Downingtown East 3, Pennridge 2

Michael Bolger’s goal with 6:15 left in the third period proved to be decisive as Downingtown East held off Pennridge 3-2 Thursday night in a Class AA Flyers Cup semifinal at Ice Line.

The two-defending Flyers Cup and state champion Cougars Downingtown West in Sunday’s championship game (4:30 at the Wells Fargo Center).

Top-seeded Downingtown East took a 1-0 lead on Ryan Johnston’s power-play goal with 2:48 left in the first period but the fourth-seeded Rams answered back when Blake Stewart scored with 36 seconds remaining in the opening session.

Nick Rosati gave the Cougars the lead for good when he scored with 3:56 remaining in the second period and Bolger’s tally gave Downingtown East a two-goal lead.

Eric Slater scored for Pennridge with 4:24 left in regulation to cut the lead in half and the Rams kept up the pressure, generating several chances in the final minutes and hitting a post with 30 seconds to play.

The Cougars had a 34-26 edge in shots.

Pennridge 1 0 1—2

Downingtown East 1 1 1—3

Three Flyers Cup finals will be available Sunday HERE beginning with the Class A final between Hershey and West Chester Rustin at 2:00. The Class AA final between Downingtown East and Downingtown West will follow at 4:30, followed by the Class AAA matchup between LaSalle and Holy Ghost Prep at 7:00.

St. Joseph’s Prep 6, Malvern Prep 2

Owen Moke scored two goals and added an assist s St. Joseph’s Prep defeated Malvern Prep 6-2 in a Flyers Cup Class AAA semifinal Thursday night at Ice Line. The win puts the sixth-seeded and defending champion Hawks into Sunday’s final against LaSalle (7 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center).

Four of the Hawks’ six goals came on power plays.

Second-seeded Malvern Prep took a 1-0 first-period lead on goal from Nick Martino 2:48 into the first period.

Austin Amato countered for the Hawks on a power play at the 9:48 mark before Moke scored a power-play goal of his own at 11:46 to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead.

John Dewey tied the game for Malvern Prep 6:44 into the second period but Nick Corrado’s power-play goal at 12:19 but St. Joseph’s Prep the lead for good. Vincent Borgesi extended the lead with a goal with just 47 seconds left in the period.

Owen Kelly and Moke scored in the final period; Kelly’s goal was his team’s fourth power-play effort of the game.

Dan McGill got the win in goal, making 25 saves.

St. Joseph’s Prep 2 2 2—6

Malvern Prep 1 1 0—2

LaSalle 5, Holy Ghost Prep 4

By Rick Woelfel

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—Down but not out, late in the final round of Thursday night’s Class AAA Flyers Cup semifinal Thursday night, LaSalle rallied to score a dramatic knockout win.

Daniel Sambuco and Sam Lipkin scored goals 11 seconds apart in the final 28 seconds of the third period to give the Explorers a 5-4 win over Holy Ghost Prep at Hatfield Ice. Lipkin’s game winner, which came with 17 seconds remaining in regulation time, marked the first and only time the top-seeded Explorers held the lead in a game that saw them score all five of their goals in the third period.

With the win, the top-seeded Explorers (21-6) will move on to Sunday evening’s final at the Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m.) where they will try to win their 11^th Flyers Cup. Their opponent will be sixth-seeded and defending champion St. Joseph’s Prep, a 6-2 winner over Malvern Prep in the other Class AAA semifinal that was played Thursday at Ice Line.

Trailing by a goal as the clock wound down inside the final minute of the third period, LaSalle’s chances weren’t exactly bright. But Explorer head coach Wally Muehlbronner remained upbeat and his players kept battling.

“The way we’ve been able to score throughout the season I thought we could get one,” Muehlbronner said. “I sure didn’t think we’d get two.”

Sambuco tied the game for LaSalle with 38 seconds left when his shot from the deep left wing beat Firebird goaltender Sean Joyce inside the far post.

