Council Rock South advanced to Wednesday’s Flyers Cup title game with a convincing 7-2 win over Spring-Ford in Tuesday’s semifinal at Hatfield Ice. Photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos.
Flyers Cup AA semifinal
#1 COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 7, #12 SPRING-FORD 2
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — Jeremy Rayher has some not-so-pleasant memories of the Flyers Cup semifinal game against Pennsbury in his sophomore season with the Council Rock South ice hockey team.
He thought of that 5-2 loss to the Falcons when he took the ice for the Golden Hawks’ semifinal Flyers Cup win
against Spring Ford on Thursday night at Hatfield Ice. Those memories helped spark Rayher and his teammates to a 7-2 victory over the Rams, a win that advanced the team to the championship game on Wednesday, March 19 at 8:45 p.m. at Hatfield against North Penn, a 4-3 winner over Downingtown East.
Rayher broke open a scoreless game in the first period, beating Spring-Ford goalie Grant Olson with 13:37 left in the period. Then, to make sure, he tallied another goal at the 16:02 mark to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead going into the second period.
“We all know what happened my sophomore year versus Pennsbury,” Rayher said. “We lost in the semis. I just want that ring.”
Oh, then Rayher added another goal in the third period to collect the hat trick and help Rock South put the game away with a four-goal stanza.
“I did not expect that,” he said of the hat trick. “The first two are always the biggest in the game.”
But how about that initial marker?
“Dan (Filippov) took the shot,” Rayher explained. “(Jordan) Sarne tipped it. It went off my stick, the rebound popped up and I just put everything into that.”
A picture-perfect goal? Well, not really but it did count.
CR South coach Joe Houk certainly appreciates what he gets from Rayher,
“Jeremy’s been great all year,” Houk said. “He’s been putting the puck in big time.
“He’s one of my top scorers this year. Jeremy got that first goal and we kind of fed off it from there.”
And how about that hat trick.
“I didn’t realize he scored three goals,” Houk said with a chuckle.
The Golden Hawks came out of the dressing room with fire in their eyes. They hit everything in a dark blue sweater.
“We came out hard,” Rayher said. “We all just came out hard with a mindset to win this game.
“We hit hard, put pucks on the net. They gave us a lot of rebounds and we capitalized on them.”
Houk couldn’t help but agree.
“I thought we outplayed them from start to finish,” he said. “We didn’t give them much room to breathe.
“I thought our ‘D’ was tremendous. Our power play continues to be good.”
However, Houk did have some concerns.
“We got a little rocky in the second period and let them get a real crappy goal, but I thought our puck pursuit was good. We got away from the game plan a little bit there.”
When asked what he said to the team at the ice cut between the second and third periods, he mentioned something about them keeping their heads in the game.
“I told them that I was going to contact all their girlfriends,” Houk said, “and tell them not to come to the next game.”
Then he laughed.
Rayher, as mentioned, took care of the offense in the first period, scoring his first two goals. The two-goal lead lasted into the second.
Spring Ford finally got on the board at the 3:25 mark. Koen Graff netted an unassisted goal against Rock South goalie Trey Prozzillo. But just over three minutes later Filippov negated that with his own goal to keep the Hawk lead at two.
Things got a little wild in the third period. All told, five goals were scored.
CR South’s Jonah Weston started things off with only 1:06 elapsed in the final period. Rayher followed that 49 seconds later with the third of his hat trick.
Jackson Mosley added the sixth goal with Rayher picking up his fourth point of the game with an assist. And, after the Rams’ Nathan Riley cut into the lead with a goal, Peter Pereborow finished things up with an unassisted tally at 12:02.
Council Rock South 7, Spring Ford 2
Spring Ford 0-1-1 2
Council Rock South 1-1-4 7
First period: 1, Jeremy Rayher CRS (Jordan Sarne, Dan Filippov)13:37; 2, Rayher CRS (unassisted) 16:02/
Second period: 3, Koen Graff SF (unassisted) 3:25; 4, Filippov CRS (Jake Maurer) 6:34.
Third period: 5, Jonah Weston CRS (Wesley Mallon) 1:06; 6, Rayher CRS (Sarne) 1:55; 7, Jackson Mosley CRS (Sarne, Rayher) 3:45 PP; 8, Nathan Riley SF (William Puhalla, Isaak Bystol) 8:56; 9, Peter Pereborow CRS (unassisted) 12:02.
Shots: SF 29, CRS 49. Saves: Grant Olson (SF) 42, Trey Prozzillo (CRS) 27.
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