Flyers Cup Results Monday, March 6

Class A First Round

Penncrest 4 Plymouth Whitemarsh 0

Lower Dauphin 5 vs Unionville 1 6:30

Marple Newtown 7 vs. WC Henderson 2

Hershey 4 Strath Haven 2

Council Rock North 7 Radnor 2

7. Garnet Valley vs. 10. Springfield-Delco 9:00 at Skatium

WC Rustin 10 Wissahickon 0

Class AA First Round

Conestoga 6 Downingtown West 3

Class AAA First Round

Holy Ghost Prep 10 Cardinal O’Hara 1

Malvern Prep 6 Father Judge 2

All Tickets for Flyers Cup games must be purchased online via the Box Office link on the Flyers Cup web site. Make sure you select the correct game. Flyers Cup Programs will also be sold only online. The link for that is at the top of the Box Office. You can pick your program up by showing your Program purchase ticket at any Flyers Cup venue.

La Salle 7 Holy Ghost Prep 3

By Rick Woelfel

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP— La Salle’s big guns came up big when it mattered most. The line of Chase Hannon, Evan Golato ands Ryan Desmond combined for four goals and five assists as the Explorers bested Holy Ghost Prep 7-3 Wednesday afternoon in the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference’s Founders Cup Championship Game in front of a full house at Hatfield Ice.

The win gives the Explorers (13-9-2) their third outright championship in the APAC’s five-year history; they shared a fourth.

La Salle will be the top seed in the Class AAA bracket of the Flyers Cup tournament, which begins next week. The Explorers have a bye into the semifinals and will face either Malvern Prep or Father Judge the week of March 13.

Hannon spearheaded his team’s effort on Wednesday by scoring three goals. Golato added a goal and an assist while Desmond contributed four assists.

Hannon said the key to the win was taking care for the basics.

“Our game plan was to get pucks deep and get on them,” he said. “I think we did that, and it clearly worked for us.”

La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner considered Wednesday’s game his team’s best start-to finish effort of the season.

“I think we had really good focus,” he said. “The guys really played hard, they came to play tonight.”

La Salle capitalized on a Firebird turnover to score the game’s first goal. Chase Hannon corralled the lose puck in the neutral zone, found space and weaved his way trough three opponents to beat Jack Unger with a forehander from the leading edge of the left circle 4:12 into the opening session.

The Firebirds drew even when the Explorers’ Evan Golato (roughing) and Ryan Desmond (tripping) drew back-to back penalties, giving Holy Ghost Prep a two-man advantage for 46 seconds. It took Landon Stout just 14 seconds to score the tying goal off a rebound of Brady Baehser’s original shot at the 9:20 mark.

The second period produced an abundance of offensive fireworks and a total of seven goals, five of them from the Explorers.

Evan Golato put La Salle in from just five seconds into the period with a shot from the left point. Hannon scored his second goal of the game during a power play at 3:57.

Baehser answered for the Firebirds with a power-play goal of his own at 5:37 but Hannon completed his hat trick just 17 seconds later. John Seravalli’s goal cut the Explorer lead to 4-3 with 3:27 left in the period but Will Gregorio and Charlie Kennedy scored for La Salle before the period ended.

Evan Mudrick replaced Unger in the Firebird net following Kennedy’s goal.

Tim Whitock scored the only goal of the third period at the 8:10 mark. He cited his team’s veteran experience as a factor in the win.

“Senior leadership I guess,’ he said. “Got to get the younger guys going. Do whatever you can.”

For Holy Ghost Prep (16-7) which has yet to win an APAC title, the loss was a disappointing end to the conference season.

“It was not one of our best efforts,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside. “I thought we didn’t execute very well. Our structure wasn’t there the whole game. There were some things we did really well but it wasn’t a total team effort.

Ice chips—The Firebirds are seeded second for the Class AAA Flyers Cup and will face seventh-seeded Cardinal O’Hara in a quarterfinal game at Grundy Arena Monday night.