The Explorers won the ensuing faceoff and played the puck into the Firebirds’ zone before Lipkin collected it and scored the game winner to send his team to the finals and hand the fourth-seeded Firebirds (9-14) the loss, their fifth against LaSalle this season.

LaSalle’s Eric Ford battles Holy Ghost Prep’s Alex D’Angelo in Thursday’s Flyers Cup Class AAA semifinal. (Photo by Kathy Leister)

“I was really proud of our effort,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside. “I thought we came out really hard, I thought we played a really good game. But 38 seconds is 38 seconds, and it’s unfortunate. They capitalized on bad breaks.

The Firebirds had the better of the play in a hard-hitting but scoreless opening period that saw them outshoot the Explorers 11-6. They took a 2-0 lead into the second session on the strength of goals from Colin Costello at the 6:48 mark and a shorthanded effort from Byron Hartley at 9:49.

Both came off Explorer breakdowns in their own defensive zone. The margin might have been wider had it not been for the work of Aidan McCabe in the LaSalle net.

“We never would have gotten to this point if McCabe didn’t play the way he did,” Muehlbronner said. “He stopped four breakaways in the first two periods.”

The Explorers served notice at the start of the third period that they were still around. It took Sambuco just 53 seconds to cut the deficit in half. Collin Kleiser tied the game at the 3:09 mark on a wrister from the left point.

Evan Mudrick put Holy Ghost Prep back in front when he split two defenders near the LaSalle blue line and went up the middle to beat McCabe at 4:54. Sambuco tied the game for the second time when he went down the left wing and behind the Firebird net before finding Lipkin in front, who tucked the puck in the net with 4:38 remaining.

It took Dan Behr just 63 seconds to respond for the Firebirds off a feed from Alex D’Angelo, who just minutes earlier had been helped off the ice after suffering an apparent leg injury during a collision.

At that point, Holy Ghost Prep was 3:35 away from victory, but their quest came up short.

“I thought Ghost played a tremendous game,” Muehlbronner said. “They took it to us for two periods strong, I think we came out in the third and we played the way we’re capable of playing.”

Holy Ghost Prep 0 2 2—4

LaSalle 0 0 5—5

Second-period-period goals: Colin Costello (HGP) from Byron Hartley, 6:48; Hartley (HGP) from Costello, 9:59 (sh).

Third-period goals: Daniel Sambuco (L) unassisted, :53; Collin Kleiser (L) from Zach Baker and Michael Casey, 3:09; Evan Mudrick (HGP) rom Alex D’Angelo, 4:54; Sam Lipkin (L) from Sambuco and Casey, 12:22; Dan Behr (HGP) from D’Angelo, 13:25; Sambuco (L) from Lipkin, 16:33; Lipkin (L) from Casey and Sambuco, 16:47.

Shots: Holy Ghost Prep 32, LaSalle 34; Saves: Sean Joyce (HGP) 29, Aidan McCabe (L) 28.

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Three Flyers Cup finals will be available Sunday HERE beginning with the Class A final between Hershey and West Chester Rustin at 2:00. The Class AA final between Downingtown East and Downingtown West will follow at 4:30, followed by the Class AAA matchup between LaSalle and Holy Ghost Prep at 7:00.

LaSalle Strives to Make its Students the Best They Can Be

Ever since its founding in 1858 by the Brothers of Christian Schools, LaSalle College High School has been committed to developing young men spiritually and socially as well as academically. Situated in Springfield Township, Montgomery County, just outside Philadelphia, LaSalle boasts a student population of 1,050 boys in grades 9-12.

Wally Muehlbronner, the school’s hockey coach, is also the assistant admissions director.

“A LaSalle education is about really getting to know your students and touching the hearts of the students,” he said. “So, it’s much more than obviously developing them academically. Being the best student they can be is obviously very important, but really getting to know the students and helping them develop into the best versions of themselves would be the ultimate goal.”

There are over 500 applicants each year for 265-275 places in LaSalle’s freshman class. The pool of applicants includes students from over 100 different grade schools and middle schools. Muehlbronner offers an overview of what the school is seeking in prospective new students.

