Late in the second period, Thursday night’s SHSHL National Division championship game was still up for grabs. Council Rock South and Pennridge were deadlocked at 2-2. The Golden Hawks had had the better of the play to that point, but the Rams made it clear they weren’t going anywhere.
Then Jake Weiner took matters into his own hands. The sophomore scored off a feed from Illia Mukhin on a play that originated from behind the Pennridge net to give South the lead, one it would never give up. Four additional goals followed in the third period as the Hawks rolled to a 7-2 win in front of a full house at Hatfield Ice.
Weiner scored four goals and assisted on another to lead second-seeded South (21-1) to its second consecutive division crown. It marks the first time in six years a National Division team has made a successful title defense. The top-seeded and defending-champion Rams fell to 18-2-2 with both defeats coming to South who have won two of three meetings this season.
Weiner was quick to point out that his five-point night wasn’t a solo effort.
“The boys came out flying too,” he said. “It wasn’t just me, it was all them. Hitting, forechecking. They played great.”
Both coaches viewed Weiner’s tie-breaking goal as the turning point in the game.
“The big goal I thought was that third goal,” said South coach Joe Houk. “Going into the intermission it was really, really big and we knew we had to come out in [the third period] and either get the first goal or first couple and see what happened.”
Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna blamed himself for his team’s defeat.
“I flat out cost us the game,” he said. “It’s a 2-2 game, I put the wrong combination out there. The, scored, it took the life completely out of us.
“I flat out cost is the game. I feel terrible for the kids. It was my fault.”
Council Rock South played a great game, they played a phenomenal game. But, I can’t do that to our team.”
Senior Blaize Pepe scored one of South’s third-period goals. Even as the Hawks extended their lead in the third period, Pepe was wanting more.
“We were all over them all game,” he said. “We knew we were the better team and we knew we were going to wear them down and that’s what happened. We pumped in three quick and knew we just had to play good defense after we got that fifth and sixth goals.”
Houk said Thursday’s win was the high point of his team’s season in terms of performance.
“I thought it was probably the best game they played all year,” he said. “They stayed out of the box. The referees really did a good of letting us play at both ends.”
• The Rams and the Golden Hawks will be the first and second seeds respectively in the Class AA Flyers Cup which begins on Tuesday. Pennridge will face Bensalem at Hatfield Ice (8:30) while South will go against Spring Ford at Grundy Arena (6:00) … This year’ championship is the third for South in school history. The first came in 2010.
Council Rock South 1 2 4—7
Pennridge 1 1 0—2
First-period goals: Jeremy Rayher (CRS) from James Diiulio and Ilya Kudzinau, 2:03; Kevin Pico (P) unassisted, 5:31
Second-period goals: Jake Weiner (CRS) from Gavin Nisenzon and Evan Mostoller, 3:09 (pp); Pico (P) from Andrew Savona, 5:15 (pp); Weiner (CRS) from Illia Mukhin, 14:47
Third-period goals: Jake Maurer (CRS) from Weiner and Nikita Volobuiev :52; Blaize Pepe (CRS) from Chase Tovsky, 2:20; Weiner (CRS) from Kevin Koles and Mukhin, 11:21; Weiner (CRS) from Peter Pereorow, 14:25
Shots: C.R. South 47, Pennridge 22 Saves: Trevor Rakszawski (CRS) 20, Jacob Winton (P) 40
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