Author: 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.

Explorers, Friars Set to Play for Founders Cup

Last year’s championship matchup never happened because of Covid issues. But La Salle and Malvern Prep are letting nothing stand in their way this season. The Explorers and the Friars will meet Wednesday night at Ice Line for the Founders Cup and the championship of the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference. Game time will be 8:00.

The two teams were scheduled to meet for the Cup last season but that game was cancelled and the APAC title declared vacant. due to Covid Malvern Prep went on to defeat La Salle in the Class AAA Flyers Cup final and later won the state championship.

La Salle won the first two Founder Cup titles in 2019 and ‘20

La Salle

Coach: Wally Muehlbronner

Record: 8-7-1/4-3-0-1 in the APAC seed 2

Semifinals: def. St. Joseph’s Prep 4-1

Top scorers (APAC games only)

Keenan Schneider 5 goals, 2 assists 7 points

Max Maddalo 3 goals 3 assists 6 points

Chris Wnek 2 goals 4 assists 6 points

Malvern Prep

Coach: Bill Keenan

Record: 13-3/5-1-2-0 in APAC seeed 1

Semifinals: def. Holy Ghost Prep 4-1

Top scorers (APAC games only)

Matt Harris 11 goals, 9 assists, 20 points

Jim Jacobs 8 goals, 9 assists, 17 points

Jeremy Jacobs 7 goals, 7 assists, 14 points

Pierre Larocque 5 goals, 7 assists, 12 points

Earlier this season:

November 5

Malvern Prep 2 La Salle 0—Pierre Larocque scored the winning goal with 5:55 remaining in regulation in the APAC season opener at Hatfield Ice. Matt Harris added an empty net goal.

January 24

Malvern Prep 5 La Salle 4 OT—Matt Harris scored with 1:08 remaining in overtime to give the Friars the win at Ice Line. LaSalle forced overtime. Harris and Jimmy Jacobs scored two goals each.

La Sale forced overtime with goals from Keenan Schneider and Chris Wnek in the final 87 seconds of regulation.

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Pasch Leads CR North Into Postseason

The success of Council Rock North is arguably one of the biggest surprises, if not the biggest surprise, of the Suburban High School Hockey League season.
The Indians have overcome a 1-4 start to win seven of their last nine games and post an 8-6 overall record (5-5 on Class AA divisional play) heading into this week’s SHSHL playoffs. They’re seeded fifth heading into a quarterfinal game against Central Bucks South Wednesday night.

While the Indians are a Class AA team in the SHSHL, they are listed as a Class A team for Flyers Cup purposes. They will learn Sunday if they have made the tournament field.

Will Pasch has a lot to do with all this Pasch is the Indians’ captain. As the only senior on a team with a first-year head coach (Greg McDonald), Pasch was positioned to lead his team forward, or into the abyss. That he chose the former is a testament to his leadership skills.

“I think from the very first practice, the boys wanted him to be the captain,” McDonald said, “and he wanted it, honestly. I think it hurt him that last year (when North could not field a pure team) was what it was. It’s his senior year he’s super excited to play.”

Pasch says he and his teammates jelled as the season progressed. “We started off the season pretty rocky, I think we can all agree on that,” he said, ‘but as the season went through, off the ice we just kind of bonded together as a team. We promoted the team at school and stuff and brought everybody together. We saw each other outside of school and just kind of formed a camaraderie and a friendship that I just hadn’t seen before in my four years playing here so it really says something special.”

As the postseason begins, Pasch says he and his teammates have something to prove, particularly to any naysayers that are paying attention.

“A very small amount of people expected us to be where we are right now,” he said. “That’s just something special that I’m going to cherish forever. I’m just happy that we’re able to be in the playoffs and be in the position that we’re at. Just to prove everybody wrong.”

Three Indians are among the Class AA Division’s top scorers.

Karson Grainey has accumulated 26 goals and 16 assists for 42 points; he leads the division in scoring. Nick Hahn has scored 10 goals and added 18 assists for 28 points, he’s tied for fifth on the scoring list. Jackson Accari is seventh with 16 goals and nine assists for 25 points.

Pasch does his best to see to it his teammates are focused on the task at hand.

“Just trying to make sure everyone’s got their head in the game,” he said. I’m trying to make sure we’re focused on game day at practices. Thankfully, the boys have done a great job dealing with adversity throughout the season and ups and downs. I’m just happy that it all came together when it mattered.”