“First and foremost, we want good kids,” he said. “We want good character kids. We want students who are willing to work hard to be the best students that they can be academically, and students that are going to get involved outside of the classroom, So, we want certainly well rounded students, but first and foremost, we want good character kids who are going to help make the community here stronger.

“So academically, obviously, they need to be good students, and they need to perform well on the scholarship entrance exam but we also look very heavily on their recommendations and their prior performance academically at their grade schools.”
Muehlbronner says most prospective students start thinking seriously about LaSalle in the seventh grade, but adds this caveat.

“It’s gotten and earlier and earlier the longer I’ve done this,” he said. “The kids start exploring the options at an earlier age. We even offer sixth-grade practice test. So, we have sixth graders that will come in in March and take a practice test, as well as seventh graders that would take a practice test in March, and that gives them a good feel of what to expect at schools like LaSalle on the entrance exam for when it matters the most, in eighth grade.

“But most of the students attend an open house in the fall of their seventh-grade year. They take the practice test in March. Some of the students, as seventh graders, may choose to come and visit and spend a full day with us, and shadow a current student.”

Muehlbronner says the intensity of the application process picks up in a student’s eighth-grade year. “They come and they spend a full day with us in the fall,” he said. “They take the scholarship entrance exam, typically in early November or the end of October, and then decisions start getting made on admissions in December.”

The school takes steps to make the freshmen feel comfortable, even before they officially begin their careers at LaSalle.

“We have a Mass together to kick things off,” Muehlbronner says. “That’s done in March of every year. All the families will come in and we have a Mass the Class of 2023 will have their Mass coming up in March and then from there we do freshman orientation with them.
“There’s a lot of different icebreakers so the guys get to meet each other. A lot of times it’s homeroom competitions that they’ll have to create a little bit of camaraderie amongst the homerooms, but then get to meet all the other students.
“Then from there it’s really just staying with them. The freshman guidance counselor, the dean of students, all the different things that go in to helping to introduce them to LaSalle.”

Like the other three school in the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference, LaSalle is a single-sex institution, a setting that Muehlbronner says some distinct advantages.

“The single-sex environment helps the guys I think really be themselves,” she said. “They’re not trying to do things to try to impress somebody.

“We hear from the guys when we talk to them. We do different panels here where our students will talk to prospective families about their experience at LaSalle, and oftentimes the parents will ask them ‘What’s it like to go to an all-boy school?’ And the first thing we here is that they love it; there’s a brotherhood, you can be yourself. Nobody’s putting on airs to try impress somebody, but it is a good competitive environment, where guys want to do the best they can in the classroom and outside the classroom. They’re very comfortable getting involved in many different things.

“We have kids that kids that are involved in the theatre program here, the music program here, that are also some of the best athletes in the school. So, there are an awful lot of things they can get into not feel like it’s not the cool thing to do. It’s cool to get involved and it’s cool to be yourself and make the most out of your experience here.”

Muehlbronner notes that students who are considering LaSalle are likely considering all-male schools as well, including the other members of the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference.

“The competitiveness at all four of our schools is a healthy competiveness,” he said, “and I think there’s tremendous support here for the guys to help them along the way. They’re going to fail in things at times but that’s okay. That’s part of learning and growing.”

Muehlbronner has been LaSalle’s hockey coach for 21 seasons and the program has compiled has compiled a remarkable record in that time. His teams have won eight Flyers Cups four state titles and, this season, the APAC’s inaugural championship.

As successful as the program is however, it is but one of a number of outlets for LaSalle students to express themselves.

There’s a pretty clear understanding with the guys as far as what’s expected of them,” Muehlbronner said, “just like all the athletes here. But it’s no different from what’s expected from the kids that are on the robotics team or are heavily involved in the music program; it’s the same. Something that enhances their experience here and helps them grow as young men.”

