Tag: Pennsylvania Cup

Pine-Richland 5 La Salle 4 OT

HAVERFORD TOWNSHIP—La Salle found itself at the bottom of a very deep hole Saturday evening. It was more of a crater.

With just over two-and-a half minutes gone in the second period of the Pennsylvania Cup Class AAA final, the Explorers found themselves trailing Pine-Richland 3-0. They eventually climbed out of the chasm and took a third-period lead, only to see that lead and eventually the game, slip away.

Alexander Versyla scored a goal 7:07 into overtime to give the Rams a 5-4 win at the Skatium. It marked the fourth state title for the Rams (19-5) but their first at the Class AAA level; the first three, in 2006, ’07, and ’19 came in Class AA.

La Salle (23-4) which was seeking its eighth state title was attempting to become the first Class AAA team to successfully defend a state title since the Explorers did it themselves in 2009.

But on Saturday, the Explorers started slowly. Josh Lanyard and Colton Andrighetti scored first-period goals and Lanyard added a second goal 2:34 into the second frame.

La Salle emerged from the abyss one step at a time. Julian Tarsi got his team on the scoreboard 45 seconds after Lanyard’s second goal, and Alistair St. Hilaire added a power-play goal not quite three minutes after that.

When Patrick Brace tied the game with another power-play goal with 4:37 left in the period it was clear momentum was flowing in La Salle’s direction.

LaSalle defenseman Thomas Doucet, who was playing in his final high-school game on Saturday, assisted on both Tarsi’s and Brace’s goals.

“Right when we got that third goal, we were pretty confident going into the rest of the game,” he said

Indeed, the Explorers took their only lead of the game on James Carpenter’s shorthanded goal 1:53  into the third period and as time wound down the Rams were dealing with the clock as much as their opponent.

But, in Doucet’s words, La Salle “Just didn’t get our bounces in the end.”

Lanyard tied the game with 1:37 left in regulation, setting the stage for an overtime session that saw both teams generate quality chances.

La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner was quick to credit the Rams.

“I thought Pine-Richland played a hell of a game,” he said, “The opportunities that they had, they capitalized on.”

Muehlbronner credited his team for overcoming the early 3-0 deficit.

“I think we showed a tremendous amount of character,” he said. “We came back and ended up taking a 4-3 lead. They scored an opportunistic goal to tie it up and took advantage of their opportunities.

“Going to overtime, anything can happen.”

Pine-Richland 2 1 1 1—5

La Salle 0 3 1 0—4

First-period goals: Josh Lanyard (PR) from Ben Baileys and Cullen Campbell 5:57; Colton Andrighetti (PR) from Zachary Howard, 12:06

Second-period goals: Lanyard (PR) from Campbell and Adam Proctor, 2:34; Julian Tarsi (L) from Thomas Doucet and Alastair St. Hilaire, 3:19; St. Hilaire (L) unassisted, 6:12 (pp); Patrick Brace (L) from Doucet and Cam Ross, 12:23

Third-period goals: James Carpenter (L) from Logan Dicus, 1:53 (sh); Lanyard (PR) from Campbell, 15:23

Overtime goal: Alexander Versyla (PR) from Noah Taggart, 7:07

Shots: Pine Richland 34, La Salle 26; Saves: Brett Sudac (PR) 22, Jake Rossi (L) 29

Pennridge 7 Thomas Jefferson 5

HAVERFORD TMomentum TOWNSHIP—Momentum in a hockey game is often fleeting, and can shift at a moment’s notice. There are occasions however, when momentum shits can prove decisive. So it was for Pennridge on Saturday afternoon.

On two occasions, the flow of the game shifted in the Rams’ favor, allowing them to prevail 7-5 over Thomas Jefferson in the Pennsylvania Cup Class AA championship game at the Skatium.

It’s the second time in three seasons the Rams (23-2-2) have claimed a state title. They bested the Jaguars in overtime two years ago.

Kevin Pico finished his final high-school game with a goal and three assists.

“I’m happy now,” he said. “I’m sad it’s my last high-school game, but I’m happy we got it done, especially with this group and how much we had to fight through to get here, everything we had to play through, and all the adversity we had to go through to get here. It feels great right now.”