La Salle’s previous Founders Cup titles came in 2019 and ‘20, the APAC’s first two seasons. They shared the title with Malvern Prep two years ago when the Founders Cup final wasn’t played because of the pandemic.

Holy Ghost Prep 1 2—3

La Salle 1 5 1—7

First-period goals: Chase Hannon (L) unassited, 4:12; Landon Stout (HGP) from Brady Baehser and John Seravalli, 9:20 (pp)

Second-period goals: Evan Golato (L) from Ryan Desmond, :05 Hannon (L) from Desmond and Golato, 3:57 (pp); Baehser (HGP) from Landon Stout and X, 11:23; Hannon (L) from Desmond, 11:40; Seravalli (HGP) unassisted, 13:33; Will Gregorio (L) from Desmond, 14:29 (pp); Charlie Kennedy (L) rom Max Monzo and Tim Whitock, 16:42

Third-period goals: Whitock (L) from Thomas Doucet, 8:10

Shots: Holy Ghost Prep 40, La Salle 45 Saves: Jack Unger (HGP) 26 and Colin Mudrick (HGP) 14; Aries Carangi (L) 37

Flyers Cup Matchups Unveiled

A total of 50 teams have been selected to compete in the 44^th annual Flyers Cup tournament. Competition is scheduled to get underway on Monday and Tuesday, March 6 and 7. Over the course of 16 days champions will be crowned in five different brackets.

The teams in each bracket, 16 in Class AA. 15 in Class A, 7 in Class AAA, 4 in the South Jersey/Delaware bracket and 8 in the Girls division were selected and seeded by the Flyers Cup Competition Committee based on regular-season results and observations by members of the committee.

Flyers Cup Committee President Eric Tye emphasized that the seeding were based exclusively on regular-season performances.

“No playoff games were taken into account,” he said. “ At any level, any league, anything. Once your regular season is done, that’s what the competition committee looks at.

“The playoff games happened between the end of the regular season and the selection show. That’s not fair for teams that maybe didn’t make their league playoffs and didn’t get another chance to play another game.

Tye noted the final score of a game was irrelevant to the seeding process. “If a team wins 7-1 or a team wins 2-1 it doesn’t matter in the competition committee’s eyes,” he said.”

Here are the first-round matchups

Class A Monday, March 6

West Chester East has a bye

8 Penncrest vs. 9 Plymouth Whitemarsh 7:00 at Skatium

5 Lower Dauphin vs. 12 Unionville 6:30 at Klick Lewis

4 Marple Newtown vs. 13 Henderson 6:30 at PNY

3 Hershey vs. 14 Strath Haven 8:30 at Klick Lewis

6 Radnor vs. 11 Council Rock North 6:30 at Ice Line

10 Garnet Valley vs. 10 Springfield-Delco 9:00 at Skatium

2 WC Rustin vs. 15 Wissahickon 8:30 at Ice Line

Quarterfinals Thursday, March 9

Semifinals Monday, Match 13

Championship Monday, March 20

Class AA Monday-Tuesday March 6-7

Council Rock South vs. 16 Spring Ford 8:15 at Grundy

8 Boyertown vs. 9 Downingttown East 6:15 at Hatfield

Pennsbury vs. 12 Abington 6:15 Grundy at Ice Line

4 Connestoga vs. 13 Downingtown West 6:45 at Ice Line on 3-6

Avon Grove vs. 14 Central Bucks East 6:30 at Ice Line
O.J. Roberts vs. 11 Central Bucks South 8:30 at Ice Line

