CB South defended its SHSHL ‘AA’ title with a 4-3 win over Central Bucks West on Thursday. Photos are provided courtesy of Dara King of DNK Photography. Check back for a gallery of game shots.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD -- The Suburban High School Hockey League playoffs have been labeled by some as anti-climactic.
It is said in passing that they are only a tune-up for the Flyers Cup series, which begins the week after the playoffs.
You couldn't prove that by Central Bucks South coach Tom Coyne. Coyne coached his final regular-season hockey game Thursday night as the Titans won the SHSHL Class AA championship, beating Central Bucks West 4-3.
"It means a great deal," Coyne said when asked about the significance of the league championship. "I'm proud of the guys.
"I ride these guys hard all year and the payoff is they get to celebrate something like this. It's really not about me.
"We're proud of the league we play in. We feel like we work hard at putting a good product out there so it's important to me; it's important to Shaun (McGinty, his assistant coach); and it's important to our team to do our league proud."
The players also know how important the league championship is.
"It was huge, finishing up his high school career the right way," said Jackson Koblick, who scored the final two South goals. “ We wanted to get that championship for him and go out and get some more."
West coach Dave Baun saw his team come up just short, but he still had words of praise for South and Coyne.
"My hat goes off to CB South," Baun said. "They're a great team.
"They've got a lot of great players. Obviously, we're disappointed in our locker room, but we're happy for Tom Coyne and his team. They deserve it."
West broke from the gate flying. The Bucks scored the first goal in the first period.
But the lead didn't last long. South came right back 16 seconds later with the tying goal.
"That kind of woke us up," Coyne said of West's goal. "We've always been a good counter-punch team.
"They just about had time to get the announcement for the goal and we popped one in. It got us back to life."
Koblick agreed with his coach on the comeback ability of the Titans.
"We've come out not so great a bunch of times this year," he said, "but we battled back each time. We never really got off our game."
Koblick scored in the third period to give South the lead 3-2. And then he scored again for a 4-2 lead before West came back with its own goal for the final 4-3 score.
He described his second goal as "a little chip to the net and I just try to go to the net, the dirty areas, and I got lucky. That felt good."
After Eddie Shields scored for the Bucks in the first period at the 7:19 mark, Joe DeLaurentis tied the game at 7:35. The two teams again traded goals in the second period with DeLaurentis again scoring and Shawn Philipps tying it up.
In the third, Koblick hit the nets at 6:05 and again at 9:39 for the 4-2 margin. Ryan Trefz got the Bucks close at 12:08, but South kept West off the board for the rest of the game.
Coyne was impressed by the resiliency of the Bucks.
"They weren't letting us off easy," he said. "Then when we got the fourth goal, they came back.
"They deserve a lot of credit. They really played well."
The fourth Titan goal was just what Coyne had been hoping for. His players did just what he wanted them to do even though it wasn't a picture-perfect goal.
"It's like trying to get through to them that it's not always going to be a pretty play," the Titans’ coach said. "That's what we were aiming for.
"Throw it on the pillows (the goalie's pads) and go. Get into the kitchen and just keep pounding .
"Once you kick it out to the point, you've got them exposed. You can't be standing there watching the guy on the point shoot.
"You've got to get into the kitchen and work. That's what we did."
Baun wasn't upset that his team didn't win the championship. Just the opposite.
"Obviously we're disappointed at the moment but I can't be disappointed with my players," the Bucks’ coach said. "They played hard; they stuck to the game plan. We just came out on the short end of the score in a highly competitive, hotly contested hockey game."
The two teams advance into next week's Flyers Cup action where CB South is the top seed and CB West is the third seed. Both teams play Wednesday, March 2.
CB South 4, CB West 3
CB West 1 1 1 – 3
CB South 1 1 2 – 4
First period: 1. Eddie Shields CBW (Dalton Karl, Joe Anton) 7:19; 2. Joe DeLaurentis CBS (Frank Carter) 7:35.
Second period: 3. J. DeLaurentis CBS (Carter, Connor Matsinger) 9:30; 4. Shawn Philipps CBW (Tucker Forte) 13:48.
Third period: 5. Jackson Koblick CBS (Carter, Matt Stoll) 6:05; 6. Koblick CBS (Stoll, Matsinger) 9:39; 7. Ryan Trefz CBW (Luke McCleerey) 12:08.
Shots: CBW 32, CBS 45. Saves: Jonah Brous (CBW) 41; Aaron King (CBS) 29.
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