Saturday’s Rams-Jaguars rematch required that Pennridge play from behind at the start. Jake Strock beat Jacob Winston with the first shot of the game 27 seconds in. Scotty Allan made it a 2-0 game with a power-play goal at the 6:03 mark and Pennridge goaltender Jacob Winton seemed off his game.

At that point, Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna used his timeout. He said he was confident his team would rebound.
“We knew with the firepower we throw out there, we were going to be fine,” he said. “Jacob was off the first couple shots and we knew he would settle down.

The Ram were looking for a momentum shift. It got one when Colin Dachowki scored his team’s first goal 10:59 into the period.

“The goal Colin scored changed the whole game,” Montagna said.

Andrew Savona and Pico scored goals to give Pennridge a 3-2 lead 4:32 into the second period. But the Jaguars responded with goals from Lucas Blose and Nathan Weiss to take a 4-3 lead at the 7:26 mark.

Just over a minute later there was another momentum shift in Pennridge’s favor, with repercussions that reverberated the rest of the afternoon.

With 8:26 left in the period, Winton collected a centering pass from Thomas Jefferson’s Andrew Oliver and froze the puck. Strock, arriving late to the scene, took a poke at Winton with his stick and was accessed a five-minute major penalty for spearing plus a game misconduct, leaving the Jaguars to go the rest of the way minus their leading regular-season scorer.

It took Savona just 12 seconds to tie the game. James Rush put Pennridge in front for good with 5:29 left in the period and scored his second goal of the game 4:09 into the third frame, Pennridge’s third goal in a span of 12:23 of playing time.

Liam Mahoney made it a one-goal game once more with 10:24 still remaining, but Shane Dachowski scored his second goal of the game with 8:04 left.

Savona noted the impact the spearing call on Strock had on the game.

“It was difficult,” he said, “but it was just huge for us. It gave us a lot of momentum. We were able to get two goals.

Thomas Jefferson  2 2 1—5

Pennridge 1 4 2—7

First-period goals: Jake Strock (TJ) from Ryder McGuirk and Andrew Oliver, :27; Scotty Allan (TJ) unassisted, 6:03 (pp); Colin Dachowski (P) from Andrew Savona and Kevin Pico, 10:59

Second-period goals: Shane Dachowski (P) from Kevin Pico and James Rush, 1:45 (pp); Pico (P) from Nick Young, 4:32; Lucas Blose (TJ) from Nathan Weiss, 5:39; Weiss (TJ) from Allan, 7:26; Savona (P) from Colin Dachowski, 8:46 (pp); Rush (P) from Savona, 11:31(pp)

Third-period goals: James Rush (P) from Josh Kelly 4:09; Liam Mahoney (TJ) 6:36; Shane Dachowski (P) from Pico, 8:56

Shots: Thomas Jefferson 48, Pennridge 33 Saves: Ronald Porupsky (P) 26, Jacob Winton (P 43

Hershey 4 Chartiers Valley 2

First-period goals: Noah Callender (CV) from Dylan Shamonsky, 15:31; Callander (CV) unassisted, 16:30

Hershey scored four consecutive goals to overcome a 2-0 deficit to score a 4-2 over Chartiers Valley on Saturday in the Class A Pennsylvania Cup championship game at Ice Line.

Carson Hummer, Blake Umberger, Kyle Kloss, and Tyler Lucas all scored for the Trojans, who were  making their first appearance in state final.

Noah Callander scored two goals 59 seconds apart to give the Colts a 2-0 lead. Umberger’s goal 10:02 into the second frame made it a one-goal game Umberger tied the game with a power-play goal with 3:27 left in the period.

Kloss’s goal 1:47 into the third period proved to be the game winner; it came during a four-on-four situation, Lucas added a goal at the 7:04 mark.

Alexander Placeres earned the win in goal making 31 saves.