7 Haverford vs. 10 Neshaminy 7:00 at Skatium

Pennridge vs. 15 Lower Merion 8:15 at Hatfield

Quarterfinals Thursday, March 9

Semifinals Tuesday, Match 14

Championship Tuesday, March 21

Class AAA Monday-Tuesday Match 6 and 7

La Salle has a bye
Malvern Prep vs. 5 Father Judge 8:30 at Ice Line on 3-6

3 St. Joseph’s Prep vs. 6 Perk. Valley 9:00 at Skatium on 3-7

Holy Ghost Prep vs 7 Cardinal O’Hara 8:30 at Grundy on 3-6

Semifinals Tuesday, March 14

Championship Tuesday March 21

South Jersey/Delaware Thursday, March 16

1 Salesianum vs. 4 Washington Township 8:00 at Vorhees

2 Cherokee vs. 3 Eastern 6:00 at Vorhees

Championship Game Monday, March 20

Girls Tuesday and Thursday March 7 and 9

Avon Grove vs. 8 Pennridge 7:45 at PNY on 3-7

4 Rustin vs. 5 Kingsway 9:30 at PNY on 3-7

Unionville vs 6 Henderson 6:45 at PNY on 3-9
Downibgtown West vs. West Chester East 5:00 at PNY on 3-9

Championship Game Wednesday 3-22

Game dates, times, and sites are subject to change

Class A, AA, and AAA champions advance to state championship games on 3-26

APAC Championship Preview

Founders Cup Championship Game

Wednesday, March 1

La Salle vs. Holy Ghost Prep

4:00 at Hatfield Ice

La Salle (12-9-2) Seed 1

Coach: Wally Muehlbronner

How the Explorers got here: Defeated The Hun School 5-1 in the semifinals. Dean Carvalho scored two goals and assisted on two others. James Carpenter scored a goal and added two assists. Matt Giordano and Michael Zarzycki, also scored goals.

Carpenter has scored seven goals for the Explorers in conference play, including the semifinal, and added six assists for 13 points. Carvalho has scored six goals and added six assists for 12 points. Evan Golato has contributed 7 goals and two assists for nine points.

Holy Ghost Prep (16-6) Seed 2

Coach: Gump Whiteside

How the Firebirds got here: Defeated St. Joseph’s Prep 4-1 in the semifinals. Brady Baehser scored two goals in the win. Kieran Mulholland and Zach Pers also scored goals.

Baehser, the APAC scoring champion, has 12 goals and nine assists for 21 points in conference games, including the semifinal. Mulholland has 10 goals and eight assists for 18 points in conference play. John Servalli has four goals and 10 assists for 14 points.

This season

11-9 Holy Ghost Prep 6 La Salle 2

2-13 La Salle 6 Holy Ghost Prep 5

Past History

La Salle won the first two APAC titles in 2019 and ’20 and was declared a co-champion along with Malvern Prep in 2021 when the championship game was cancelled because of the pandemic. Holy Ghost Prep is seeking its first APAC title.

What Comes Next

The seedings for the Class AAA Flyers Cup tournament will be announced Sunday evening, February on the Flyers Cup YouTube channel. The result of the Founders Cup final will not affect those seedings.

Hockey Playoff Update

Here’s a look at the remaining SHSHL and APAC playoff schedule

Wednesday, March 1

APAC-Founders Cup Championship Game

La Salle vs. Holy Ghost Prep 4 pm at Hatfield Ice

SHSHL American Division Championship Game

Abington vs. Plymouth Whitemarsh 7:20 Hatfield Ice

SHSHL National Division Semifinals

Council Rick South vs. Neshaminy 7:20 at Grundy

Pennridge vs. Pennsbury 8:30 at Hatfield Ice

Thursday, March 2

SHSHL National Division Championship Game 7:20

Highest seeded finalist will host

Holy Ghost Prep 4 St. Joseph’s Prep 1

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—Three different players scored goals as Holy Ghost Prep downed St. Joseph’s Prep 4-1 Wednesday evening at Hatfield Ice in an Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference semifinal at Hatfield Ice.

The second-seeded Firebirds (16-6) will face La Salle in the Founders Cup final next Wednesday at 4 p.m., also at Hatfield Ice. The Hawks fell to 14-6-2. Both teams will learn on Sunday where they will be seeded for the Class AAA Flyers Cup tournament, which begins the week of March 6.

Brady Baehser paced Holy Ghost Prep with with two goals, giving him 12 in APAC play this season. Kieran Mulholland and Zach Pers also scored for the winning side.

