Central Bucks South defeated Council Rock South to advance to Thursday’s 2018 Flyers Cup 2A title game. Ben Reese recaps all the action. Photos provided courtesy of Dara N. King Photography. Check back for a gallery.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD -- Central Bucks South has almost completed its third season, and the Titans are hoping they have one more season to go after that third season is completed.
CB South took another step in the progression toward winning the Flyers Cup with a 7-2 win over Council Rock South in a semifinal game at Ice World.
If that "season" thing doesn't make any sense to you, let's have Titan coach Shaun McGinty explain it.
"We break the season down into multiple seasons," McGinty said. "You've got your regular season, then you've got your playoff season.
"Then you've got the Flyers Cup and then states. Four seasons.
"Every game is broken down by periods, every period by shifts. That's the way to keep the kids as focused as possible.
"We've got one more game in this season to go 4-0. Hopefully, we'll advance but we've got a tough one ahead of us, playing Downingtown East again."
Progression or not, Tuesday’s semifinal win wasn't as easy as the score might indicate. Through two periods, the Titans were ahead by only 3-1 and were outplayed for much of the first period by the Golden Hawks.
"We had them in the first period," said Rock South coach Joe Houk. "We had them running and we let them back in the game. We turn two pucks over and they score on (bad) shots.
"They're a good team but not five goals better than us. In the third period, we had to come out and score but we just couldn't do it."
The Golden Hawks came out of the gate fast. They scored at the 5:20 mark of the first period for a 1-0 lead on Matthew Meli's goal.
CB South came back three minutes later. Matt Stoll scored to tie the game at 1-1.
In the second period, the Titans got going. Reis Braccio and Colin Abbonizio scored to give them a 3-1 margin going into the third period.
Joe DeLaurentis took over the scoring for CB South in the third, scoring twice. And then Tyler Boylan sandwiched two goals around a marker by Rock South's Logan Hurwitz.
"I think it's a huge confidence booster," DeLaurentis said of the win. "We all came into this game a little nervous.
"We know how good of a team they are. I think that kind of drove us to work hard.
"You can see on the scoreboard that we played our hearts out today. We're excited to move on."
Strangely enough, DeLaurentis pointed to a penalty on Boylan that gave the Titans some impetus going into the third period.
"He was in the box," DeLaurentis said. "I think he got two and 10 (a two-minute minor and a 10-minute misconduct penalty). I think that kind of motivated us. It kind of paid off in the long run."
For McGinty it was just as he figured the game would be.
"You start in August with tryouts," he said. "You set a goal. Our goal every year is Flyers Cup.
"You know you're going to have to go through Council Rock South. Joe (Houk) is a good coach and his kids play hard.
"I tell our kids we know what we're going to get from them and they know what they're going to get from us. We just go toe to toe.
"They had opportunities early on the power play. They were given their opportunity and we were able to shut it down."
The Titans advance to the Flyers Cup final on Thursday against Downingtown East, a 2-1 winner in overtime against Conestoga. The game will begin at Hatfield Ice at 7 p.m.
CB South 7, CR South 2
CR South 1 0 1 – 2
CB South 1 2 4 – 7
First period: 1, Matthew Meli CRS (Logan Hurwitz, Brennen Wright) 5:20; 2, Matt Stoll CBS (Tyler Boylan) 8:20.
Second period: 3, Reis Braccio CBS (unassisted) 8:49; 4, Colin Abbonizio CBS (James Schuler, Stoll) 9:27.
Third period: 5, Joe DeLaurentis CBS (Ryan Gingras) 1:06; 6, DeLaurentis CBS (unassisted) 6:34; 7, Boylan CBS (Abbonizio, Frank Carter) 14:24 PP; 8, Hurwitz CRS (Dylan Feoli, John Hearn) 14:58 SH; 9, Boylan CBS (Carter) 15:33 PP.
Shots: CRS 29, CBS 36. Saves: Mason Procz (CRS) 29, Tim White (CBS) 27.
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