C.B. East 10 C.R. North 6

Central Bucks East and Council Rock North had quite a shootout Wednesday night. The two teams combined for seven goals in the first period and 16 in the game before the Patriots left Grundy Arena with a 10-6 in the SHSHL National Division matchup.

Alex Wilson scored two goals for the Patriots, (3-4 overall, 3-3 in the division) who have won three of their last four divisional starts and moved into the top half of the National Division standings with the win. Eight other players scored one goal each while Cole Kleindienst contributed three assists.

Jackson Accardi scored three goals for the Indians who dropped to 2-5 overall and in divisional play. Accardi leads the entire SHSHL in scoring; through Wednesday night he had scored 16 goals and added nine assists for 25 points. Ivan Bondra added two goals and two assists. Bondra is tied for fourth in the league in scoring through Wednesday with 12 goals and six assists for 18 points.

The shootout started 2:38 into the first period when North’s Danial Maglathlin scored the game’s first goal. Wilson tied the game at the 4:19 mark before Accardi have North the lead for the second time at the 7:26 mark.

Before the first period ended, both Accardi and Wilson had recorded additional goals and North had a 4-3 lead.

The Patriots broke the game open in the second period by scoring five unanswered goals in a span of 12 minutes, 54 seconds. Samuel Gottesman, Jack Kochan, Morris Ostrobrood, Jaden Young, and Joseph Walter all scored in that span.

“This game was a great display of our team’s depth and resilience,” said Easy coach Jeff Mitchell. “We knew Council Rock North would come out strong, and they did. We saw a lot of back-and-forth action. Each period was a battle, . The second period was where we really took control. Our offense was firing on all cylinders.”

The teams traded two goals apiece in a third period that was highlighted by Accardi’s completing his bid for a hat trick when he scored 71 seconds in, giving him 100 points for gis high-school career.

“it’s really great to see Jackson get his 100th high school point,” said North coach Shawn Dorsey. “It’s a great milestone that not alot of people get to accomplish. Jackson is an excellent talent, and he’s also an excellent leader and teammate.

The Patriots outshot the Indians 29-20. Cameron Young got the win in goal in his varsity debut.

C.B. East 3 5 2—10

C.R. North 4 0 2—6

First-period goals: Danial Maglathlin (CRN) unassisted, 2:38; Alex Wilson (CBE) unassisted, 4:19; Jackson Accardi (CRN) unassisted, 7:26; Benjamin Dempsey (CBE) from Evan Asimakopoulos, 8:28; Accardi (CRN) from Maglathlin and Ryan Bondra,13:25; Bondra (CRN) from Accardi and Sean Davies, 13:51; Wilson (CBE) from Charlie Keiser, 16:44

Second-period goals Samuel Gottesman (CBE) from Cole Kleindienst, 4:01; Jack Kochan (CBE) from Kleindienst, 7:25; Morris Ostrobrood (CBE) from Kleindienst and Kochan, 14:12; Jaden Young (CBE) unassisted, 16:43; Joseph Walter (CBE) from Keiser, 16:55

Third-period goals: Accardi (CRN) from Bondra, 1:11; David Brown (CBE) unassisted, 2:29 (sh); Bondra (CRN) unassisted, 4:35; Colton Dreyfus (CBE) unassisted, 14:25 (pp)

Shots: C.B. East 29, C.R. North 20; Saves: Cameron Young (CBE) 14, Michael Jacoby (CRN) 19

SHSHL Recap 12-3-24

National Division W L T PTS OTW OTL

C.R. South (6-1) 5 0 0 19 1 0

Cent. Bucks South (5-2) 5 1 0 17 3 0

Pennridge (4-1) 3 1 0 13 0 1

North Penn (4-2) 3 2 0 13 0 1

Souderton (2-3) 2 2 0 8 0 0

Neshaminy (3-2) 2 2 0 8 0 0

C.B. East (2-4) 2 3 0 8 0 0

C.R. North (2-4) 2 4 0 8 0 0

Pennsbury (1-5) 1 4 0 6 0 2

C.B. West (0-6) 0 6 0 0 0 0

American Division W L T PTS OTW OTL

Hatboro-Horsham (3-2) 3 1 0 11 1 0

Plymouth Whitemarsh (3-0) 2 0 0 8 0 0

Wissahickon (2-2) 2 1 0 8 0 0

Springfield (1-3) 1 3 0 5 0 1

Abington (0-3) 0 3 0 0 0 0

National Division Scoring G A Pts

Shane Dachwski Pr 13 10 23

Jackson Accardi CRN 13 8 21

James Rush Pr 8 9 17

Samuel Norton NP 6 10 16

Jake Weiner CRS 11 4 15

Jeremy Rayher 7 8 15

Cole Pluck NP 5 10 15

Ivan Bondra CRN 10 4 14

Zane Sanders CBW 4 10 14

Nolan Shingle(NP) 9 4 13

Anthony Dowd CBW 7 6 13

James Boyle NP 6 7 13

American Division Scoring G A Pts

Victor Wilkins HH 8 2 10

Dan Guller PW 1 8 9

Cooper Kanze PW 7 1 8

Ben Raebiger Wiss 6 2 8

Nathan Nemchinov HH 4 4 8

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C.B. South 6 North Penn 5 OT