It was also a day that saw Jack Unger turn in a stellar performance in goal. Given the starting nod because veteran Colin Mudrick was unavailable, Unger a sophomore, recorded 18 saves and was the epitome of poise.

Mulholland gave Holy Ghost Prep a 1-0 lead when he beat St. Joseph’s Prep netminder Rocco Bruno on a deflection 8:41 into the opening period. Baehser made it a 2-0 game on a breakaway at the 10:59 mark of the second frame.

“I liked our start,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside. “We haven’t been starting off games very well of late but today I liked our jump. and we had four lines contributing, which is great.”

Playing with a lead allowed Unger to settle in.

“I think the biggest thing is being able to stay comfortable,” he said. “When we get off to a quick start like that, I’m really comfortable. I know I can trust the forwards, trust the defense. I know that they’ve got my back and I’ve got their backs.”

Unger’s effort earned effusive praise from his coach.

“It was nice to see that from Jack,” Whiteside said. “He’s worked all year and gotten some spots here and there throughout the season, but tonight was a total effort from Jack and our guys just fed off of him.”

Jeffrey Hammond got St. Joseph’s Prep on the scoreboard 6:44 into the third period but the Hawks were stymied much of the night; they managed just 19 shots.

“I think they wanted it more than us today for whatever reason,” said St. Joseph’s Prep coach David Giacomin. “It’s hard to get in the minds of kids (but) they had a lot of jumps, especially in the beginning of the game,

“They wanted it a little bit more than us and they played a really good game.”

St. Joseph’s Prep 0 0 1—1

Holy Ghost Prep 1 2 1—4

First-period goal: Kieran Mulholland (HGP) unassisted, 8:41

Second-period goal: Brady Baehser (HGP) from Ryan Lippy and Landon Stout, 10:59; Zach Pers (HGP) from Kieran Mulholland and John Seravalli, 14:16 (pp)

Third-period goal: Jeffrey Hammond (HGP) unassisted, 6:44; Baehser (HGP) from Seravalli and Mulholland, 11:54;

Shots: St. Joseph’s Prep 19, Holy Ghost Prep 33; Saves: Rocco Bruno (SJP) 29, Jack Unger (HGP) 18

La Salle Seeking APAC Laurels

With the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference playoff at hand, La Salle is where it accustomed to being; at the top of the standings. The Explorers win two of the APAC’s first four titles and were in position to play for a third before the 2021 championship game was cancelled because of the ongoing pandemic.

The 2023 playoff semifinals are set for Wednesday and the Explorers will face The Hun School to open the doubleheader at Hatfield Ice (4:00 start). The second game, scheduled for. 6:15 start, will match second seed Holy Ghost Prep and third seed St. Joseph’s Prep.

The Explorers claimed the APAC regular-season title with a 6-5 win over Holy Ghost Prep. Senior defenseman and captain Chase Hannon missed that game with a knee injury, but celebrated along with his teammates.

“We got the job done,” he said. “Everyone was ready to go, there was excitement in the locker room, I kind of new from the start get it done

La Salle, as usual, started the season slowly, winning just one of its first five games but picked up the pace from there. The Explorers will take an 11-9-2 record into Wednesday’s semifinal. They’ve won four of their last five starts and six of their last eight.

Hannon is elated with how he and his teammates have responded after a slow start to the campaign.

“I think it’s awesome,” he said. “In the beginning, we weren’t too hot but we came together as a team, we all bought it for one goal. It’s been showing We’ve been doing well.”

Hannon said some juggling of the lineup contributed to the Explorers’ turnaround.

”We found guys that are going to get the job done, doing what coach wants,” he said, “and we just kind of bought in, listening to Coach (Wally Muehlbronner). We found our success doing that.”

Hun School 5 Malvern Prep 2

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J.—The playoff environment gave The Hun School Raiders a spring in their step. Brendan Marino scored goals as the Raiders kicked off the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference Tuesday afternoon with a 5-2 win over Malvern Prep in a play-in game at Ice Land.

