Make no mistake about it – a game against Council Rock South is every team’s Super Bowl this season.
It’s the price the Golden Hawks are paying for winning the 2009 Flyers Cup AA championship.
“Every game everyone wants to come out and beat us,” Rock South senior Sean Boyd said. “Every team comes out knowing we’re the best and wants to knock us down.”
The Golden Hawks proved they were the best last season, downing SHSHL champion North Penn 5-2 in the title game at the Wachovia Spectrum to capture the Flyers Cup.
This year, Rock South must prove itself all over again, and if early results are worth anything, the Golden Hawks are once again the team to beat. They not only boast a perfect 7-0 mark, but they have outscored their opponents 54-9.
For those who haven’t done the math, the Golden Hawks are averaging close to eight goals a game while allowing just over one - the kind of statistics that make life easy for a goalie.
Just ask Boyd.
“In our first game of the season against Pennsbury, I was tested a lot,” the senior goalie said of the Golden Hawks’ 3-1 win. “Last week we played Souderton and won 9-1, but there were a lot of shots.
“Other than that, I’m not really worried about it.”
That being said, Boyd admits to feeling some nerves for Wednesday night’s showdown against archrival Council Rock North, which also boasts a perfect 7-0 mark.
“It doesn’t matter who the better team is when we play each other,” Boyd said. “You have such an adrenaline rush.
“Whoever wants it more is going to win this game. I have played in it all four years. It doesn’t matter what – it’s always a good game.”
The strength of this year’s Rock South squad is its high-powered line of seniors Peter Malamud, Tyler Dietrick and Patrick Grilli. In last year’s Flyers Cup, Grilli was MVP while Malamud was named to the all-tournament team.
“They’re going to score,” coach Joe Houk said matter-of-factly. “My big thing is piecing together a second and third line.
“Last year we were pretty deep. I had a hot goaltender coming through the playoffs, and my second and third lines really did come up big.”
According to Malamud, Rock South’s top line, which has been together for three years, shares a special chemistry.
“We’re on the same travel team (Warwick Wildcats), and we’re good friends in high school,” the senior captain said. “We just know each other, and it’s just friendship pretty much.”
The trio of Malamud (6 goals, 24 assists), Dietrick (10 goals, 21 assists) and Grilli (16 goals, 15 assists) has been unstoppable so far this season.
“It’s amazing,” Boyd said. “You go into every game knowing they’re going to score at least four goals. I feel as though every game we’re automatically up 4-0. It’s almost like we’re guaranteed that many goals.
“Nobody can stop them. No one this year has come close to shutting them down. Our team is good all-around.”
Jonathan Houk anchors a defense that has been outstanding. Boyd has been manning the goal, but in sophomore David Chiokadze, the Golden Hawks have a goalie who is a proven entity at the varsity level. Last year, with Boyd sidelined because of illness, the Golden Hawks rode the hot goaltending of Chiokadze through the playoffs.
“He’s the one who was standing on his head during the playoffs,” coach Houk said.
The Golden Hawks’ coach acknowledged that winning the Cup brings with it high expectations to duplicate that success.
“There is pressure because you’re dealing with – ‘You had a hot goaltender. You had the top line,’” coach Houk said. “Everybody is going to be talking about you, and they’re going to say – ‘I knew last year was a fluke.’
“Our team is 7-0 right now. It’s not a fluke from last year.”
Rock South has been in the league playoffs in each of the six years it has been in existence. Four times it has advanced to Flyers Cup play, twice advancing to the finals.
“The Council Rock South program has come a long way,” said coach Houk, who has been with the program for five years. “A lot of the kids I’m coaching now I had when they were younger, and we had a middle school program.
“When the middle school went away, all these kids graduated up to the jayvee program. We run two practices a week and work with the kids fundamentally. We just ended up with a good group of kids, a good group of parents.”
Winning the Flyers Cup last season was the culmination of a dream for both players and coaches.
“It was exciting,” Malamud said. “It was cool for our school team, and even though we weren’t sponsored last year by our school, people knew about it.
“We have friends coming to our games. It was really exciting.”
“It was something we never experienced,” added Boyd. “We never thought we could do it, but we kept working hard all season. We were one of the better teams all year, and we just took it game by game.”
The players and coaches were honored at a luncheon at the Wachovia Center with several Flyers in attendance.
“It was a great experience for the kids and the program,” coach Houk said. “It kind of solidified us as one of the powerhouses.”
The Golden Hawks lost seven players from that championship squad, but the cupboard is hardly bare.
“Our program is pretty deep,” coach Houk said. “Even though we lost seven kids, I have seven kids to move right up in those spots.
“We start from square one, and we have a goal in mind at the beginning of the season. Every single practice we work hard. Whether it’s dry land or on the ice or in the classroom, that’s what we do.”
The Golden Hawks’ first real test of the season comes on Wednesday night when they will do battle with archrival Rock North at Face-Off Circle in Warminster at 7 p.m.
“It’s going to be really exciting,” Malamud said. “I look forward to every game, but North – I know a lot of kids on their team, and it’s real exciting to play against them.
“They’ll have a lot of people there, and we’ll have a lot of people there. We’re looking forward to it a lot.”
For all of its success, Rock South has not beaten Rock North over the last two-and-a-half years.
“It should be pretty interesting,” coach Houk said. “It’s a big thing.”
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