Chartiers Vallry 2 0 0—2

Hershey 0 2 2—4

First-period goals: Noah Callander (CV) from Dylan Shamonsky, 15:31; Callander (CV) unassisted, 16:30

Second-period goal: Carson Hummer (H) from Bryce Erwin and Carl Ritner, 10:02; Blake Umberger (H) from Ryan Dhawan and David Maish, 13:33 (pp)

Third-period goals: Kyle Kloss (H) unassisted, 1:47; Tyler Lucas (H) from Tyler Tredway and Carl Ritner, 7:04

Shots: Chartiers Valey 33, Hershey 29; Saves: Matthew Colbert (CV) 25; Alexander Placeres

La Salle 7 Peters Township 3

La Salle got contributions from all hands Saturday afternoon. The result was a state championship. Seven different players scored goals in the course of a 7-3 win over Peter Township in the Class AAA Pennsylvania Cup championship game at the Robert Morris University Sports Center outside of Pittsburgh.

The win gave the Explorers (16-9-2) their seventh state title, their first since 2019.

“It was a great team effort,” said La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner.

The Explorers broke the game open with four unanswered goals in the second period.

Charlie Kennedy gave La Salle a 1-0 lead with 41 seconds left in the first period when he put in a rebound of his own shot from the right point.

Will Tomko tied the game for the Indians early in the second period off an offensive left-circle faceoff.

But La Salle dominated the remainder of the period. Julian Tarsi, Evan Golato, Chase Hannon, and Ryan Desmond scored goals to give the Explorers a 5-1 lead at period’s end.

Peters Township (18-4-1) which came into the game as the defending state champion, drew closer with a pair of goals that made it a 5-3 game with 11:02 still left in regulation but Michael Zarzycki extended La Salle’s lead at the 7:39 mark.

Max Monzo finished the scoring with an empty net goal with 1:16 remaining.

““The boys truly bought in and gave one of their best performances of the season,” Muehlbronner said. “Our senior leadership this season was outstanding.”

Ice chips—La Salle’s previous state titles came in 1998, 2008-09, 2012, 2016, and 2019.

South Fayette 7 Pennsbury 4

 South Fayette scored three goals in just under two minutes late in the third period to score a 7-4 win over Pennsbury in the Pennsylvania Cup Class AA championship game at the Robert Morris Sports Center just outside of Pittsburgh.

Wes Schwarzmiller scored his second goal of the game with 2:57 remaining in regulation to break a 4-4 tie. The game-winning goal came when the senior darted down the left wing and launched a shot from below the circle that caught the top right corner of the net.

Nolan Murphy added an insurance goal for the Lions with 1:33 remaining.

Brayden Imler added an empty-net goal for the Lions (19-3-2) with 1:06 remaining. Allen Schraeder got the win in goal.

Brendan MacAinsh and Justin Marlin scored two goals each for Pennsbury. Each scored once to give the Falcons a 2-0 lead with 5:39 left in the first period before South Fayette scored four straight goals to take a 4-2 lead early in the second period.

Marlin scored for the Falcons with 9:38 left in the period before MacAinsh added his second goal to send the two teams into the third period tied 4-4.

“We found ourselves in a pretty familiar situation,” said Pennsbury coach Ryan Daley. “Down a couple goals midway through the second. We called a timeout and tried to reset the boys and before you know it, we’ve got a tie game going into the third.”

Daley said his team didn’t get as many shot attempts as he would have liked in the late going.”We might have been a little tired, a little fatigued,” he said. “We probably didn’t get as many shots, especially in the third, as I would have liked.”

Pennsbury, which closed the season at 18-7, was making its fourth appearance in a state final.  The Falcons won the Class AA state title in 1985 and lost Class A state championship games in 1993 and 2000.

Pennsbury 2 2 0—4

S. Fayette 3 1 0 3—7

First-period goals: Brendan MacAinsh (P) from Logan Doyle, 3:20; Justin Marlin (P) from MacAinsh 11:20 (sh); Ryan Cirra (SF) from Tyler Brandebura and Jackson Brabdebura, 11:49 (pp); Rtler Brandebura (SF) from Brayden Imler, 12:32 (pp); Brayden Reighard (SF) from Jackson Brandebura, (sh)

Second-period goals: Wes Schwarzmiller (SF unassisted, 2:39; Marlin (P) from MacCainsh, 7:20 (pp) MacAinsh (P) unassisted, 15:59

Third-period goals: Schwarzmiller (SF) from Brady Fleck 14:03, Nolan Mirphy (SF) from Imler, 15:26; Imler (SF) unassisted, 15:52 (en)

Shots: Pennsbury 33, South Fayette 35; Saves: Aaron McDaniel 28, Allen Schrader (SF) 29

State Championship Schedule

The Pennsylvania Cup championship games are scheduled for Saturday. All three games will be played at the

Robert Morris University Island Sports Center inNeville Township, PA

Here’s the schedule

Class A

West Chester East 8 Kiski 1

Third consecutive state title for West Chester East and fifth overall.