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SHSHL Update for 2-21-22

National/Continental-Class AA W L T OTL Pts

Pennridge (14-0-1) 9 0 1 0 19

Council Rock South (11-1-2) 9 0 1 0 19

Pennsbury (10-3-1) 8 2 0 0 16

Central Bucks South (6-7-1) 6 3 0 1 13

Neshaminy (8-5-1) 5 5 0 0 10

Council Rock North (7-7) 5 5 0 0 10

Central Bucks East (6-8) 5 5 0 0 10

Souderton (7-7) 4 6 0 0 8

Bensalem (3-11) 1 9 0 0 2

Central Bucks West (5-9) 2 8 0 0 2

North Penn (1-13) 0 10 0 0 0

American Division-Class A W L T OTL Pts

Abington (13-1) 12 0 0 0 24

Plymouth Whitemarsh (11-4) 9 3 0 0 18

Wissahickon (8-7) 8 4 0 0 16

Quakertown (7-8) 7 5 0 0 14

William Tennent (3-12) 3 9 0 0 6

Upper Dublin (3-10-0-1) 2 8 0 1 5

Hatboro-Horsham (1-13) 0 11 0 0 0

Scoring

Class AA G A Pts

Karson Grainey (CRN) 26 16 42

Shane Siegmund (PB) 15 22 37

Brendan Macainsh (Pb) 19 12 31

Kevin Pico (Pr) 16 13 29

Kevin Koles (CRS) 13 15 28

Nick Hahn (CRN) 10 18 28

Jackson Accardi (CRN) 16 9 25

Max Gallagher (Nesh) 13 10 23

Aydin Thierolf (CBS) 15 7 22

Anthony Pagliei (Q) 13 8 21

Reece Millman (Pb) 10 11 21

Class A G A Pts

Aidan Keogh (PW) 18 40 58

Luke Weikel (PW) 36 19 55

Matt Kramer (Ab 28 16 44

Joe Stelacio (Ab) 18 21 39

Pat Stelacio (Ab) 22 12 34

A.J. Pounds (Wiss) 18 16 34

Matthew Flynn (PW) 9 23 32

Jack Bocul (UD) 22 7 29

Will Hussa (Wiss) 16 15 31

Jack Bocul (UD) 22 7 29

Danny Hussa (Wiss) 21 8 29

SHSHL Updated Playoff Schedule

Wednesday, February 23

Class AA Quarterfinals

1 CR South vs. 8 Souderton 7:50 at Rev. Ice Gardens

4 C.B. South vs. 5 C.R. North 8:30 at Hatfield Ice

2 Pennridge vs. 7 C.B. East 7:20 at Hatfield Ice

3 Pennsbury vs. 6 Neshaminy 7:20 at Grundy Arena

Thursday, February 24

Class A Semifinals

1 Abington vs 4 Quakertown 7:10 at Hatfield

2 Plymouth Whitemarsh vs. 3 Wissahickon 8:50 at Hat. Ice

Wednesday 3-2

Class AA Semifinals at Hatfield

7:10 Top half of Bracket

7:50 Bottom half of Bracket

Thursday Match 3

Championship Night at Hatfield

7:10 Class AA Final

8:30 Class A Final

C.R. North 5 C.B. West 2

HATFIELD—Council Rock North is one of the major success stories of 2021-22 hockey season. Unable to field a pure team last season, the Indians were forced to drop out of the Suburban High School Hockey League.

But they have returned this year are unquestionably making an impact.

Chapter One of the North Saga concluded Thursday night with a 5-2 win over Central Bucks West at Hatfield Ice in the regular-season finale for both sides.

Jackson Accardi, Will Pasch, and Karson Grainey all scored goals in a span of 2 minutes, 9 seconds midway through the second period to break the game open.

North concluded its regular season at 8-6 (5-5 in divisional play). The Indians will be seeded somewhere between fifth and seventh for next week’s SHSHL playoffs and are hoping to land a bid in the upcoming Class A Flyers Cup tournament.

“We talked about it,” said North coach Greg McDonald. “We only had like 11 skaters. The difference between when we have a full bench and when we don’t is tremendous.

“So that was exactly what we talked about; win the small game. Win the puck battles with shifts, win the puck races, win the open spot for your teammates.”

Ryan Keil gave the Indians a 1-0 lead 7:23 into the first period off a scramble in front of West goaltender Liam Rogers

Billy Loughnane tied the game for the Buck (5-9, 2-8) off the faceoff that commenced the second period.

Rogers kept the game tied when he turned aside a blast from Lucas Siomos with 11;35 left in the period.

But the Indians eventually broke through. Accardi put his team in front for good at the 7:16 mark, Pasch followed up at 8:23 and Grainey completed the trifecta at 9:25.

