Category: Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference

Princeton Day School 4, Holy Ghost Prep 0

BRISTOL—The struggle continued for Holy Ghost Prep Thursday afternoon. Luke Antonacci scored two goals as the Princeton Day School shut out the Firebirds 4-0 in a nom-league encounter at Grundy Arena.

The Firebirds (4-9) have now lost seven straight games.

The Panthers (8-7) were in control early on. Drew McConaughy beat Sean Joyce with a backhander at the 8:28 mark of the first frame to give his team a 1-0 lead. Antonacci made it a 2-0 game at 11:19.

The Panthers wound up outshooting the Firebirds (4-9) 17-3 in the first period. “We had a good first shift,” said Thomas McNulty, one of the Firebird captains. “And then after that, we kind of went downhill, we lost our intensity. It seemed like we weren’t all in today.”

Kevin Flahile extended the Panthers’ lead with a goal at the 6:41 mark off the second period before Antonacci added his second goal of the game 4:50 into the third period with a shot from the right point.

Jeremy Siegel pitched the shutout in goal. It was the fourth straight win for the Panthers and their second over over an Atlantic Prep Athletic conference team in 24 hours; Princeton Day bested LaSalle 4-2 on Wednesday.

Princeton Day coach Scott Bertoli said his team was able to take advantage of the Firebirds’ relative youth on the blue line. “I think we recognized that we’re young on the back end,” he said. “I like the fact that we got pucks deep and penetrated. We had a ton of opportunities.

“I give their goalie credit … that could have been a four or five-goal game and I thought he hung in there.”

In the wake of Thursday’s loss the Firebirds continue to look for solutions for what has become an extraordinarily difficult puzzle.

“We’ve been in a little bit of a slump,” McNulty said, “and honestly, we’re not used to that at all. This is my fourth year on the team and I’ve never experienced anything like this.
‘

“We’re slowly trying to piece together this puzzle and figure it out but it just comes down to our work ethic. And yes, a lot of guys left last year but we just need to put in the work and I think we’ll start to click.

Notes—The Panthers outshot the Firebirds 33-15. Laura White, who refereed, works games for the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Princeton Day 2 1 1—4
Holy Ghost Prep 0 0 0—0
First-period goals: Drew McConaughy (PDS) from Stephan Gorelenkov, 8:28; Luke Antonacci (PDS) from Colby Auslander and Ty Eastman, 11:19.
Second-period goal: Kevin Flahile (PSD) from Gibson Linnehan and Chris Cecelia, 6:41.
Third-period goal: Antonacci (PDS) from Gorlenkov and Cecelia, 4:50.
Shots: Princeton Day 33, Holy Ghost Prep 15; Saves: Jeremy Siegel (PDS) 15, Sean Joyce (HGP) 29.

Malvern Prep 2, St. Joseph’s Prep 1

PHILADELPHIA—It was hockey’s equivalent of a late-round knockout. Down by a goal and a man, Malvern Prep scored two shorthanded goals 74 seconds apart in the waning moments of the third period to score a stunning 2-1 win over St. Joseph’s Prep Friday night in an Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference game at the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Rink.

Nick Martino scored the game-winning goal with 53 seconds remaining in regulation off a turnover the Hawks’ zone, beating Dan McGill with a forehander.

The comeback was, to say the least, improbable. Trailing 1-0 with 2:22 left in regulation, the Friars (8-3, 3-2 in the APAC) drew a penalty for having too many men on the ice. Up to that point the Hawks (5-9, 2-3) had had far the better of the third period and, skating on fresh ice, took a 1-0 lead on Brody Plouride’s goal with 13:01 remaking in regulation.

The Friars were skating uphill but they were unbowed. Martino tied the game with 2:07 remaining in regulation on a perfectly placed shot from the deep right wing that grazed the far post as it entered the net. But even that development gave no inkling as to what would happen from there.

Still on the power play, the Hawks coughed up the puck and one of the APAC’s premier snipers was there to take advantage.

“‘Never a doubt’ was our mindset,” Martino said. “After the time out was called (prior to the power play) Coach (Dave Dorman) was telling us ‘Take your chances but don’t overcommit.’ Two chances showed up and thankfully, we capitalized.”

Martino was in perfect position to capitalize on the turnover. “I saw the guy come up the ice,” he said. “I got a good angle on him. The puck needed up on my stick and I was just thinking, ‘Shoot.'”

Dorman said the result was a testament to his team’s resolve.”The this I’m most proud about is, through the highs and the lows, we managed them well and we stayed even keel,” he said.

“That was the most important thing, because at any point in time, that game could have gone either way.”

St. Joseph’s Prep coach David Giacomin regarded the defeat philosophically. “Games like that happen,” he said. “I thought we played as great hockey game for the entire game, and unfortunately, kids are kids. We wanted them to stay back on the power play and your instinct is to go forward and unfortunately, you give a very talented kid some ice and he buried that first one and the turnover costs on the second (goal).”

