Council Rock South defeated Pennsbury 4-2 to capture the SHSHL National Division title Thursday night at Grundy Arena.
By Ben Reese
BRISTOL — In high school ice hockey circles, defense is the name of the game.
And top on the list is the goaltender.
So, when you pit the top goalie in the league against the top scorer in the league, something has to give.
Well, the defense, in the person of the goalie - in this case Council Rock South’s Carson Lopez - rose up and, with some help from his friends, stopped the SHSHL’s top goal-scorer, Pennsbury’s Brendan Macainsh.
The end result was a 4-2 Golden Hawk victory over the Falcons and the National Division championship of the Suburban High School Hockey League on Thursday night in front of a full house at Grundy Arena.
Lopez and his defensive buddies allowed only the two goals in the win, both scored by Macainsh, but that was all. Period.
One night earlier, the Pennsbury senior scored four goals in a win over Pennridge, but Council Rock South halved that total. And didn’t allow anything else.
“Those guys like to stretch out the ice a lot,” Lopez said after being named Most Valuable of the tournament. “About halfway through the game, we told our defense to stop with the pinching; start backing off, playing the neutral zone and it worked.
“We were talking the whole night before (this game) and the whole day today that we just need to close our gaps on him. Make him beat us with his speed. He got lucky on the first one and the second was just a real nice play.”
One of Lopez’s defensive partners, team captain Kevin Koles, knew his blue-line buddies played a major role in the win.
“Limiting them to 20 shots is very crucial,” Koles said. “We knew we had to stop one of their best players.
“We obviously played them a lot and we locked him down. He only had two goals on us, and we came out on top.”
How did his four-goal game against Pennridge affect you and your teammates?
“We heard about what happened yesterday when they beat Pennridge, so we knew what we had to do coming into the game,” said Koles. “And that’s what we did.”
As Koles said, limiting Pennsbury to 20 (actually 22) shots was vital for Rock South. More shots would mean more opportunities to score.
Pennsbury coach Ryan Daley knew that also.
“We know it’s tough to get pucks in the net,” he said. “They played a phenomenal game.
“We only had 22 shots. We’re used to putting 15 a period up. They played us very, very well.”
Getting back to Lopez, Koles couldn’t say enough.
“You can’t really describe how crucial he is to this team,” Koles said. “He’s the best goalie in the league. There isn’t anyone better.”
Golden Hawk coach Joe Houk appreciates what his goalie and his defense gives him.
“Defense controlled the whole flow of the game,” Houk said. “I thought we wore them out a little bit.
“We wanted to make sure pucks went deep. Carson was stellar again.”
The South defense did put a clamp on Macainsh, however. His two goals notwithstanding, he didn’t seem to be able to get untracked.
“I wouldn’t say untracked,” said Daley. “He still had two goals on the night.
“He’s the worst kept secret in the league. If I was an opposing coach, I’d put three guys on him. They played him well. He still got two on them against the best goalie in the league. It shows the kind of player he is.”
It was the Golden Hawks who broke out of the gate first. Chase Tovsky scored the first two goals of the game in the first period, hitting the net at 8:03 and again at 16:37. Blaize Pepe had assists on both, and Koles assisted on the second.
The Golden Hawks also appeared to score a third goal at 16:59, just before the siren ended the period. However, the siren never went off, and the officials decided that the puck had gone in the net after it would have sounded.
Rock South did get its third goal in the second period. Jonah Weston put one past Pennsbury goalie Aaron McDaniel at 8:02 of the period.
“You win championships when your third line that doesn’t score a lot scores, and they scored tonight,” Houk said of hist third line comprised of Weston, Ilya Muhkin and Bobby Gilbert.
Macainsh gave Pennsbury a lift at the 13:18 mark with his first goal of the game. But it was only one of the five shots the Falcons took on Lopez in the period.
That 3-1 lead got a bit narrower in the third period. Macainsh again scored, this time on the power play, to cut the lead to 3-2.
But Pepe put the clincher in the net for CR South. He scored at 6:08 to finish things off for the Hawks.
“(It was) hard work and keeping our foot on the pedal as always,” Rock South defenseman Jake Maurer said of the key to Thursday’s win. “We just didn’t take our foot off the pedal.”
The win was especially sweet for a nucleus that has been together for a long time.
“I’ve been through a lot with these guys,” Lopez said. “Since the seventh grade, I’ve lost seven championship games.
“It just feels good to be 1-8 now. Hopefully two and eight.”
The second championship that Lopez was referring to is the Flyers Cup. Both teams will begin playing in the tournament next week.
“The Flyers Cup is totally different,” Lopez said. “It’s a whole new journey and we’re going to play it the same as we played tonight.”
The two coaches had the final words.
“Obviously, this is going to hurt for a bit,” said Daley.
“We’re going to savor this win,” said Houk. “We had a real good season. I thought we were one of the better teams in the league. We had some good competitive games along the way.
“We struggled a little bit last night (in the semifinal win over Neshaminy). I thought we were a little nervous – we hadn’t played in a week-and-a-half, but we put together a good performance tonight – right from the goal line out. I think that’s where we want to be going into the Flyers Cup. We’ll get a good practice this week, and we start up Tuesday, so we should be good.”
Although the Golden Hawks are hoping to extend their season a whole lot longer, winning the SHSHL title was a definite goal.
“We have the most depth in the league,” Pepe said. “We had a few hardships around December/January. We never put our heads down, we always kept working at practice, we always played our game, and we just had so much confidence going into this. We deserved it, we earned it.”
“This was definitely a goal,” Maurer added. “We have so many good players on this team, and the chemistry is insane. It all adds up, and we won the championship.”
The Flyers Cup opens for both teams on Tuesday, March 7. Pennsbury will play Abington at 6:15 at Grundy followed by Council Rock South vs. Spring Ford at 8:15 at Grundy.
Council Rock South 4, Pennsbury 2
Pennsbury 0 1 1 — 2
Council Rock South 2 1 1 — 4
First period: 1, Chase Tovsky CRS (Blaize Pepe) 8:03; 2,Tovsky CRS (Kevin Koles, Pepe) 16:37.
Second period: 3, Jonah Weston CRS (Bobby Gilbert, James Dilulio) 8:02; 4, Brendan Macainsh Pb (unassisted) 13:18.
Third period: 5, Macainsh Pb (Chris Sarver) 5:20 PP; 6, Pepe CRS (unassisted) 6:08.
Shots: Pennsbury 22, Council Rock South 35. Saves: Aaron McDaniel (Pb) 31, Carson Lopez (CRS) 20.
- Log in to post comments