The Bucks got a bit closer when Loughnane scored his second goal of the game with 2:56 remaining in regulation but couldn’t get any closer.

Grainey scored his second goal of the game into an empty net just before the clock hit all zeroes.

The evening marked the conclusion of the career of five West seniors. Their coach, Dave Baun, is pleased with how his young team matured over the course of the season.

“I’m very optimistic about the team going forward,” he said. “Nine of our players are freshmen and sophomores and that’s pretty young, but they’re all good players. When they’re all good and they’re that young, that’s a good thing because they’re only going to get better.

“And we’re expecting to add a few more good players next year.”

Ice chips— Ian Goldberg made 33 saves in the North net. The Indians will learn on February 27 whether they made the Flyers Cup field.

Council Rock North 1 3 1—5

C.B. West 0 1 1—2

First-period goal: Ryan Keil (CRN) from Noah Epstein and Karson Grainey, 7:23

Second-period goals: Billy Loughnane (CBW) from Nick Bruno and Anthony Dowd, :11; Jackson Accardi (CRN) from Grainey, 7:16; Will Pasch (CRN) from Keil 8:23; Grainey (CRN) from Accardi and Epstein, 9:25

Third-period goals: Loughnane (CBW) from Dowd, 14:04; Grainey (CRN) from Accardi, 16:59 (en)

Shots: C.R. North 43, C.B. West 35; Saves: Ian Goldberg (CRN) 33, Liam Rogers (CBW) 38

Council Rock South 3 Pennridge 3

Kevin Pico scored with 5:26 remaining in the third period to give Pennridge a 3-3 tie with Council Rock South Wednesday night at Grundy Arena. The result left the teams deadlocked at the top of the SHSHL Class AA standings with identical 9-0-1 divisional records.

Council Rock South will be seeded first for next week’s SHSHL playoffs on the basis of fewer goals allowed in divisional play (15 to 16).

Aeryk Lehraupt and Shane Dachowki also scored for the Rams. Julian Sarne, Kevin Koles and Julian Wagenmann all scored for the Golden Hawks.
Wagenmann’s goal with 5:06 remaining in the second period gave South a 3-2 lead before Pico’s goal tied the game.

Neither team scored during overtime and the SHSHL does not utilize shootouts.

Pennridge 1 1 1 0—3

C.R. South 2 1 0 0—3

First-period goals: Julian Sarne (CRS) from Kevin Koles, 7:01; Aeryk Lehrhaupt (P) from Shane Dachowski and Jack Lowery, 9:33; Koles (CRS) from David Vergules and Julian Wagenmann, 12:49;

Second-period goals: Wagenmann (CRS) unassisted, 11:54; Shane Dachowski (P) from Andrew David, 13:43

Third-period goal: Kevin Pico (P) from Tyler Manto, 11:34

La Salle 4 St. Joseph’s Prep 1

WEST GOSHEN—A high-school hockey game features 51 minutes of playing time. Wednesday’s Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference semifinal between La Salle and St. Joseph’s Prep was decided in a window of roughly two of those minutes.

The Explorers scored three goals in a span of 1 minute 19 seconds at the start of the second period and went on to a 4-1 win over the Hawks at Ice Line.

Evan Golato scored two goals for second-seeded La Salle (8-7-1) which will face top-seeded Malvern Prep next Wednesday, February 23 at Ice Line (8 p.m. start) for the Founders Cup and the APAC championship. Third-seeded St. Joseph’s Prep (8-8-1) will be idle until the Flyers Cup tournament which begins March 7; seedings will be announced on February 27.

After a scoreless first frame, La Salle broke the game open in seemingly the blink of an eye. Golato found the back of the net 1:03 into the middle period. Ryan Desmond made it 2-0 just 18 seconds later before Golato added his second goal at 2:22.

“Our momentum shifted right when our shift got out there,” Golato said. “We saw rebounds laying around all game. We buried opportunities and we kept going.”

After La Salle’s third gal, the Hawks called timeout and made a goaltender change with Rocco Bruno taking over for Ajay White. Bruno pitched a shutout the rest of the way; La Salle’s final goal, off the stick of Max Monzo was scored into an empty net with eight seconds left in the game.

La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner expressed concern about his team’s inability to sustain its momentum after its second-period surge.

“I think we had a really great start to the second period,” he said, “The first eight minutes of the second, I thought we played our game. Other than that, I didn’t think we played a great team game.

St. Joseph Prep’s only goal came from Liam Mooney in the third period.

“They beat us in two-and-a-half minutes,” Giacomin said. “They scored three goals because we didn’t cover anybody, and after that it was up and down. Both teams had chances.”

