By Karen Sangillo
It’s one of the great truths in sports.
It’s difficult to beat the same team three times in a season.
Council Rock South showed just how true it is, beating Central Bucks South, 3-1, in the quarterfinals of the Flyers Cup Class 2A tournament on Thursday night at Hatfield Ice Arena.
It was the fourth meeting of the season between the two SHSHL rivals. They split in the regular season, but CB South shut out the Golden Hawks, 2-0, in the league semifinals.
“We were definitely thinking about that,” CR South captain Jake Weiner said. “This is bigger and I think we did a good job. They’re a great team. They’ve got some of the best players over there.
“We just worked hard and played our game the right way and we won. It’s always great to beat a rival. It’s hard to beat the same team three times in a row, but also we knew how they were going to play. They like to bring the guy low and shoot up high with the pass, so we played that perfect.”
The second period made up for an uneventful first period.
Connor Holland netted his first goal of the tournament to put the third-seeded Golden Hawks on the board first, seven minutes into the second frame.
With 2:24 remaining Weiner received a two-minute roughing penalty, and that was the opening the Titans needed. Eleven seconds into the power play, Ryan Montagna scored his fourth goal of the tourney for sixth seed CB South to tie the game.
“I was so proud of them,” said CB South coach Josh Sklar. “They battled their way back. They faced that adversity. They didn’t give up. They kept pushing and made good things happen.
“When you see a team as many times as we’ve seen each other, they know what we have and we know what they have. There’s no more surprises. It’s hard to beat a team three times in a row.”
Thirty seconds into the third period, Jordan Sarne scored what would prove to be the game winner. Weiner capped the evening with an insurance goal.
“It was a good game,” said CR South coach Joe Houk. “We had a game plan. We had to shut them down in the neutral zone because that’s where they beat us the last two games. If you control the neutral zone, that’s where you win or lose games.
“Our game plan was a good one and we stuck to it. Our kids battled hard and persevered. We got that early goal in the third period and that helped.”
Weiner capped the evening with an insurance goal.
“When they tied it up, that’s when the killer instinct kicked in for us,” Weiner said. “We started working really hard, doing what we needed to do. It was beautiful.”
The Golden Hawks will face second seed Boyertown, a 5-3 winner over No. 10 Pennsbury, in the semifinals on Thursday at Hatfield.
“It’s a must-win game,” Weiner said. “We have a lot of seniors here, we’ve all lost the last three years in a row and we’ll do everything we can to try to beat them.”
CB South had a young roster this season and can expect continued growth next year.
“We lost I think eight seniors so we had a lot of people coming in,” Sklar said. “Lot of people stepping into roles but they grew into them as the year went on. We gave them the tools and they took it and ran. They did everything we could ask for. This was a very good learning experience and next year we’ll hit the ground running again.”
CB South 0 1 0—1
CR South 0 1 2—3
Second period goals: Connor Holland (CRS) from Aidan Judge and Jordan Sarne, 6:57; Ryan Montagna (CBS) from Dominic Gibson, 14:47;
Third period goals: Sarne (CRS) from Jake Weiner, 0:30; Weiner (CRS) from Chase Stratton and Allen Pronin, 6:18
Shots: CB South 25, CR South 27; Saves: Nathan Napolitano (CBS) 20
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