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—Year in and year out, Central Bucks South’s hockey teams have been characterized by their tenacity. That quality was on display Wednesday night at Hatfield Ice Arena as the Titans rallied from a two-goal second-period deficit to score a 6-5 overtime win over North Penn in a SHSHL National Division encounter.

Joey Slobodrian scored the winning goal with 2:28 left in overtime to give the Titans (5-2, 5-1 in the division) a win that kept them in possession of the County Line Cup.

Slobodrian had himself quite a night; the junior scored two goals and assisted on two others. He described the winning goal which saw him get the better of North Penn (4-2, 3-2) netminder Andrew Norton on a feed from Sean Cutter.

“We do this play where pass it through the [defender’s] legs,” he said. He passed it to me back door. Basically, I was just looking at the puck. I chipped it and it went through the five hole.”

The Titans came from behind twice in the course of the evening. They trailed 3-1 four-and-a-half minutes into the second period before goals from Slobodrian and Jake Stepp tied the game with 63 seconds left in the middle period.

Dominic Gibson put South in front with 10:49 left in regulation but Cole Pick scored his second goal of the game for the Knights to tie the game with 9:33 remaining. Sam Norton put North Penn in front with 7:49 left but Ryan Frey answered for the Titans just 14 seconds later with the last goal of regulation.

“I just got the boys going on the bench,” Slobodrian said, “and got their confidence up with some big hits. We got the momentum back and we won the game.”

South coach Shaun McGinty credited his team for its recovery after falling behind early.
“They really came out and gave it to us,” said. “We had to find a way to settle in. We lost that first period [North Penn led 2-1 at that point] and then we’ve got to fight back. The second period, won so I said to the boys ‘Third period you’ve got to win it.’ Our shot totals started to climb up our physicality started to climb up as well and that’s our hockey.”

North Penn coach Kevon Vaitis credited the Titans for their comeback. “I’m not sure if they took us out of our game or if they just kind of hit another gear there,” he said. “But I think they did a nice job getting back into play.

“A two-goal lead I the worst in hockey because one goal swings that momentum. If we score a goal and go up 4-1 it’s much different the rest of the game.”

South had a 44-26 advantage in shots.

The two teams will have rematch on December 11 at Hatfield.

C.B. South 1 2 2 1—6

North Penn 2 1 2 0—5

First-period goals: Luke Haftel (NP) from James Boyle, 5:39; Cole Pluck (NP) from Nolan Shingle, 8:58; Sean Cutter (CBS) from Joey Slobodrian and Jake Stepp, 13:05

Second-period goals: Single (NP) from Sam Norton, 4:20; Slobodrian (CBS) from Keith Waldron, 14:40; Stepp (CBS) from Jeff Kvecher, 15:57

Third-period goals: Dominic Gibson (CBS) from Logan Hood and Alex Cannon, 6:15; Pluck (NP) from Norton and Boyle, 7:27; Norton (NP) unassisted, 9:11; Ryan Frey (CBS) from Slobodrian, 9:25

Overtime goal: Slobodrian (CBS) from Cutter 2:32

Shots: C.B. South 44, North Penn 26; Saves: Nate Neapolitan (CBS) 21, Andrew Norton (NP) 38

