Council Rock South 7 Pennridge 2

Late in the second period, Thursday night’s SHSHL National Division championship game was still up for grabs. Council Rock South and Pennridge were deadlocked at 2-2. The Golden Hawks had had the better of the play to that point, but the Rams made it clear they weren’t going anywhere.

Then Jake Weiner took matters into his own hands. The sophomore scored off a feed from Illia Mukhin on a play that originated from behind the Pennridge net to give South the lead, one it would never give up. Four additional goals followed in the third period as the Hawks rolled to a 7-2 win in front of a full house at Hatfield Ice.

Weiner scored four goals and assisted on another to lead second-seeded South (21-1) to its second consecutive division crown. It marks the first time in six years a National Division team has made a successful title defense. The top-seeded and defending-champion Rams fell to 18-2-2 with both defeats coming to South who have won two of three meetings this season.

Weiner was quick to point out that his five-point night wasn’t a solo effort.

“The boys came out flying too,” he said. “It wasn’t just me, it was all them. Hitting, forechecking. They played great.”

Both coaches viewed Weiner’s tie-breaking goal as the turning point in the game.

“The big goal I thought was that third goal,” said South coach Joe Houk. “Going into the intermission it was really, really big and we knew we had to come out in [the third period] and either get the first goal or first couple and see what happened.”

Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna blamed himself for his team’s defeat.

“I flat out cost us the game,” he said. “It’s a 2-2 game, I put the wrong combination out there. The, scored, it took the life completely out of us.

“I flat out cost is the game. I feel terrible for the kids. It was my fault.”

Council Rock South played a great game, they played a phenomenal game. But, I can’t do that to our team.”

Senior Blaize Pepe scored one of South’s third-period goals. Even as the Hawks extended their lead in the third period, Pepe was wanting more.

“We were all over them all game,” he said. “We knew we were the better team and we knew we were going to wear them down and that’s what happened. We pumped in three quick and knew we just had to play good defense after we got that fifth and sixth goals.”

Houk said Thursday’s win was the high point of his team’s season in terms of performance.

“I thought it was probably the best game they played all year,” he said. “They stayed out of the box. The referees really did a good of letting us play at both ends.”

• The Rams and the Golden Hawks will be the first and second seeds respectively in the Class AA Flyers Cup which begins on Tuesday. Pennridge will face Bensalem at Hatfield Ice (8:30) while South will go against Spring Ford at Grundy Arena (6:00) … This year’ championship is the third for South in school history. The first came in 2010.

Council Rock South 1 2 4—7

Pennridge 1 1 0—2

First-period goals: Jeremy Rayher (CRS) from James Diiulio and Ilya Kudzinau, 2:03; Kevin Pico (P) unassisted, 5:31

Second-period goals: Jake Weiner (CRS) from Gavin Nisenzon and Evan Mostoller, 3:09 (pp); Pico (P) from Andrew Savona, 5:15 (pp); Weiner (CRS) from Illia Mukhin, 14:47

Third-period goals: Jake Maurer (CRS) from Weiner and Nikita Volobuiev :52; Blaize Pepe (CRS) from Chase Tovsky, 2:20; Weiner (CRS) from Kevin Koles and Mukhin, 11:21; Weiner (CRS) from Peter Pereorow, 14:25

Shots: C.R. South 47, Pennridge 22 Saves: Trevor Rakszawski (CRS) 20, Jacob Winton (P) 40

Council Rock South 3 Malvern Prep 2 (OT)

Blaise Pepe’s goal with 1:27 left in overtime gave Council Rock South a 3-2 non-league win over host Malvern Prep Monday night at Ice Line.

Illia Mukhin and Chase Trovsky also scored for the Golden Hawks who have started the season with three consecutive wins, two of them over APAC opponents.

Tovsky’s shorthanded goal with 4:26 left in the second period tied the game after Brady Doyle scored a pair of goals two minutes apart to give the Friars (2-1) a 2-1 lead.

Trevor Rakszawski got the win in goal; he was credited with 54 saves. Matt Crawford was credited with 40 at the other end of the ice.

