Council Rock South captured its first ever Class AA State Championship in ice hockey, defeating West Allegheny 4-3 in Sunday’s title game.
The Council Rock South ice hockey team might not always get off to the fastest starts, but there are few teams that can finish a game the way the Golden Hawks do.
In Sunday’s Class AA State Championship game against West Allegheny, the Hawks fell behind early, but used a strong second period and dominating third to rally for a 4-3 victory and the school’s first state championship.
“It’s a great feeling,” said South coach Joe Houk, who brought his team into the state title game in three of the past four years. “The kids really battled hard tonight. They had a slow start but they battled through that. We had a strong second and third period. We kept exchanging goals with them in the first two periods, but we knew when we came out in the third we could pull it out if we came out hard and we prevailed.”
The Indians – the Penguin Cup Class AA champions – led 3-2 after two periods at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center’s 84 Lumber Arena, but entered the third trying to kill off a long two-man disadvantage. Paul Cloud scored on the five-on-three, off an assist from Kyle Walter just 46 seconds into the final frame. Six minutes later, on another two-man advantage, senior captain Dan Ufberg scored to give the Hawks their first lead of the game on a goal that would hold up as the state-championship-winning goal. Cloud earned an assist and Walter registered his fourth helper of the night on the goal..
“Paul Cloud set it up very nicely for me,” Ufberg said. “He gave me a great pass across the ice and I shot it immediately. It might have deflected off of someone, and that was probably the most exhilarating moment of my life.”
Council Rock South goalkeeper Justin Houk, who made 19 saves on the game, came up big down the stretch to preserve the one-goal lead and secure the team’s first state championship title.
“We had a penalty with three minutes left in the game, and Justin came up big,” coach Houk said. “They had maybe four point-blank shots, and he stoned a kid on one of the shots.”
The Hawks’ coach credited four-year varsity players (and captain and alternate captain, respectively) Ufberg and Steve Junod for getting the team ready to play in the state championship.
“Danny and Steve really pulled the team together, ‘Let’s make this thing happen,’” Houk said. “We have a lot of experience with these guys who have been here before. This year coming out here, it wasn’t like, ‘Let’s come out and compete,’ it was, ‘We’ve really got to play hard.’
“I also think it helped us that (West Allegheny) played yesterday. We had fresh legs and it showed. They were coming off a big overtime win to win the Penguins Cup, but no rest. By the third period, we really controlled a lot of the flow of the play.”
West Allegheny came out of the gates rolling on all cylinders. Jonathan Levitt scored an unassisted goal to give the Indians a 1-0 lead that they would take into intermission. Junod (Nick Keck, Walter assists) knotted the game just 15 seconds into the second period, but the Indians regained the lead just 55 seconds later on a Matthew Grebosky power play goal. Keck made it a 2-2 game with 10 minutes left in the second on the power play, then Pat Coburn scored on the man advantage to restore West Allegheny’s one-goal lead heading into the final 15 minutes of play.
But the Indians also brought a two-man disadvantage into the third period. West Allegheny was whistled for six consecutive penalties in the second and third periods, giving the Hawks a pair of two-man advantages in the third.
“You could tell that the momentum changed when they started giving us power plays,” Ufberg said “From there, I knew it was our game. They couldn’t keep their heads, they started getting sloppy and that’s when we took advantage.”
Ufberg had tasted defeat in the state championship game twice. In his final high school hockey game, he went out the sweetest way possible.
“It’s my third time going to the state championships,” he said. “I won three Flyers Cups now, and to finally win the state championship and to score the game-winner is just unbelievable.
“We wanted to take control tonight and that’s what we did. It’s my final year, and as captain, I couldn’t have asked for anything else. I’m so proud of these guys. From the coaches to the team to the organization, this was just a phenomenal effort.”
As far as Houk is concerned, that team effort was what put this Council Rock South over the top and allowed it to accomplish what past teams could not.
“The last month of the season the team really came together,” Houk said. “I just told the kids, ‘We are close-to-the-core, hard-working, blue-collar team.’ We have no superstars on this team, but I got guys who step up, all different guys step up all the time. I truly believe that was the difference. (Other teams) couldn’t look at one guy to score the goal. You didn’t know who was going to score the goal for us.
“We have that top line, but we also had so many other guys stepping up. Walter had four assists tonight after scoring two goals last week (in the Flyers Cup final), Vinnie Primavera is a senior, this is his last chance and he really stepped it up big time over the last two weeks. Justin really stepped up as well. Having so many guys step up really made the difference.”
And it allowed this Council Rock South team to bring home the State Championship.
West Allegheny 1 2 0 – 3
Council Rock South 0 2 2 – 4
Scoring
First period
WA – Jonathan Levitt (unassisted), 3:26.
Second period
CRS – Steve Junod (Nick Keck, Kyle Walter), 0:15.
WA – Matthew Greboski (Patrick Coburn, Christopher Allen), PP, 1:10.
CRS – Keck (Walter), PP, 5:05.
WA – Coburn (Levitt, Jared DiSanti), PP, 7:36.
Third period
CRS – Paul Cloud (Walter), PP, 0:46.
CRS – Dan Ufberg (Cloud, Walter), PP, 6:49.
Shots on goal: West Allegheny 22; Council Rock South 32.
Saves: Jason Kumpfmiller (WA) 28; Justin Houk (CRS) 19.
- Log in to post comments