Will Braun got the win in goal, making 33 saves.

St. Joseph’s Prep 0 0 1—1

La Salle 0 3 1—4

Second-period goals: Evan Golato (L) from Chase Hannon, 1:03; Ryan Desmond from Jackson Lindmar, 1:15; Golato from Keenan Schneider and Max Maddalo, 2:22

Third-period goals: Liam Mooney (SJP) unassisted, :39; Maddalo (L) from Hannon, 16:52

Shots: St. Joseph’s Prep 34, La Salle 31

La Salle’s three second-period goals

Video courtesy of Erin Schneider

Malvern Prep 4 Holy Ghost Prep 1

WEST GOSHEN—There wasn’t much to choose between Malvern Prep and Holy Ghost Prep Wednesday night. The end result, a 4-1 victory for the Friars, was somewhat misleading.

With two minutes remaining in regulation the two teams were locked in a 1-1 standoff but Malvern Prep scored three times in a span of 1 minute, 25 seconds to emerge victorious in an Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference semifinal at Iceline.

The top-seeded Friars (13-3) will host Founders Cup final next week on a date and at a time to be announced. The fifth-seeded Firebirds fell to 10-11. Both teams will be part of the Class AAA Flyers Cup field next month; the Friars are the defending champions.

Jeremy Jacobs scored what proved to be the winning goal with 1:29 left in regulation in the midst of a scramble in front of the Firebirds’ net off a setup from Matt Harris and Larocque.

Harris added a goal from long range with 1:02 remaining before scoring into an empty net with four seconds left. He noted the game was up for grabs entering the final stanza.

“We knew (Holly Ghost Prep) was going to come out strong,” he said. “We knew they had beaten Hun School 9-4 (in Monday’s play-in game) so we knew we had to keep the pressure on the whole game.”

The Firebirds controlled the first minutes of the opening period but, in a prelude of things to come, couldn’t solve Anthony Perti in the Friars’ net and eventually momentum shifted Malvern Prep’s way.

Pierre Larocque gave the Friars a 1-0 just past the midway point of the opening period on a goal off an offensive-right-wing faceoff.

That was all the scoring there was until Kieran Mulholland tied the game for Holy Ghost Prep 2:54 into the final period.

It was a testament to both goaltenders that there wasn’t more scoring; both came up big. Perti stopped 31 of the 32 shots he saw. His counterpart, Jason Soule made 36 saves including a stop on a backhander from Harris that kept the score 1-0 at the time.

Harris lauded Perti’s work. “It meant a lot,” he said. “Our goalie has ben playing phenomenal. During this last stretch it’s pretty much win or go home. The goalies have to be hot.”

Firebird coach Gump Whiteside felt his team deserved better. “A credit to Malvern Prep,” he said. They had our number tonight, they’ve had our number all year. (But) we have the Flyers Cup to look forward to.”

Holy Ghost Prep 0 0 1

Malvern Prep 1 0 3—4

First-period goal: Pierre Larocque (MP) from Brayden Baum and Hayden Campbell, 8:27

Third-period goals: Kieran Mulholland (HGP) from Dominic Lombardo and Brandon Barger, 2:54; Jeremy Jacobs (MP) from Matt Harris and Larocque, 15:31 Harris (MP) unassisted, 15:58; Harris (MP) unassisted 16:56

Shots: Malvern Prep 40, Holy Ghost Prep 32; Saves: Jason Soule (HGP) 36, Anthony Perti (MP) 31

SHSHL Update for 2-15-22

National/Continental-Class AA W L T OTL Pts

Pennridge (14-0-1) 9 0 1 0 19

Council Rock South (11-1-2) 9 0 1 0 19

Pennsbury (9-3-1) 7 2 0 0 14

Central Bucks South (5-6-1) 5 3 0 1 11

Neshaminy (8-4-1) 5 4 0 0 10

Council Rock North (8-6) 5 5 0 0 10

Central Bucks East (6-8) 5 5 0 0 10

Souderton (6-7) 4 6 0 0 8

Bensalem (3-11) 1 8 0 0 2

Central Bucks West (5-9) 1 8 0 0 2

North Penn (1-13) 0 10 0 0 0

American Division-Class A W L T OTL Pts

Abington (13-1) 12 0 0 0 24

Plymouth Whitemarsh (11-3) 9 3 0 0 18

Wissahickon (8-7) 8 4 0 0 14

Quakertown (7-8) 7 5 0 0 14

William Tennent (3-12) 3 9 0 0 6

Upper Dublin (3-10-0-1) 2 8 0 1 5

Hatboro-Horsham (1-13) 0 11 0 0 0

teams in bold will be the teams competing in the SHSHL playoffs. A berth in the SHSHL playoffs does not assure a team of a place in the Flyers Cup tournament.