Council Rock South 1 1 0 1—3

Malvern Prep 0 2 0 0—2

First-period goal: Illia Mukhin (CRS) from Kevin Koles and Jake Weiner, 13:48

Second-period goals: Brady Doyle (MP) from Caiden Canale, 10:11; Brady Doyle (MP) from Jeremy Jacobs and Adan Kelly, 12:11 (pp); Chase Trovsky (CRS) unassisted, 12:34 (sh)

Overtime goal: Blaise Pepe (CRS) unassisted, 3:33

Shots: Council Rock South 56, Malvern Prep 43; Saves: Trevor Rakszawski (CRS) 54, Matt Crawford (MP) 40

Council Rock South 6 Pennsbury 3

BRISTOL—After one period against Pennsbury Tuesday night, Council Rock South was reeling, staring at a 2-0 deficit and playing at less than full strength; four regulars were out of the lineup.
In the end, none of that mattered. The Golden Hawks exploded for four goals in the second period and went on to a 6-3 win over the Falcons in a SHSHL National Division game at Grundy Arena.

With the win, South (9-1-0-1 overall, 4-0-0-1 in divisional play) is once more atop the divisional standings. And at a point in the season where every game matters just a little bit more and teams are starting to think more seriously about where they might fit in the SHSHL playoff and Flyers Cup brackets, the Golden Hawks displayed their resiliency.

“We clearly had to learn from what we did wrong in that first period,” said junior Kevin Koles. “We stuck to our game plan, stuck to what our coach (Joe Houk) said and we came out with a win.”

Koles had much to do with his team’s comeback, scoring three goals, two in the decisive second period and one in the third.

Blaize Pepe assisted on all three of Koles’ goals and scored a goal himself.

“We just didn’t get rattled,” Pepe said. “We kept our heads and we outplayed them the whole second and third periods. And we controlled the whole pace of the game.”

Pennsbury (8-4, 4-2 in the National Division) jumped in front when Aidan Macainsh scored twice in a three-minute span off South netminder Carson Lopez to put the Falcons up 2-0 with 4:45 left in the first period.

But the Hawks took over the game in the second stanza. Koles scored twice in a stretch of three-and-a-half minutes to tie the game with 8:25 left in the period

Pepe put the Hawks in front for good with a power-play goal with 1:34 left in the period, but Jagger Smith struck another blow for South when he beat Aaron McDaniel in the Pennsbury net with 18.4 seconds left in the period to give his team a 4-2 lead.

Macainsh completed a hat trick 6:52 into the final period to make it a one-goal game but Gavin Nisenzon scored an insurance goal for South with 3:41 left in the game.

Koles completed his hat trick by scoring into an empty net with 1:50 remaining.

Pennsbury coach Ryan Daley took away a number of positives, despite the result.

“The first period was awesome,” he said. “Lopez is a stellar goalie, we knew that going in. It’s always hard to score on him.

“The second period, we obviously weren’t too thrilled about it. But I wouldn’t even say we couldn’t keep up with them it was just kind of the way it went. It was a tough second period, but overall, I’m happy with the way we played.”

Pepe credited his teammates for bouncing back after the slow start.

“Coach gave us a nice little speech,” he said. “It set us straight and we didn’t look back from there. Once we got one, we just kept putting them in. And Carson played outstanding.”

Council Rock South 0 4 2—6

Pennsbury 2 0 1—3

First-period goals: Brendan Macainsh (P) from Justin Marlin, 9:25; Macainsh (P) from Andrew Falkenstein and Chris Sarver, 12:15

Second-period goals: Kevin Koles (CRS) from Blaize Pepe, 4:58; Koles (CRS) from Pepe, 8:35; Pepe (CRS) from Illia Mukhin, 15:26 (pp); Jagger Smith (CRS) from Jake Maurer and Jordan Sarne, 16:42

Third-period goals: Macainsh (P) from Falkenstein, 6:52; Gavin Nisenzon (CRN) unassisted, 13:19; Koles (CRS) from Pepe, 15:10 (en)

Shots: C.R. South 31, Pennsbury 27; Saves: Carson Lopez (CRS) 24, Aaron McDaniel (P) 25