Senior Jake Wolff is one half of North Penn's impressive goalie tandem. Wolff turned away 31 shots in the Knights' 9-1 win over CB East Friday.
By Ben Reese
WARWICK – Jake Wolff is half of what may be the best goalie combination in the Suburban High School Hockey League.
The North Penn senior, with his fellow classmate Cody Matthews, patrol the crease for North Penn and do it well enough that the Knights are 12-3-1 in league play and 15-3-1 overall. Those win totals are up one because of Friday night's 9-1 besting of Central Bucks East at Warwick Ice Arena.
Wolff, who got the start against the Patriots, stopped 31 of 32 shots on goal and picked up his eighth win (seventh in league play) against one loss and one tie and lowered his goals-against average to 1.82 (2.11 in league). Matthews has a record of 6-2 (5-2 league) with a 2.63 GAA.
But Friday night belonged to Wolff. Except for a slip-up in the second period, he would have had his first shutout of the season.
“Jake played very well for us,” North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis said. “He made the saves that he needed to make.He's played very well all season.”
However, Vaitis knows that Wolff is just half of his goalie tandem.
“We've been kind of spoiled with Cody and Jake,” he said. “No matter who we put in net, we can always count on them to have a good game for us.”
But how do you decide which one is going to start, coach?
“It makes it a little bit difficult,” Vaitis said. “The good news is, whoever we put in we know we're going to get a good game out of him.
“Come Monday, it's playoff time so we'll have to pick one of the two.”
With two senior goalies, it would seem that there would be rivalry, maybe even some bad blood. Not so.
“We're actually friends on and off the ice and in school,” said Wolff. “We just do our best and whoever goes, goes. Whoever the coach thinks is best for a game, it's his decision.”
That actually makes it easier for Vaitis to make his selection.
“I think the big thing with them is that they are such good friends off the ice,” he said, “that they pick each other up as well as kind of push each other.
“They do goalie coaching, goalie practices, goalie clinics together. Even in our regular North Penn practices, they push each other to get the best out of them.”
In addition to the outstanding goal-tending from Wolff, the Knights also got some excellent offense. They scored three goals in the first period, four in the second and two more in the third.
Four of those nine goals came off the stick of Caleb Witzaney, who is the Knights' leading scorer. He also added an assist and pushed his goal total overall to 28 (26 in league games) and his assist total to 23 (22 in league). He leads the team with 51 points overall and 48 in SHSHL games.
With the playoffs looming next week, does a 9-1 rout provide any help heading into the biggest games of the year?
“Any time you have a game where offensively we can put nine goals up, I think is a good thing going into the playoffs,” said Vaitis. “We had a game against Parkland, who is a good team, on Wednesday and we beat them 6-3
“I think we're ready to go for the playoffs. That's what we've been working for for the last five-six months.”
Witzaney got things going quickly for North Penn. With only 37 seconds gone in the first period, he took a pass from Nick Capasso, split the defenders and slipped the puck past East goalie Steve Gilchrist.
Slightly more than a minute later the score was 2-0 in North Penn's favor. Christian Ahn, with assists from Matt Stella and Alex Peterson, put the puck in the net.
But the Knights weren't finished with the scoring in the first period. With just over a minute remaining in the period, Capasso got a goal of his own with the assists going to Witzaney and Matt Barkley.
The second period was more of the same for North Penn. The Knights added four more goals but also gave up one to East.
The first North Penn goal in the second stanza came at the 2:57 mark. Witzaney scored his second of the game off passes from Christian Ahn and Stella.
Stella followed that up with a goal with 7:57 left in the second period. Peterson and Ahn got the assists on that goal.
Kevin Saylor added another goal to the Knight total when he scored unassisted with 8:40 gone in the stanza.
The Patriots finally figured out a way to get the puck past Wolff. With less than two minutes remaining in the period, Zach Davis scored off assists from Joe Ridolfi and Cameron Fox.
“In the second period, we starting doing some poor defense and it just happened,” said Wolff. “(It was) a one-timer across the slot, pretty hard to save.”
That was the only blemish on Wolff's night. East didn't score again.
But North Penn did. In fact, Witzaney got the hat trick with 39 seconds left in the period with the assist going to Matt Fox.
Witzaney got his fourth goal of the night late in the third period, scoring unassisted at the 13:48 mark. Barkley finished up the scoring with a power-play goal with 39 seconds left in the game off assists from Stella and Peterson.
It was a physical game, with both teams taking the body all night. However, there were only three penalties called, none in the first period.
Oh, by the way, Jake, how did you become a goalie?
“My neighbors always threw me in net for street hockey,” Wolff explained. “I was always the youngest. I just started from there.”
Wolff did prove one rumor about goalies to be false. He claims he can skate.
North Penn 3 4 2 – 9
Central Bucks East 0 1 0 – 1
First Period
1. Caleb Witzaney NP (Nick Capasso) 0:37; 2. Christian Ahn NP (Matt Stella, Alex Peterson) 1:45; 3. Capasso NP (Matt Barkley, Witzaney) 14:56. Penalties: None.
Second Period
4. Witzaney NP (Ahn, Stella) 2:57; 5. Stella NP (Peterson, Ahn) 8:03; 6. Kevin Saylor NP (unassisted) 8:40; 7. Zach Davis CBE (Joe Ridolfi, Cameron Fox) 14:16; 8. Witzaney NP (Matthew Fox) 15:21. Penalty: Nick Esposito CBE (roughing) 2:00.
Third Period
9. Witzaney NP (unassisted) 13:48; 10. Barkley NP (Stella, Peterson) 15:21 PP. Penalties: Ryan Nowicki NP (roughing) 7:05; Joe LoCastro CBE (cross checking) 14:00.
Shots: NP – 63; CBE – 32. Saves: Jake Wolff NP 31; Steve Gilchrist CBE 54.
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