SHSHL Update 11-26-24

National Division W L T PTS OTW OTL

C.R. South (5-1) 4 0 0 15 2 0

Cent. Bucks South (4-2) 4 1 0 14 2 0

North Penn (4-1) 3 1 0 12 0 0

Pennridge (3-1) 2 1 0 9 0 1

Souderton (2-2) 2 1 0 8 0 0

C.R. North (2-3) 2 3 0 8 0 0

Pennsbury (1-4) 1 3 0 6 0 2

Neshaminy (2-2) 1 2 0 4 0 0

C.B. East (1-4) 1 3 0 4 0 0

C.B. West (0-5) 0 3 0 0 0 0

American Division W L T PTS OTW OTL

Plymouth Whitemarsh (3-0) 2 0 0 8 0 0

Wissahickon (2-2) 2 1 0 8 0 0

Hatboro-Horsham (2-2) 2 1 0 7 1 0

Springfield (1-2) 1 2 0 5 0 1

Abington (0-3 ) 0 3 0 0 0 0

National Division Scoring G A Pts

Shane Dachwski Pr 11 9 20

Jackson Accardi CRN 12 8 20

Ivan Bondra CRN 10 4 14

James Rush Pr 7 7 14

Cole Pluck NP 3 10 13

Anthony Dowd CBW 7 5 12

Samuel Norton NP 5 7 12

Jake Weiner CRS 9 2 11

Nolan Shingle(NP) 8 3 11

James Boyle NP 6 5 11

American Division Scoring G A Pts

Dan Guller PW 1 8 9

Cooper Kanze PW 7 1 8

Ben Raebiger Wiss 6 2 8

Victor Wilkins HH 6 2 8

Blake Ambler PW 4 3 7

Vincent Graziani HH 4 3 7

Nathan Nemchinov HH 4 3 7

Holy Ghost Prep 5 Council Rock South 1

Holy Ghost Prep overcame an early 1-0 deficit and rolled to a 5-1 non-league win over Council Rock South Monday night at Revolution Ice Gardens.

Brady Logue scored twice for the Firebirds (3-1 overall). Logan Barnes, Chris Marshall, and Anthony Valeriote also scored goals.

Daniel Filippov scored for the Golden Hawks, who lost for the first time in six starts.

Holy Ghost Prep 0 4 1—5

C.R. South 1 0 0—1

Crossover Countdown

Eleven of the 12 scheduled crossover games between SHSHL and ICSHL teams have been completed. Scores are listed below; the ICSHL leads the series six victiories to five.

Friday 11-8 Strath Haven 3 Wissahickon 1

Friday 11-8 Downingtown East 6 C.B. South 1

Wednesday 11-13 Pennridge 6 Boyertown 3

Thursday 11-14 Marple-Newtown 7 Hatboro-Horsham 4

Thursday 11-14 Neshaminy 2 Conestoga 0

Friday 11-15 North Penn 6 Downingtown West 2

Friday 11-15 Spring-Ford 8 Pennsbury 7

Friday 11-15 Avon Grove 7 C.B. East 0

Wednesday 11-20 Lower Merion 5 Souderton 4

Thursday 11-21 Plymouth Whitemarsh 4 Radnor 2

Thursday 11-21 C.R. South 2 Haverford 1 OT

Thursday 12-5 Abington at Harriton 8:00 at Skatium

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C. R. South 2 Haverford 1 OT

BRISTOL—Haverford and Council Rock South both embrace strong hockey traditions. The Fords are one of the oldest scholastic hockey programs in the area and have won five Flyers Cup titles. The Golden Hawks have been in existence for a little over two decades and have claimed three Flyers Cup titles.

It seemed only fitting that the two schools meet in the ongoing SHSHL-ICHSL series. And so they did Thursday night at Grundy Arena with the host Golden Hawks prevailing 2-1.

Pete Pereborow scored the winning goal amidst a scramble in front of the net with 1:42 remaining in overtime to keep South unbeaten at 5-0.

Haverford’s Joseph Cianciarulo (left) and Council Rock South’s Brendan Rooney take a faceoff Thursday night. Sean Weisner photo

“[The puck] deflected off somebody,” he said. “I don’t know if it deflected off our own player or the underneath netting seam. I just know that I saw that puck going forward. I had to bat it home to secure it, that’s all I had to do.”

The first two periods were scoreless and the two goaltenders, South’s Evan Ayala and Haverford’s Dylan Vieira passed every test.

The Hawks spent a fair amount of time shorthanded. They killed off four penalties in the first period. In the end they were accessed seven of the game’s 12 penalties.

Jordan Sarne scored the evening’s first goal 7:13 into the final period, beating Vieira with a forehander from the right faceoff circle.

Five minutes later South drew its sixth penalty of the game; Jackson Mosley was sent to the box for roughing. It took just 12 seconds for Connor Lill to score the tying goal for Haverford (3-1).

South wound up having to kill one more penalty before regulation play ended. The number of penalties was a source of concern for Jake Houk who filled in for his father Joe behind the Hawks’ bench.

“My dad told me before the game ‘When the cat’s gone, the mice come out to play,’” the younger Houk said. “I think some of the kids on our team that lose their heads a little bit kind of showed it tonight. But, I was proud of them for staying composed after a few of them.”

Haverford coach John Povey took an abundance of positives out of the evening.

