand up for a 4-2 Indian victory. Dan Kester scored twice for North Hills.

Fox Chapel 5 Pine Richland 1 Keith Kearney’s Foxes took to the ice at Harmarville with a half dozen or so games under their belt and have garnered much success this season at the Greensburg CC Invitational at 4-0, as they look to build upon last seasons great finish. Pine Richland, on the other hand, should be a strong contender in Class AA under Jimmy Black. Fox Chapel broke open a tight 1-1 game with two goals in the 2nd and another pair in the third for a 5-1 victory. Behind a strong goaltending performance by Todd Hendry, with 33 saves and a pair of goals by Matt Quigley and singles by Scott Tucker, Justin Kreps and Kyle Misour, Phil Trombetta scored the only goal for Pine Richland. Plum 5 Shaler 1 Stu Relnick is looking for a breakthrough season for Plum in 2003-04 and will need to have balanced scoring to break into the top 5 in Class AAA. Shaler looks to try to rebound from the loss of high scoring Justin Thomas, who transferred to Shadyside and establish itself as a playoff contender under Ron Steedle, who returns to the Titans after a two-year lay off. This game was all Mustangs from the get go as John Kalichuk scored four goals and Travis Senchur added a goal and two assists for a 5-1 Plum victory. Nick Bennardo held Shaler in the game with 33 saves and Justin Carnprobst scored on the power play early in the 3rd period.

Franklin Regional 7 Hampton 4 Franklin Regional had a new coach according to the program for the Fall Face-Off or maybe coach Jim Damp was trying an alias to downplay the Panthers storied trip to the Penguins Cup last season. Hampton is looking for a warm-up in for tough competition it will face in a Class AA Division, which includes Indiana, Kittanning and Pine Richland under new coach George Reed. The Panthers continued where they left off last season, as they took step # 1 to defend their 2002 Fall Face Off title with a 7-4 win over Hampton. David Hopper completed the hat trick with the game winner with 12:09 left in the third period and Dakota Drew chipped in a pair for the Panthers. North Allegheny 5 North Hills 0 New North Allegheny Head Coach Tom Pandolfo invoked some discipline by sitting a few regulars in the first two periods against North Hills. The Indians are looking to rebound this season under Dave Ciotti from a disappointing 2002-2003 campaign. Casey Dudt-Mulzet stoned the Tigers for two periods stopping all 32 shots for a 0-0 tie. The Tigers broke North Hills in the 3rd as Joe Smarto scored two goals, with singles from Ryan Sheran, Matt Pekins and Joe Camut for a 5-0 NA victory and an easy shutout for Jeff Kristan, who faced only 8 Indian shots.