Notes—The Hawks had a 33-27 edge in shots. Dan Dougherty got the win in goal for the Friars The two teams will have a rematch Tuesday afternoon at Ice Line.

By Rick Woelfel
Malvern Prep 0 0 2—2
St. Joseph’s Prep 0 0 1—1
Third-period goals: Brody Plouride (SJP) from Ryan Newby, 2:59; Nick Martino (MP) from Jack Constabile, 13:53 (sh); Martino (MP) unassisted, 13:53 (sh).
Shots: Malvern Prep 27, St. Joseph’s Prep 33; Saves: Dan Dougherty (MP) 32, Dan McGill (SJP 25

Malvern Prep—Helping Boys Become Men

The following is advertorial content

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

 

 

 

 

Gloucester Catholic 2, Holy Ghost Prep 1

BENSALEM—The pattern is becoming all too familiar for Holy Ghost Prep. Matthew Frett scored 35 seconds into overtime to give Gloucester Catholic a 2-1 win over the Firebirds Thursday afternoon at Grundy Arena.

It marked the third time in three games Holy Ghost Prep has gone down to defeat following regulation. The Firebirds (4-8) fell to LaSalle in overtime on December 21 and St. Joseph’s Prep in a shootout on December 14.

The winning goal came on a two-one one situation. Frett carried the puck down the right wing, took his time, and beat Firebird netminder Sean Joyce.
“It’s just really frustrating,” said Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside. “We’ve just got to start winning some hockey games. We’ve got to care a little bit more, we’ve got to work harder, and just get better.”

For most of the afternoon the teams skated on even terms. The game got off to a fast pace. Six minutes of the opening period passed without a whistle. Joyce came up big when he denied Gloucester Catholic’s Carter Jones with six-and-a-half minutes left in the period.

Frett got his team on the scoreboard with just 61 seconds left in the opening session. Tyler Carter took the initial shot from the left wing. Joyce made the save but Frett put in the rebound.

Holy Ghost Prep was forced to come up by big on the penalty kill in the second period when defenseman Jack Kelly drew a five-minute major penalty plus a game misconduct, at the 6:48 mark for head contact. The Firebirds stood tall at the start of the subsequent power play before things even up when the Rams’ Connor Millikan drew a boarding call at 8:06.

The third period saw the Firebirds fail to take advantage of one power-play chance but they got a second when Frett was sent off for hooking with 4:31 left in the game. This time the hosts were able to capitalize. Stefen Melekos took the initial shot from the right wing, Ram goaltender Christopher Liscio made a quality save but Byron Hartley put in the rebound with a forehander.

The sudden-death overtime period was over seemingly in the blink of an eye.
“There were parts of the game where I thought our effort was really good,” Whiteside said. “Puck possession time, I thought we did some really good things. But again, we lost 2-1 and that’s the bottom line.”

Notes—Gloucester Catholic was a semi finalist a year ago in the New Jersey High School Athletic Association’s private school tournament. It is one of four schools that is playing a round robin with Atlantic Prep athletic Conference teams. The others are The Hun School, Princeton Day, and St. Augustine.

Gloucester Catholic 1 0 0 1—2
Holy Ghost Prep 0 0 1 0—1
First-period goal: Matthew Frett (GC) from Tyler Carter, 14:59
Third-period goal: Byron Hartley (HGP) from Stefen Melekos and Thomas McNulty, 12:16 (pp)
Overtime goal: Frett (GC) from Jake Grace, :35
Shots: Gloucester Catholic 27, Holy Ghost Prep 25; Saves: Christopher Liscio (GC) 24, Tristan Devine (HGP) 25

Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference Standings as of 9:30 a.m. 1-3-19

Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference     W      L   OTW      OTL      Pts

LaSalle (12-3)                                            5       0       1        0          17

Malvern Prep (6-3)                                2       2       0        0           6

St. Joseph’s Prep (5-6)                            1       2       1       0            5

Holy Ghost Prep (4-7)                            0     4        0       2           2

 

Teams receive three points for a regulation win, two points for a win in an overtime or shootout, one point for a loss in overtime or shootout

Thursday, January 3, 2019

Gloucester Catholic at Holy Ghost Prep

St. Joseph’s Prep at St. Augustine

 

 

Hawks Go 1-2 on DC Trip

St. Joseph’s Prep has split its first two games at the National Capital Hockey Tournament; the Purple Pucks Tournament in Washington, D.C.

The Hawks best Archbishop Spalding from suburban Baltimore, 5-0 on Friday and lost a Saturday morning game to St. Ignatius from Chicago, 2-0.

They lost to Bishop O’ Connell of Arlington, Va. 6-2 in their second game Saturday to finish the tournament with a 1-2 record.