The win advances the fourth-seeded Raiders (10-12 overall) to the APAC semifinals; They’ll oppose La Salle on February 22 at 4:00 at Hatfield Ice. Fifth-seeded Malvern Prep (8-7) will be idle until the Class AAA Flyers Cup tournament next month.

The Raiders’ aggressive style worked to their advantage as they physically dominated the Friars from the outset.

“I think we’ve got an older team” Marino said, “a big, strong team and I think it helped us early in the game, because we’re able to get physical, get pucks in, get pucks out, and play together as a team.”

Hun School coach Ian McNally noted the referees were tolerant of physical play early on. There were no penalties called in the first period. There were seven whistled in the second period and 10 in the third.

“The first two periods there weren’t many penalties being called,” McNally said. “That let us kind of set the tone.”

Malvern Prep was laboring under the additional burden of being shorthanded; offensive catalysts Jimmy and Jeremy Jacobs were away on club duty.

By the time the first period ended, the Friars were in a 2-0 hole.

Hun School’s Justin LaPlante and Malvern Prep’s Pax Hoshik barrel in front of the Malvern Prep net. (photo: Robert Barnes)

Josh Sosner got things started for the Raiders 10:30 into the opening period off an offensive zone faceoff. Marino made it 2-0 with 32 seconds left in the period when he topped in Aidan Shine’s shot from the right point.

Gavin Wilson got Malvern Prep on the board 3:08 into the second frame when he beat Stephen Chen in the Hun School net.

The Raiders answered back almost six minutes later with one of the most picturesque goals of the APAC season. Charles Etienne-Jeffe played the puck the puck up the center of the ice from the midway point on his own defensive zone and caught Ryan Levesque in full stride. Levesque beat the Friar defense and goaltender Brandon Novabilski to make it a 3-1 game at the 9:04 mark.

Just 31seconds later, Elian Estulin gave the hosts a 4-1 lead.

Aidan Kelly cut onto that lead when he scored for the Friars with 4:09 left in the period.

Going into the third frame, Jared Ingersol, who filled in for Bill Keenan behind the Malvern Prep bench (Keenan was absent due to a family issue) thought his team still had a shot as it started the third period with a 72-second power play; Marino was serving a high-sticking sentence.

“We thought we were right there coming out of the second period,” Ingersol said. “Hopefully we could get a power-play goal and get us back in the game.”

Alas for the Malvern Prep faithful, it wasn’t to be. The Raiders killed the remaining penalty time and Marino scored his second goal of the game and what turned out to be the only goal of the third period, just nine seconds after his penalty expired.

McNally saw the win as a season’s worth of effort paying off.

“We’ve had a lot of games where we work hard,” he said. “We shoot the puck, I think we’re playing physical, but we don’t score the clutch goals when we need them.

“And today was back-to-back breakaways and a guy coming out of the box for a breakaway goal. Those goals are clutch goals at the right time.”

Ice Chips—Hun School and La Salle will open the semifinal doubleheader next Wednesday at 4:00. The second semifinal matching second seed Holy Ghost Prep and third seed St. Joseph’s Prep will follow at 6:15. The Founders Cup title game is set for March 1. It will be hosted by the highest seeded finalist.

Malvern Prep 0 2 0—2

Hun School 2 2 1—5

First-period goals: Josh Sosner (HS) from Aidan Shine and Justin LaPlante, 10:30; Brendan Marino (HS) from Shine and Ryan Levesque 16:28

Second-period goals: Gavin Wilson (MP) from Matt Barbacane and Teague Murray, 3:08; Ryan Levesque (HS) from Charles Etienne-Jeffe, 9:04; Elian Estulin (HS) from Levesque and Charles Guida,9:35; Aidan Kelly (MP) from Murray and Jack Sharer, 11:51 (pp)

Third-period goals: Brendan Marino (HS) from Vincent Gregoire, 1:23

Shots: Malvern Prep 24, Hun School 52; Saves: Brandon Novabilski (MP) 47, Stephen Chen (HS) 22

Flyers Cup Rankings 2-13-23

Class AAA

Holy Ghost Pre[
La Salle
St. oseph’s Prep
Malvern Prep
Father udge

Class AA

Council Rock South
Conestoga
Pennridge
Avon Grove
Pennsbury

Class A

West Chester East
West Chester Rustin
Marple Newtown
Radnor
Hershey

Girls

Avon Grobe
Downingtown West
Unionville
West Chester East
Kingsway

NJ/Delaware

Salesianum
Cherokee
Eastern
Washington Township
Moorsetown

This is the final set of rankings before the field for the Flyers Cup tournament will be finalized on February 26. The tournament is an invitational event; teams are selected and seeded by the Flyers Cup Committee. There are no automatic bids.

