Pennsbury Falcons - 1985 - AA

At the Ice Castle - December 7,8 & 9 Click on Title to see the Tournament Results Championship Gilmour Academy 4 Canevin 1 Congratulations to Gilmour Academy - 2001 Canevin Thomas Henderson Champions Consolation Columbus St. Charles 4 Harborcreek 1

HARMARVILLE - BETHEL PARK 3 MT LEBANON 1 Bethel Park is the defending Central Catholic Invitational Champions and there is a reason why Bethel Park has been very successful over the past three years ! The Hawks do the simple things necessary to put them into a position to win every game. The semi-final matchup with Mt. Lebanon would be no different. Mt Lebanon took a penalty late in a scoreless first period and Brandon Hanley made them pay with a slick shot down on the ice past Colin Sebastian. Coach Paul Taibi's Blue Devils stood toe to toe with Pennsylvania's # 1 ranked team and David Silverstein delivered with a long blast which beat Delbert Joo cleanly at 6:17 of the second. Before the Blue Devils could celebrate the tie game, David Zabkar put a little mustard on a wrist shot just 42 seconds later on the ice past Sebastian to quickly dispell Mt Lebo's upset hopes. Mt Lebanon had a couple of chances going forward on a few odd man breaks, but Tony Sands took a Jason McLean feed and snapped the Blue Devils dreams with a 3-1 Bethel advantage. Bethel moved on to the finals for the second consecutive year. CENTRAL CATHOLIC 8 UPPER ST CLAIR 3 Central coach Kevin Zielmanski is always worried about something. After sweeping through North Hills and North Allegheny by scoring 14 goals yesterday to reach their own Semi-Final, coach Z wondered if his young squad had any goals left. Thomas Grossman scored two goals as the Vikings received single tallies from Jeff Race, Andrew Wroblewski, Rob Donatucci, John Chmiel, C.J. Bruce and Anthony Scolieri to paste Upper St Clair 8-3. Central built a 6-1 lead over the Panthers and never looked back as they outshot USC 26-19. Adam Brindle scored a pair of goals in a losing cause.

VALENCIA - The Bishop McCort Football program made great strides this season only to lose to Washington in the State Semi-Finals this past weekend. Therefore, the Crushers ice squad would reap the benefit of some returning veterans. Mars, on the other hand, with high school hockey's most prolific scoring machine has been pounding opponents to a # 1 ranking and perfect record at 5-0. After a scoreless first period, the Planets Dave Masdea broke through to give Mars a 1-0 lead at 4:06. Bishop McCort's Joe Delic tied the game less than a minute later at 3:07. The with a minute left, McCort's Chris Grady scored the go ahead goal to give the Crushers a 2-1 lead. On to the third and while McCort cotinued to put pressure on Mars keeper Bill Youngker, the Planets could not score and Bishop McCort went on to win 2-1, outshooting Mars 32-30 in a well played hockey game.

VALENCIA - Kittanning learned its lesson from Friday night's contest with Indiana. When protecting a two goal lead, do not hurt yourself with penalties. Hampton, meanwhile, was flying high and undefeated under Craig Clontz. As it did Friday, the Wildcats pushed out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Greg Bowser and Zach Cain less than a minute apart. Hampton kept pressing and it paid off as John Bongiovanni scored with just 5 1/2 left in the first period. In the second, Hampton was self destructing with penalties, in fact gave Kittanning a 5 on 3 advantage. The Wildcats could not capitalize and the gave the Talbots new life as Mark Persic rammed home a rebound and all the sudden we had a new game at 2-2. But the young Wildcats hung in there and waited for their chance and Andy Coldron found a loose puck on a rebound and scored with 6:08 remaining. Hampton pulled the goalie for the extra attacker, but couldn't score and Kittanning went on to win a big divisional battle 3-2.

HARMARVILLE - Bethel Park coach Jim McVay does some great impersonations when speaking about his two-time defending state championship team. The best one is his explanation of how Bethel Park should not be ranked # 1 in the polls. Hey Mort, we may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night ! Central Catholic coach Kevin Zielmanski wasn't buying any and called his team into a meeting to try to solve what Western Pennsylvania has been trying to solve for a few years now. The championship game had a feeling out process in the first period as each team was intent on making the first mistake. Then Central put BP on the power play and at the 6:48 mark Tom Starkey banged home a cross ice feed, while camped in front of Russ Hefner to give Bethel Park a 1-0 lead. After a glut of penalties on both teams, midway through the 2nd, Rob Donatucci picked up a loose puck and rifled a wrist shot past Matt Fiege to tie the game at one apiece and send the CC faithful into a frenzie. The Vikings stay in a tie on some terrific goaltending by Hefner, who stopped 19 of 21 shots, many which were quality opportunities for Bethel. Late in the third, with the game still tied Central went on the power play, but the Hawks turn them back with textbook penalty killing. With under a minute to play, Bethel estbalished play in the CC zone and pelted Hefner with many chances. The old adage is play til the whistle, and Lee Volensky found a free puck in fort and pocked it by Hefner with just 11 seconds remaining to give BP a hard fought victory 2-1. The Hawks outshot the Vikings 21-18.