Class AA 2:00 PM

Pennsbury vs. South Fayette

Class 3A    5:00 PM
La Salle vs. Peters Township

Pennridge 4 Thomas Jefferson 3 2OT

WEST GOSHEN TOWNSHIP—Pennridge and Thomas Jefferson matched each other stride for stride and shift for shift Saturday afternoon. At day’s end, it was the Rams who prevailed.

Kevin Pico’s goal 12:01 into the second overtime gave his team a 4-3 win over the Jaguars in the Pennsylvania Class AA state championship game in front of a full house at Ice Line.

The victory was well earned.

“That was a fabulous hockey game,” said Pennridge coach Montagna. “It was just a great game.”

Andrew Savona, Jack Lowery, and Tyler Manto scored regulation goals for Pennridge, which completed its season at 22-0-1.

The Rams enjoyed a 2-1 lead going into the third period but soon found themselves back on their heels.  Colby Bilski scored his second goal of the game off a turnover 3:43 into the period to draw Thomas Jefferson (21-2) even before setting up Nick Stock during a power play to put the Jaguars up 3-2 at 7:31.

Lowery noted and his teammates stayed on an emotional even keel at that point, despite being behind.

“There was not an ounce of panic on our bench,” he said. “We were calm. “We knew that we’ve come back in multiple games before. Every championship game we’ve been in (In the SHSHL and Flyers Cup finals) we’ve been down and come back and won. And there wasn’t a doubt in our minds that we were going to come out in this game on top.”

Indeed, the Rams responded. Tyler Manto tied the game with 5:22 left in the regulation to leave the two teams searching for whatever they might have left for overtime.

“We did not have a lot left in overtime,” Montagna said. 

In the end Pico scored the most significant goal of his career, after Manto and Savona worked the pick down low. The goal came off a rebound of Savona’s original shot

“That’s probably the biggest goal I’m ever going to score my whole hockey career,” Pico said.

Had it not been for Ryan Pico’s work in the Pennridge net, the drama might have ended differently. The senior goaltender faced 65 shots and turned 62 of them aside against an opponent Montagna called the best his team faced all season (the Rams were outshot 62-49).

“He was unbelievable,” Kevin Pico said of his brother. I’ve never seen him play that good in my whole life.”

Montagna echoed those sentiments. “Ryan Pico was absolutely incredible,” he said. “He kept us in there”

The postgame awards pentation and celebration was an emotional time for Lowery, one of the Pennridge captains.

“I feel like I’m top of the world right now,” he said. “No one can take me from that. We said all year, ‘Until this game is over, the job is not finished.’ And it feels great. The job is finally finished for us. 

“That’s a hell of a hockey team we played today. It really could have gone either way. But we came out, played our game and came out on top. That’s just all we could do.”

Thomas Jefferson 0 1 2 0 0—3

Pennridge 2 0 1 0 1—4

First-period goals: Andrew Savona (P) from Tyler Manto, 1:13; Jack Lowery from Aeryk Lehrhaupt, 9:41 (pp)

Second-period goal: Colby Biski (TJ) from Lance Smith, 10:10 (pp)

Third-period goals: Bilski (TJ) from Brett Smith, 3:43; Lance Smith (TJ) from Nick Stock and Bilski, 7:31 (pp); Manto (P) from Colin Dachowski, 11:38

Second-overtime goal: Kevin Pico (P) from Manto and Savona, 12:01

Shots: Thomas Jefferson 65, Pennridge 49; Saves: Billy Siemon (TJ) 45, Ryan Pico (P) 62