For more information on LaSalle College High School CLICK HERE

Pennridge 4, North Penn 3 OT

By Rick Woelfel

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—The stars shined brightly at Hatfield Ice Monday evening. And in the end, Eric Slater lit up the night like a supernova. Slater’s goal 3 minutes, 25 seconds into overtime gave Pennridge a 4-3 decision over North Penn in a Flyers Cup Class AA quarterfinal.

The fourth-seeded Rams (16-2-3) will take a five-game winning streak and a 13-game unbeaten streak into Thursday’s semifinals against two-time defending Flyers Cup and state champion Downingtown East (5:15 at Ice Line).

Nathan Oh, playing in what turned out to be his final high-school game, delivered a hat trick for fifth-seeded North Penn (12-5-3).

It was a night when the best players on both teams came up big, but none more than Slater, who scored two goals and assisted on a third. His game-winner came on a shot from just beyond the faceoff circles off a feed from Matt Guinette. The shot beat Knight goaltender Nick Ebbinghaus on his stick (right) side but the freshman could not be faulted on the play.

“I was trying to drive the net,” Slater said. (Guinette) gave me a perfect pass. I made a move and shot it and hoped for the best.”

Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna said he was expecting Slater to step up at the start of the 15-minute sudden-death period. “He’s going to go out other shift in that overtime,” Montagna said, “and if we’re going to win, most likely, he’s going to win it for us.”

The Knights had far the best of the opening period, outshooting the Rams 15-3 but the session ended with teams deadlocked at one goal each. Oh gave North Penn the lead with a dash down the wing after his team own a faceoff in its own zone. He beat Pennridge goaltender Luke Stranick at the 7:39 mark. Slater answered back just under two minutes later with a wrister from the left wing after finding himself alone one on one with a Knight defenseman.

North Penn’s Josh Kaufholf (with puck) goes against Pennridge’s Frankie Rota in the first period of Monday’s game. (photo by Kathy Leister)

Michael Walker gave Pennridge the lead once more 63 seconds into the second period when he collected a feed from Guinette and made a move around a defender and beat Ebbinghaus.

The freshman came up big however with 1:50 left in the period however with a kick save on a shot from Walker that would have given the Rams a two-goal lead, Instead, Oh tied the game with 53.6 seconds left to send the teams to the third period all even.
Pennridge took the lead for the third time on Blake Stewart’s power-play goal with 5:17 left in the third period. With North Penn’s Will Hughes in the box serving a hooking minor, the Rams’ Franke Rota set up shot at the right point and sent a pass across the ice to Slater who launched a rocket along the ice. Stewart tipped the puck past Ebbinghaus.

Oh completed his hat trick with 2:16 left in regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime.

The Knights, who finished with a 37-21 wedge in shots, had a good chance early in the extra period but Stranick stood his ground and the teams played on until Slater delivered his game winner.

“You got Nate Oh on North Penn and Eric Slate on Pennridge,” North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis pointed out. “They’re two of the best high-school players in the (SHSHL) and definitely in the Flyers Cup tournament.

“They got the bounce to go their way in overtime and that’s part of the game. We were probably inches away from winning it there early in overtime and didn’t capitalize.”

Pennridge goaltender Luke Stranick covers the puck. He finished with 34 saves. (Photo by Dara N. King)

North Penn 1 1 1 0—3

Pennridge 1 1 1 1—4

First-period goals: Nathan Oh (NP) from Jared Albano, 7:39; Eric Slater (MP) from Frankie Rota, 9:36;

Second-period goals: Michael Walker (P) from Matt Guinette, 1:03; Oh (NP) from Jake Nelson, 15:07

Third-period goals: Blake Stewart (P) from Walker and Rota, 10:43 (pp); Oh (NP) from Albano, 13:44

Overtime goal: Slater (P) from Guinette, 3:25

Shots: North Penn 37, Pennridge 21; Saves: Nick Ebbinghaus (NP) 17, Luke Stranick (P) 34

Holy Ghost Prep Remains Committed to its Original Mission

The underlying philosophy at Holy Ghost Preparatory School has always been about the importance of service, to fellow students and the school community, and to the world at large.
Founded in 1897 by Fr. John Tuohill Murphy C.S.Sp,

the institution was originally a combination prep school and junior-college seminary.