“I’m extremely happy with my guys and how they played tonight,” he said. “We battled all the way to near the end there to get into overtime. It’s 50-50 at that point.

“We found a way to tie the game up. I told my guys to walk out of this building with their heads up high because they played a really good game tonight.”

Lill said the early-season test against a quality opponent taught him a lot about his own team.
“I learned we don’t give up,” he said.“

Ice Chips—Haverford claimed Flyers Cup titles in 1992 in Class A, and three consecutive Class AA Crowns from 2005-07, and a fourth Class AA Title in 2021. South’s Cup titles, all in Class AA, came in 2009, ’11, and ’12. They also won a state championship in 2012… The Golden Hawks unveiled a set of gold alternate jerseys Thursday night.

Haverford 0 0 1 0—1

C.R. South 0 0 1 1—2

Third-period goals: Jordan Sarne (CRS) from Jonah Weston and Jeremy Rahner, 7:13; Connor Lill (H) from Brendan McCormick and Shawn Yoder, 12:26 (pp)

Overtime goal: Pete Pereborow (CRS) unassisted, 3:18

Shots: Haverford 26, C.R. South 31; Saves: Dylan Vieira (H) 29 Evan Ayala (CRS) 25

North Penn Knights Making Noise

Thanksgiving is still over a week away but North Penn is already attracting a lot of attention.

The Knights are unbeaten in four starts after a 6-2 win over Downingtown West last Friday night in a game that was part of the SHSHL-ICSHL crossover series. They’re 3-0 in SHSHL National Division play with a trip to Council Rock South awaiting on Wednesday night (7:20 at Grundy Arena).

The Knights are scoring a lot of goals; they’re averaging 8.5 goals per game while allowing just 1.5 goals per contest. The lineup features some of the division’s early season scoring leaders.

Sophomore Samuel Norton has scored five goals and added seven assists for 12 points. Senior Cole Pluck has accumulated 12 points by scoring three goals and adding nine assists. Junior Nolan Shingle has scored seven goals and added three assists for 10 points while junior James Boyle has accumulated 10 points of his own by scoring six goals and adding four assists.

“We’ve played well,” said North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis. “With the team we have now we know we’re going to be able to put up a number of goals but we keep preaching strong defense and we’ve got great goaltending.”

Boyle, who epitomizes the offensive-oriented defenseman, says he and his teammates are taking good practice habits into games.

“I think it’s our preparation,” he said. “Good practices twice a week. Making sure we’re prepared before games helps us to get off to get off to good starts in games.”

Two years ago, North Penn won just five games and missed out on the postseason. Boyle was part of that 2023 team and says the memories of that disappointing campaign are a motivating force this season.

“Going through that, a season where we weren’t winning too much, made everyone want to be able to play and battle back,” he said. “We wanted the chance to and try to win it all this year.”

Last year, the Knights won 13 games and returned to both the SHSHL playoffs and the Class AA Flyers Cup tournament. Vaitis has bigger goals in mind this year and wants his players to understand what it takes to attain those goals.

“Thinking toward end of February and March, what does it take to be playing at [a high level]?” he said. “It’s strong defense, good goaltending, and getting scoring from all three lines. And that’s where we’re going; we’re getting scoring from multiple guys, it’s not just our top three.

“Last year was a great step for us, getting back into the Suburban League playoffs getting back into the Flyers Cup tournament but we want to do more than that this year, right? We obviously want to continue to play our best hockey at the end of the year; the goal has always been the Suburban League championship and the Flyers Cup that’s what the goal has been for the 15 years I’ve been here. we’re going to keep working and try to get better.”

North Penn 6 Downingtown West 2

EAST GOSHEN TOWNSHIP—It was the sort of game one would expect to see during the second week of March as opposed to the third week of November. North Penn and Downingtown West demonstrated why they expect to be taken seriously in the weeks and months to come.

For the record, the Knights prevailed 6-2 in the SHSHL-ICSHL crossover matchup Friday night at Ice Line but the affair was much more closely contested than the score would indicate; it was a one-goal game until the closing minutes of the third period.

It was an evening the Knights celebrated their fourth consecutive victory of the young season, but North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis was quick to point out it was most of all an occasion to celebrate high-school hockey.

“I’m so glad we started doing the crossover games this year,” he said. “Downingtown East and C.B. South played last week, Boyertown-Pennridge and us and Downingtown West tonight.

“Heretofore, you don’t see these teams until March. It gives you an opportunity to play them and build high-school hockey in this area.”

Downingtown West coach Brett Mackel, who saw his team drop to 2-2 on the season, echoed those sentiments.