La Salle 6 Holy Ghost Prep 5

BRSTOL—After an up-and-down season, the La Salle Explorers are ripening like a field full of crops, just as harvest time is drawing near. Evan Golato and James Carpenter scored two goals each as the Explorers held off Holy Ghost Prep 6-5 Monday afternoon at Grundy Arena.

After starting the season by winning just one of its first five games, La Salle stands at 11-8-2 with one regular-season game remaining. The Explorers, who have won their last four starts and six of their last seven, finished Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference play as the regular-season champion with a 6-2 league.

They’ll be seeded first in the conference semifinals, and will face the winner of Thursday’s play-in between Malvern Prep and Hun School on February 22 at Hatfield Ice. Ghost Prep (15-6, 4-2-1-1 in conference) will be the second seed in the playoffs and will take on third-seeded St. Joseph’s Prep in the other semifinal on the same day at the same venue.

Golato scored both his goals in the first period as La Salle took a 2-1 lead. The goals were sandwiched a goal from the Firebirds’ Prep’s Colin Bara.

“We expected a dogfight coming into today,” Golato said. “We’re glad we got away with a win. We just want to keep going game by game, winning and winning. That’s all we want as a team.”

Traffic in front of the La Salle net includes the Explorers’ Will Giordano (#3), and Thomas Doucet (#6) along with Holy Ghost Prep’s Kieran Mulholland (#13) and Zach Pers (#72) Photos by Robert Barnes

Carpenter and Holy Ghost Prep’s Brady Baehser traded goals in the second session before John Seravalli tied the game with 6:53 left in the period. But Matt Giordano answered 43 seconds later with a shot from the high slot to give La Salle the lead for good.

Will Gregorio and Carpenter extended the La Salle lead with third-period goals before Ciaran Chambers scored for the Firebirds with 11:11 left in the game. Kieran Mulholland made it a one-goal game with 29 seconds remaining.

Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside praised the effort of both teams.

“A great APSC game,” he said. “Two great opponents competed to the bitter end.

“I was really happy with how we kept battling back. Nobody wants to chase the game of course, but I was really proud of the effort there.”

Both teams shuffled goaltenders. Jake Rossi started for La Salle, before giving way to Aries Carangi, but later returned before yielding to Carangi once more. Colin Mudrick started in goal for the Firebirds before Jack Unger came on in relief. Mudrick later returned but Unger relieved him again in the third period.”

Golato noted the victory was a true team effort.

“It wasn’t just a performance by one person,” he said. “Every single kid stepped up and had a great game for us to plug away and get the win.”

La Salle 2 2 2—6

Holy Ghost Prep 1 2 2—5

First-period goals: Evan Golato (L) from Ryan Desmond and Declan Kelly, 3:00; Colin Bara (HGP) from Brandon Barger, 12:26; Golato (L) from Will Gregorio, 15:45 (pp)

Second-period goals: James Carpenter (L) from Matt Giordano, 5:07; Brady Baehser (HGP) from Barger, 5:15; John Seravalli (HGP) from Baehser, 13:02; Giordano (L) from Julian Tarsi, 13:45

Third-period goals: Giordano (L) from Michael Zaraycki, 1:49 (pp); Carpenter (L) unassisted, 4:19; Ciaran Chambers (HGP) from Ryan Lippy, 5:49; Kieran Mulholland (HGP) from Mike Holt and Chambers

Shots: La Salle 32, Holy Ghost Prep 18