In 1959, the school opened its doors to non-seminarians. The seminary was discontinued eight years later and Holy Ghost Prep was created in 1968.

While the structure of the institution has evolved over time, Ryan Abramson, the admissions director and a Holy Ghost Prep graduate himself, emphasizes that its underlying philosophy remains unchanged.

“The school was founded by the Spiritans,” he said, “which is essentially a missionary order. So, most of the people that join the religious order than runs Holy Ghost Prep end up leaving the U.S. and working in missions all over the planet that are in some of the poorest communities that you can go to.

“What we try to do here is try to put students in a situation where they have they have the ability to be successful but then to understand that their success is measured by the ability to help others, as opposed to whatever individual success they might have.
“So, whether it’s community service or the way they reach out and help their classmates, whether it’s how they participate in the community, the idea is that your greatness or your successes are always measured by your ability to lift other people up to that same level.”

The student body at Holy Ghost Prep numbers approximately 450 in grades 9-12. About 60 percent of the students come from Catholic grade schools, the other 40 percent from public schools throughout the area.

“We’re looking for students that are engaged,” Abramson says, “students that are focused. But primarily, students that are going to be interested in participating in an environment where the school becomes their life, where you challenge yourself more than you thought you would, students that willing to work really hard in school, more than maybe they ever have before, with the idea that the focus at the end of the day is to prepare them to have the skills to be successful in college and the skills to be successful after college.”

The school day is structured with those goals in mind.

“We have an enormous amount of free time,” Abramson said. “Our students are given tons and tons of opportunities to be in a situation where they have to make good decisions.

“And so, during a typical school day, a student might not have class for an hour, and hour and 20 minutes where he has to make decisions about how he’s going to use the time, whether it’s preparing for a test, whether its meeting with a teacher for extra help, whether it’s getting ahead because he plays a sport or is involved in an after-school activity and he’s going to miss time at home and so he gets those things done during the school day. But the idea is to learn those time management schools and the responsibility of being able to manage your time on your own, rather than have somebody that always tells you what to do.”

Abramson says that new students develop those skills in part from emulating the upperclassmen. He points out that the size of the student body encourages relationships between students of all grade levels.

“Those relationships that those freshmen have with seniors are not on the surface,” he said. “Those freshmen know those seniors and those seniors know those freshmen. They know their names, they know something about them. They know where they went to grade school, they know where they went to middle school, what sport they play, what activity they’ve been a part of, so that behavior is not being seen in a generic sense, but that behavior is being seen through a personal relationship. And so, that freshman acts a certain way because he sees a senior who he knows doing that. So, he wants to be like that individual as opposed just some kind of thing that you read on a piece of paper, or see in a really generic sense.”

In keeping with the school’s founding mission, students must fulfill a service requirement each year, 10 hours per academic year for underclassmen, 20 hours for upperclassmen.

“Again, it’s the idea of lifting others up,” Abramson said. “And so, we have students that do projects. We have students that go to the Dominican Republic, that will spend three weeks in Tanzania and East Africa. We have students that will do local things. We had a whole group of students that traveled Martin Luther King Day weekend for service projects at the Romero Center in Camden and in Philadelphia at St. John’s Hospice so we have students that do lots of different kinds of service with that idea; that service needs to be hands on for people in need.

There are lots of ways to do service where you’re making things at home and they’re certainly wonderful activities, but what we want is to see our students do hand-on (service) with people that are in need. So, that, again, you can lift people up.”

Students are encouraged to share their accounts of their community service experiences with their peers. “The experience of service for a student is not simply about what he learns,” Abramson said, “but what he is able to be taught by people that can be very different from him.

“We have a lot of students that have done really remarkable things with their community service. And more importantly, they come back and they share those experiences with their classmates, so that they can also benefit from the things that they learned.”

Like the other schools in the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference, Holy Ghost Prep is committed to maintaining an athletic program that embraces the philosophy of the institution.