“I like that they added the crossover games this year,” he said. “Especially teams that we usually wouldn’t see until the Flyers Cup. It’s great having different teams come in, especially teams we’re not used to seeing.”

Sam Norton scored two goals for North Penn. Nolan Shingle was also credited with two goals while James Boyle produced a goal and an assist.

Goals from Bryce Schuler and Ryder Jones gave the Whippets a 2-1 lead 7:54 into the second period. Norton tied the game for North Penn with 2:18 left in the period and Boyle’s power-play goal 77 seconds later gave his team the lead for good at 3-2.

“I thought we came out a little flat,” Boyle said, “but then we picked it right back up. Then we got back on them.”

Shingle extended North Penn’s lead on a shot from the deep right wing with 6:29 left in regulation. His second goal was a power-play effort with 4:46 left after the Whippets were accessed a bench minor.

Norton added his second goal of the evening with two minutes to play when he lofted the puck from his own blue line into an empty net.

Aidan Quigley earned the win in goal with 26 saves, many of them achieved with heavy traffic in his field of view.

Mackel felt his team performed well in some areas but was lacking in others.

“We had a lot of penalty kills that we ended up killing off,” he said. We gave up two power-play goals, but other than that our kill was good.

Our goaltender [Justin Adams] gave up two power-play goals but he played pretty well.

“Negatives. We didn’t shoot the puck as much as we needed to tonight. Our defensive zone was pretty sloppy.”

North Penn 1 2 3—6

D-Town West 0 2 0—2

First-period goal: Gabriel Dunn (NP) from Aidan Quigley, 2:48

Second-period goals: Bryce Schuler (DW) from Ryder Jones, :44; Jones (DW) from Reed Surak, 7:54; Sam Norton (NP) from Chase Kelly Del Ricci, 14:42; James Boyle (NP) from Norton and Luke Haftel. 15:59

Third-period goals: Nolan Shingle (MP) from Cole Pluck, 10:31; Shingle (NP) from Boyle and Pluck, 12:16 (pp); Norton (NP) unassisted, 15:00 (en)

Shots: North Penn 35, Downingtown West 28; Saves: Aidan Quigley (NP) 26, Justin Adams (DW) 29

Neshaminy 2 Conestoga 0

BRISTOL—Shutouts are rare events in high-school hockey. But Neshaminy’s Colin Thurnau took center stage Thursday night, stopping all 36 shots he saw as the ‘Skins bested Conestoga 2-0 at Grundy Arena in the latest installment of the SHSHL-ICSHL interleague series.

It was the first win for Neshaminy in three starts this season. Conestoga, which was without several regulars, dropped to 1-3.

Anthony DiCrosta and Ryan DeMatteo scored the two goals but it was Colin Thurnau who shouldered the biggest share of the load.

“You’ve just got to stay focused the whole time,” the senior said. “I was tracking the puck very well.

“But, I also want to give a quick shout out to the D-line for shutting it down tonight, and to [assistant coach Aric Miller] for stepping in all alone, he coached a great game tonight.”

Miller was behind the Neshaminy bench Wednesday night, filling in for the absent Bill Mooney. He noted that the win was a total team effort.

“Everybody in the lineup did what they needed to do to get this win tonight,” he said.

Miller celebrated Thurnau’s performance.

“Colin had a solid fame tonight,” he said. He’s our backbone back there. We knew we could count on him, putting him in there, and he really stood up to the task tonight. It wasn’t easy, he faced 36 shots. But, he got the job done, and our boys stepped up for him in the end.”

DiCrosta gave the ‘Skins the lead 3:44 into the second period off a setup from Eli Kirsh. For most of the night that was all the hosts could do against Max Haimson, who turned in a solid performance himself in the Conestoga net.

DeMatteo extended the Neshaminy lead 5:59 into the third period when he concluded a sprint up the right wing by scoring the evening’s second and last goal.

Conestoga coach Mike Graves left the building looking for goals.

“It was good back and forth game,’ he said. “I think we’ve got to find a way to bury some rebounds and get to the hard areas.

“We had a lot of perimeter stuff tonight, but nothing real dangerous.”

Graves credited both goaltenders. “We have a luxury with {Haimson] in the back for us,” he said, “and they had a solid goaltender tonight too. He did a great on smothering all the rebounds and making the first save look real easy.”

Conestoga 0 0 0—0

Neshaminy 0 1 1—2

Second-period goal: Anthony DiCrosta (N) from Eli Kirsh, 3:44

Third-period goal: Ryan DeMatteo (N) from Liam Mooney, 5:59

Shots: Conestoga 36, Neshaminy 24; Saves: Max Haimson (C) 22, Colin Thurnau (N) 36