State Championship Preview

Hockey History, Hockey News, Scholastic Hockey News 2 Minutes

This marks the 48th year that Pennsylvania has crowned a scholastic ice hockey champion. In 1975 the first state tournament brought together six teams from across the Commonwealth.  Baldwin defeated Churchill in the first state championship game. Richland, Erie McDowell, Springfield-Delco and Bishop Neumann were also in the field.

The Flyers Cup tournament was launched in 1980; a year later, Archbishop Carroll became the first Flyers Cup champion to win a Pennsylvania Class AAA state title. While the Flyers Cup was a single-class tournament at the time, the state tournament crowned Class AAA and Class AA champions from 1976-88 (There was no state tournament in 1978, nor in 2020).

In 1989, the state tournament added a third classification (Class A).

Two years later, the Flyers Cup adopted a three-class format and the state championship became a matchup of the Flyers Cup and Penguins Cup champions in each classification.

 Saturday’s schedule at the Skatium in Haverford Township is as follows:

All three games will be streamed on the Flyers Cup YouTube Channel

Class A

11:00     Hershey (20-3-1) vs. Chartiers Valley (23-0)

The Trojans, who are competing in their first final. are paced by Blake Umberger who has scored 17 goals and added 25 assists for 42 points. Kyle Kloss has scored 17 goals if his own and added 19 assists for 36 points.

Chartiers Valley is trying for its second state title. The first came in 1986 as a Class AA team. Noah Callander leads the Colts in scoring with 30 regular-season goals and 14 assists for 44 points. Brady Narin has contributed 15 goals and 17 assists for 32 points

Class AA

2:00   Pennridge (22-2-2) vs. Thomas Jefferson (20-2)

This game is a rematch of the 2022 title game, which saw the Rams prevail 4-3 in overtime.

Kevin  Pico has scored  40 goals for the Rams this season under the SHSHL umbrella and added 56 assists for 96 points. Andrew Savona has collected 42 goals and added 41 assists for 83 points. Shane Dachowski has provided 37 goal and 42 assists for 79 points.

The Jaguars, who won three consecutive state titles from 1998-2000 are paced by Jake Stock who scored 19 regular-season goals and added 26 assists for 45 points. Andrew Oliver added 20 goals and 23 assists for 43 points.

Class AAA

5:00     La Salle (23-3) vs. Pine-Richland 18-5

The Explorers are trying to become the first team to successfully defend a Class AAA state title since they themselves did so in 2009. They’ve won eight state title, seven of them at the AAA level. Dean Caravalho has scored 20 goals and added 11 assists for 31 points. Patrick Brace has added 10 goals and 13 assists for 23 points.

Pine-Richland won back-to-back AA state titles in 2006-07. The Rams are led by Zachary Howard who scored 17 regular-season goals and added 14 assists for 31 points. Cullin Campbell is next with 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points.

The Skatium itself is celebrating its history. One of the oldest high-school hockey facilities in Pennsylvania, it is marking its 50th anniversary this year.

Published by Rick Woelfel

Rick has worked in print and broadcast journalism for more than 35 years. He's covered golf in one medium or another for more than 30. He is the co-author of the book So You Want to Play Golf with PGA professional Kim Verrecchio and the host of the Women's Golf Report podcast. Most recently, Rick served as an associate editor for The Mulligan Magazine. He also served as an associate editor for Philadelphia Golf Magazine and New Jersey State Golf from 2004-07. Rick covered his first LPGA Tour event in 1986 and continues to cover women's golf for various media outlets. High on his bucket list is having the opportunity to one day play in an LPGA Tour pro am. Rick is also a longtime correspondent for two suburban Philadelphia daily newspapers, the Intelligencer and the Bucks County Courier Times in Doylestown, PA. Over the course of his career he has coverzed a wide variety of sporting events. He is also a veteran play by play and public address announcer, and handles the PA mic for the nationally ranked Delaware Valley University football program. Rick is also a longtime contributor to Referee, a magazine devoted to sports officiating. He called his first baseball game at age 13 and continues to umpire softball and baseball today.

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