Abramson says it’s important to retain coaches that embrace that philosophy. “I think what’s amazing to me about the hiring of coaches is these coaches find you,” he said. “Just as much as you want to find those personalities, there are great, great individuals out there that want that as well.
“Just like a student that wants to come to Holy Ghost there are coaches that want to be in an environment that embraces all of those values as well.”

Click Here For more information about Holy Ghost Preparatory School

Flyers Cup Update

The fields for the various Flyers Cup tournaments have been cut in half, in the case of Class A more than that.

Here is what lies ahead. Note: All game times and sites are subject to change

Monday, March 11

Class AA Quarterfinals

Downingtown East 5 Parkland 0

Pennridge 4 North Penn 3 OT

Conestoga 4 Haverford 1

Downingtown West 3, Boyertown 1

Tuesday, March 12

Class A Semifinal Upper Bracket

West Chester Rustin 7 West Chester East 2

Wednesday, March 13

Class AA Semifinal Lower Bracket

Downingtown West 8, Conestoga 5

Class A Semifinal Lower Bracket

Hershey 6 Strath Haven 3

Girls Semifinal

8:45 2 West Chester Rustin 4, West Chester East 3 OT

Thursday, March 14

Class AAA Semifinals

LaSalle 5 Holy Ghost Prep 4

St. Joseph’s Prep 6 Malvern Prep 2

Class AA Upper Bracket Semifinal

D-town East vs Pennridge 5:15 @ Ice Line

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Sunday, March 17

Finals @Wells Fargo Center

9:45 Girls: West Chester Rustin vs. Unionville

2:00 Class A Hershey vs. West Chester Rustin

4:30 Class AA Downtown West vs. Downingtown East

7:00 Class AAA LaSalle vs. St. Josephs Prep

From the pages of history:

West Chester Rustin is seeking its 6th straight Class A Flyers Cup title. No team has ever done that in any classification since the tournament started in 1980. Malvern Prep won 5 straight Class AAA titles from 2001-05.

Unionville is a four-time defending girls’ champion and will be seeking its fifth straight title this year.

Saturday, March 23

State Championship Games at Robert Morris University Game Times TBA

For more information on girls’ hockey go to: info@ladytpariots.org

If you’d like to know more about inline skating, roller hockey, and other roller skating opportunities contact the Inline309 rink

Malvern Prep 9, Roman Catholic 1

By Rick Woelfel

WEST GOSHEN— It took Malvern Prep some time to get started Thursday night, but it eventually got rolling, right into the Flyers Cup semifinals. Kyle Waskalavitch scored three goals and added two assists to help propel the Friars to a 9-1 win over Roman Catholic in a Class AAA quarterfinal game at Ice Line.

Second-seeded Malvern Prep will face sixth-seeded and defending Cup champion St. Joseph’s Prep in next Thursday’s semifinals (8:30 at the same rink).

The Friars dominated the opening period, but it took them until the waning seconds to score. Kyle Waskalavitch put the puck behind Cahillite goaltender John Lally with 38 seconds left in the period. Prior to that, Lally was first rate, he made 17 saves in the first frame.

“We play on the perimeter a lot,” Waskalavitch said. ” So, for us, we’ve got to focus on getting pucks to the net and crashing and getting those dirty goals. Not every goal is going to be pretty, especially in the playoffs.”

Malvern Prep coach Dave Dorman admitted he was concerned before the opening faceoff about the possibility of his team looking past the seventh-seeded Cahillites.

“That was my message before the game,” he said. “It had nothing to do with Xs and Os, it had northing to do with strategy. It was definitely about living in the moment and making sure that we take care of this game and we’re not overlooking anyone.

“There’s enough good players on any side of the puck that if you’re not playing the game the right way, you can get beat by someone.”

Ryan Sambuco extended Malvern Prep’s lead with a power-play goal 1:57 into the second session, ironically off the initial faceoff after Lally took an elbowing penalty.