Scoring

Class AA G A Pts

Karson Grainey (CRN) 25 13 38

Shane Siegmund (PB) 14 22 36

Brendan Macainsh (Pb) 19 12 31

Kevin Pico (Pr) 15 13 28

Nick Hahn (CRN) 10 18 28

Kevin Koles (CRS) 12 14 26

Max Gallagher (Nesh) 13 10 23

Jackson Accardi 15 7 22

Reece Millman (Pb) 10 11 21

Aydin Thierolf (CBS) 13 7 20

Holy Ghost Prep 9 The Hun School 4

Hamilton Township, N.J.— It is often said that the postseason marks a new beginning. So it was for Holy Ghost Prep Monday afternoon. The Firebirds produced their best offensive output of the season over the course of a 9-4 win over The Hun School in the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference play-in game at Iceland in front of an audience that included as substantial number of Holy Ghost Prep supporters.

Brady Baehser scored three goals and assisted on two others for fifth-seeded Holy Ghost Prep (10-10).

The Firebirds move on to face top-seeded Malvern Prep in a Founders Cup semifinal game Wednesday night at Ice Line (6:45 start). Seth Kaplan scored three goals for fourth-seeded Hun School, which finished its season at 8-9.

Wednesday’s result comes less than 72 hours after the Raiders handed the Firebirds a 2-1 loss in Friday’s regular-season finale.

But Baehser said he and his teammates have refocused of late. “Over the past two weeks, after the losing streak, we kind of regrouped,” he said. “Our coaches gave us a new plan for practice. I think Friday we came out and played well, we just couldn’t score. Today, we just found the back of the net a lot more.”

Six different Firebirds scored goals on Wednesday, a total of 12 were listed on the scoresheet.

“It was nice to see Point Night for the Firebirds finally,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside. “It was a great effort. We never gave up on our guys. It’s attribute to them, the way they played three solid periods.”

Baesher scored one goal and assisted Dominic Lombardo’s effort as Holy Ghost Prep took a 2-1 first-period lead.

Perhaps the biggest surprised of the afternoon came after Sean Marshall scored the first of his two goals 7:41 into the second frame. At that point, Hun School coach Ian McNally made a goaltender change, inserting Stephen Chen in place of starter Jack Borek who surrendered three goals on 10 shots

Riley Frost scored for the Raiders at the 10:04 mark to make it a one-goal game but the Firebirds responded with three unanswered goals to take a 6-2 lead 2:24 into the third period and were more or less in control thereafter.

Borek returned to the net for the start of the third period after Chen allowed two goals on 11 shots.

“Once we’d score, we were never able to build on it,” McNally said. “They’d score seconds later and you could never keep any momentum going.”

While Monday brought the Hun School season to an end, it was a season that saw the Raider hockey program get back on track; the 2020-21 season was limited to three games because of Covid issues. This season, Hun School participated in the APAC for the first time, which assured the Raiders of a postseason to point toward.

“I think it’s been great,” McNally said. “We don’t have a state tournament because there aren’t enough teams of like size or teams that want to participate.

“This kind of gives us a taste of what it can be like to finish our season with games that mean something and the potential to host games, so we’re very happy.”

Holy Ghost Prep 2 3 4—9

Hun School 1 1 2—4

First-period goals: Seth Kaplan (SH) from Elian Estolin and Christian Clover, 11:13; Brady Baehser (HGP) from Landon Stout, 11:40; Dominic Lombardo (HGP) from Baehser 13:27 (pp)

Second-period goals: Sean Marshall (HGP) from Brian Butler, 7:41; Riley Frost (HS) from Josh Oullette, 10:04; Baehser (HGP) from Shaun Moore, 12:31; Kieran Mulholland (HGP) from Baehser 14:59 (pp)

Third-period goals: Baehser (HGP) from Landon Stout, 2:24; Kaplan (HS) unassisted, 6:59; Marshall (HGP) from John Seravalli and Colin Moore, (pp); Shaun Moore (HGP) from Mulholland, 9:46; Kaplan (HS) from Estulin and Frost, 11:55 (pp) Logan Barnes (HGP) from Brandon Barger and Michael Holt , 15:37

Shots: Holy Ghost Prep 33, Hun School 32; Saves: Jason Soule (HGP) 28, Jack Borek (HS) 15 and Stephen Chen (HS) 9

For more information about The Hun School CLICK HERE

For more about Holy Ghost Prep CLICK HERE