HATFIELD TOWNSHIP— Wissahickon charged out of the starting gate Thursday night and maintained its momentum all night long. The Trojans scored three times in the first period and went on to a 6-4 win over Plymouth Whitemrsh in a SHSHL American Division semifinal at Hatfield Ice.
Third-seeded Wissahickon (9-7) will face top-seeded Abington next Thursday at the same venue for the American Division title; the Trojans are the defending champions. The second-seeded Colonials dropped to 11-5.
Both teams are hoping to land bids in the Class A Flyers Cup tournament; the field will be revealed Sunday night.
Wednesday’s game wasn’t as close as the final score might have indicated. Ty Schiff, Will Hussa, and Nick Hussa scored the Trojans’ early goals and the Colonials spent the rest of the evening playing catchup.
“We’ve been turning it on lately,” said Wissahickon coach Ken Harrington,” and playing more as a team.”
The Trojans have won four of their last five games and Harrington says his players have enjoyed the emotions that that success has generated.
“They may not know it, but they know the feel of winning,” he said.
Luke Weikel scored consecutive goals for the Colonials, the first with nine seconds left in the first period, the next at the 3:01 mark of the second, to make it a one-goal game for a time. Hudson Honeycutt and Will Hussa responded for the Trojans however and while Plymouth Whitemarsh stayed close enough to force their opponent to stay focused, the Colonials never posed a serious threat.
That was due in part to the work of Michael Bonnani in the Wissahickon net, the senior made 32 saves. Bonnani was pressed into service as a goaltender two-and-a-half seasons ago. He says he’s grown as a player since then.
“I definitely have felt improvement,” he said. “I’ve come a long way from just flopping around in the net and getting hit in the face with pucks. I still get hit in the face but I’ve learned to deal with it better.”
Bonnani had a stout defense corps in front of him. “We played a defensive game,” said. “That’s how you beat these teams in this league. You have to play defense.
“We learned that throughout the season. We were getting scored on a lot and we had to switch it up and play team defense.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Josh Aiello said the Trojans quick start proved too much to overcome but he was impressed with his players’ collective efforts.
“There’s no quit in the team,” he said. “(The game) didn’t start off favorably for us but we were dedicated and continued to nettle.
“We knew there would be a lot of back and forth especially with Wissahickon. They got the better of us tonight but I’m proud of our players.”
Wissahickon 3 2 1—6
Plymouth Whitemarsh 1 2 1—4
First-period goals: Ty Schiff
from Nick Hussa, 6:22 (pp); Will Hussa
from Schiff, 9:37; Nick Hussa
unassisted, 15:48; Luke Weikel (PW) from Aidan Keogh, 16:51
Second-period goals: Weikel (PW) from Dylan Novitski, 3:01; (PW); Hudson Honeycutt
from Griffin Lynch, 5:50 (pp); Will Hussa
from Honeycutt, 12:09; Timothy Murphy (PW) from Weikel, 13:45
Third-period goals: Nick Hussa
from A.J. Pounds, 4:34; Isaac Mishkin (PW) from Weikel, 16:46
Shots: Wissahickon 43, Plymouth Whitemarsh 36; Saves: Michael Bonnani
32; Kolton Galie (PW) 37
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