Sambuco’s goal opened the floodgates. Washkalavitch and Matthew Harris followed with goals of their own two minutes apart and with 10:04 still to go in the second period the Friars enjoyed a 4-0 advantage.

The Cahillites lifted Lally at that point in favor of Michael Smith whom Konstantinos Harris greeted with a goal at the 8:49 mark.

Roman was able to solve Malvern Prep goaltender Dan Dougherty thanks to Colin Rosener, who scored with 5:53 left in the period before Waskavlavitch completed his hat trick with 2:40 remaining.

Rudloff, Jack Constabile and Aidan Gordinier added goals in the third period.

The Friars outshot the Cahillites 49-16. Dan Dougherty made 12 saves in the Malvern Prep net before being lifted for Anthony Perti with 10:04 left in the third period.

The result assures that an Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference team will win the Class AAA Flyers Cup.

Roman Catholic 0 1 0—1

Malvern Prep 1 5 3—9

First-period goals: Kyle Waskalavitch (MP) from Kenny Connors, 15:28

Second-period goals: Ryan Sambuco (MP) from Nick Martino and Waskalavitch, 1:57 (pp); Waskalavitch (MP) from Connors and Andrew Harder, 3:55; Matthew Harris (MP) from Washkalavitch and Jake Rudloff, 5:56; Konstantinos Hionis (MP) from Martino and Harris, 8:49; Colin Rosenberg (RC) from Gilbert Newton, 10:07; Washkalavitch (MP) from Chris Blango and Connors, 13:20.

Third-period goals: Rudloff (MP) from Martino, 13:01; Jack Constabile (MP) from Charles Andress and Harrison Campbell, 13;48; Aidan Gordinier (MP) unassisted, 14:15.

Shots: Roman Catholic 16, Malvern Prep 49; Saves: John Lally (RC) 20 and Michael Smith (RC) 11, Dan Dougherty (MP) 12 and Anthony Perti (MP) 3.

Malvern Prep—Helping Boys Become Men

Malvern Preparatory School was founded in 1842 when it was established by the Order of St. Augustine as a preparatory school for boys. It was attached to what was then called the Augustinian College of Villanova, which was founded at the same time and on the same site, the Belle Air Estate in Radnor Township.
Malvern Prep moved to its present location in 1922 where it remains committed to developing its approximately 625 students (in grades 6-12) intellectually and spiritually.

Today, approximately 70 percent of the student body is of the Catholic faith.

Kurt Ruch has been at Malvern Prep for 25 years and the school’s athletic director for 16. He oversees an athletic program that includes 18 varsity sports, and has coached several of them himself during his career including soccer, cross country, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, and water polo.

The school is a member of the InterAc League in sports other than hockey.

Ruch says the school’s philosophy is centered on the teachings of St. Augustine. “We try to teach the whole student,” he said. “And in there, we’re going to being in truth, unity, and love, which are three words we kind of center everything around.

“We’re going to try to have boy become a man. And how we do that is, we tie the parents, the school and the teachers who are part of the school, and the student, into that triangle and try to raise that young boy into a man as we do that.”

The vast majority of the student body resides within 20 miles of the campus. Ruch offered an overview of what the school is looking for from perspective students.

“The first thing is a willingness to want to be in this environment,” he said. “Let’s face it in 2019, single-sex schools, there are only a few of us left You go back 30 years ago, there were a lot more on the Philadelphia landscape. A lot of them have become co-ed, you look at everyone in the (InterAc League) Penn Charter, Chestnut Hill and GA were all single-sex schools at one point and now they are all now co-ed. Haverford School and Malvern are the only two left in our league, and if you look in the area, single-sex schools are kind of a small little niche.

And in that, we’re looking for young men that want to come in and be a part of our history, our tradition. They’re going to want to come in and make themselves a better person. And in that, it’s the academics, it’s sports, it’s the arts.”

Ruch says the school strongly encourages its students to involved themselves in a variety of activities as opposed to specializing.

The one thing I definitely think that makes us different than other schools is we want students to come in here and do multiple things,” he said. “We don’t just look at a student coming in in sixth grade, or eighth grade, or ninth grade, whatever the grade is and say ‘You’re just going to be this, you’re just going to be an athlete.’

“Look at our play last year; one of our top lacrosse players was the lead in the play. You look at our music department; we have football linemen that are in there playing the piano, the violin, and doing things, and if you came to our homecoming, we had a soccer player and football player sing our national anthem as part pf our choir and then they go out and play in those games after they get done singing.

“We’re looking for those kinds of kids that want to do multiple things, that want to try to explore and find themselves in this crazy world that we all live in.”

The school is committed to the concept of community service.

“Each year our students have to meet a certain set of numbers in terms of community service,” Ruch said, “but then, as they go into their senior year they go on a Christian service trip.
“Some of the groups go as far away as Peru, South Africa, over to Europe. New Orleans is probably the closest.

“We’re all about giving back and what we can do for our community and how we can help them. Currently, we have a group of kids 20 kids that are down in Houston, in Corpus Christi, working with people that have lost to floods, rebuilding homes and stuff. We have teachers that took off from their personal lives just to go down there because of our faith and what we believe. This is our way of helping, our way of our kids making that connection back to the communities.”

Ruch derives his greatest satisfaction as an educator when one of his former students returns to the Malvern Prep campus.

“It’s when I see an alum come back,” he said, “a kid that graduated come back and he’s talking about the memories he has and the memories that I was a part of and what this school has done for them and how they’ve developed. Those to me are the moments that you really can’t capture or those moments you wish you could.

“That’s why a family comes to a Malvern or a St. Joseph’s Prep or a LaSalle or a Holy Ghost. For we take that young boy, turn him into a man, and now that man is coming back and saying ‘Here’s my moment, here ‘s what I remember about this place. I want to give back. I want to help.’

That to me right now is what I cherish the most When I hire a coach, I’m looking for an alum.”

CLICK HERE to find out more about Malvern Preparatory School

Flyers Cup Schedule for Thursday, March 7

Class A Quarterfinals

West Chester Rustin 12 Lower Merion 0

West Chester East 4 Palmyra 0

Hershey 4, West Chester Henderson 3 OT

Strath Haven 7 Unionville 4

Class AAA Quarterfinal

Malvern Prep 9 Roman Catholic 1

The Lady Patriots 16-Tier II team will compete in the Mid-Atlantic Women’s Hockey Association Challenge Weekend this coming Friday and Saturday. The three-team round robin at Ice Line near West Chester will determine the final qualifier for the USA Hockey national championship tournament. The Lady Patriots, who play out of Hatfield Ice, will face the New Jersey Colonials and the Junior Flyers in the round robin which begins Saturday morning and continue with games late Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon.

The winner of the round robin will advance to the Tier II national championships April 4-8 in Amherst, New York

The schedule

Saturday 3-9 11:30 New Jersey Colonials vs. Lady Patriots

Saturday 3-9 5:15 Junior Flyers vs. Lady Patriots

Sunday 3-10 1:30 Junior Flyers vs. New Jersey Colonials

Paul Bardell, the President of the Mid-Atlantic Women’s Hockey Association, says spectators who attend the series this weekend will be impressed with the caliber of play.

“I think they would realize these girls are physical, strong, and fast,” he said. “I get a lot of people saying that with the speed they’re playing at, they look like any other 16-year old hockey player.”

Bardell coached several players who are now members of the U.S. national team. He points out that the MAWHA is working to get young girls started playing hockey.

“What we are seeing happen is that 5 and 6-year olds are starting out,” he said. “Parents are thinking ‘I think my daughter might like this.’

The MAWHA is launched an initiative to get girls age 8 and younger playing hockey, hosting monthly jamborees at various rinks in the area.

The three-hour sessions feature a series of four-on-four cross ice games. The format, which features eight or nine players on each team, insures the girls will send roughly two-and-half hours on the ice and considerable time actually touching the puck.

For more information on the Challenge Weekend, go to: www.mawah.com

For more information on girls’ hockey go to: info@ladytpariots.org