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#1 Council Rock South 7, #5 Council Rock North 5
By Ben Reese
WARWICK — In some ways, the Council Rock North vs. Council Rock South ice hockey game at Revolution Ice Gardens was just like almost all of the other games between the two district rivals.
And in some ways, it was totally different.
For one thing, it was a very physical contest. There were hits in the middle of the ice and there were checks all around the boards.
For the other, the final score was CR South 7, CR North 5. That’s is a lot of goals in the rivalry. However, the only other time these two teams met on the ice, South won 11-4.
The victory in the Suburban High School Hockey League moves CR South into the AA championship game against Pennridge on Thursday night. The Rams beat Pennsbury 6-3 in the other semifinal.
Julian Wagenmann, one of the stalwarts of the Golden Hawks, couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.
“Feeling good,” he said. “After that win, I couldn’t be happier.”
But was this a typical North-South game?
“It’s always like that,” he said. “North is doing good this year but they couldn’t beat South this year.
“I wasn’t letting it happen. The team wasn’t letting it happen. We were talking about it all week. We were waiting for this game to come.”
Wagenmann’s coach, Joe Houk, had a different view of the game.
“(There was) a lot of energy,” Houk said, “just bad skill. Ice hockey is a game of mistakes and we made entirely too many.”
What happened out there?
“I’ve got a bunch of selfish players on my team that I have to turn around in the next 24 hours,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens. We’ll be OK.
“We had guys on the team doing their own thing. Believe me, I didn’t go into the locker room and say, ‘Good game, guys.’ We’ll give it everything we’ve got. That’s all we can do.”
Greg McDonald, the North coach, couldn’t really guess if this game was typical or not.
“It’s only my second one,” he said. “I like this one a lot better than the first one. I don’t like the outcome, but I like it better.”
Asked the same question about what happened, McDonald was philosophical.
“I think, at least on our side, it’s just learning moments,” he said. “It’s these games, the fans, it’s what’s on the line.”
The puck seemed to like nestling into the net all night. After all, a total of 12 goals were scored.
The Indians got out of the gate quickly. Karson Grainey, with an assist from Noah Epstein, scored with only 2:28 gone from the clock.
The Hawks came back with two of their own in the first period. Bobby Gilbert’s goal at 11:19 tied the game at 1-1, and Blaize Pepe untied it at 13:51 with a power play goal.
South put it all together in the second period, outscoring North 4-2. Mike Costantini and Sam Cherassky got the first two tallies of the second period for the Hawks.
Grainey came back at 7:06 with his second goal of the game on the power play to cut the lead to two goals. But the Hawks sandwiched goals by Daniel Vergules and Pepe around goals from the Indians’ Jackson Accardi and Grainey to take a 6-4 lead into the third.
Things quieted down at least in the goal department in the third period. Zach Weissman scored for North, and Chase Tovsky scored on the power play for South.
While South will play Pennridge for the SHSHL title on Thursday, North will prepare for the Flyers Cup next week.
“I like us in the Flyers Cup,” said McDonald. “I like us because of games like this and the competition.”
CR South 7, CR North 5
CR North 1 3 1 — 5
CR South 2 4 1 — 7
First period: 1, Karson Gainey CRN (Noah Epstein) 2:28; 2, Bobby Gilbert CRS (Blaize Pepe) 11:19; 3, B. Pepe CRS (Eric Mostoller) 13:57 SH.
Second period: 4, Mike Costantini CRS (Kevin Koles) 2:08; 5, Sam Cherassky CRS (Koles) 5:44; 6, Grainey CRN (Zach Weissman, Epstein) 7:06 PP; 7, Daniel Vergules CRS (Koles) 8:38; 8, Jackson Accardi CRN (Nicholas Hahn, Grainey) 9:42; 9, Grainey CRN (unassisted) 14:02 SH; 10, B. Pepe CRS (Gilbert) 16:47.
Third period: 11, Weissman CRN (Accardi, Grainey) 2:23; 12, Chase Tovsky CRS (B. Pepe, Cherassky)8:34 PP.
Shots: CRN 19, CRS 42. Saves: Ian Goldberg (CRN) 35, Carson Lopez (CRS) 12.
#2 Pennridge 6, #3 Pennsbury 3
By Craig Ostroff
Defending league champion Pennsbury scored the only goal of the second period of Wednesday’s National/Continental Division semifinal.
That the Falcons only scored once in the second period may have ultimately been the difference in the game. And the credit for that goes to Pennridge’s man between the pipes, senior goalkeeper Ryan Pico.
Shortly after the Falcons knotted the score at 2-2 early in the second, Pennsbury captain Shane Siegmund got past the defense, took a lead pass, and moved in on Pico, who stayed with the star forward and denied the breakaway attempt with a well-placed pad save. Later in the period, junior Brendan Macainsh weaved through the defense and tried to tuck in a shot from in close, but Pico again got his pad in the way.
Had either of those chances by two of the league’s most explosive and creative scorers gone in, it could have changed the tide of the game. Instead, Pico and the Pennridge defense kept the score knotted at 2-2 heading into the final frame, and a three-goal run in the third boosted the second-seeded Rams to a 6-3 victory and a berth in the final.
“Player of the game,” Pennridge forward Aeryk Lehrhaupt said of his backstop. “When he puts up a performance like that, it’s hard to lose. He keeps us in games every week, he’s just phenomenal out there.”
Pennridge called a time-out early in the third, and looked like a different team when they returned to action.
“The first four minutes of the third, I thought we were trying to play a little too much defense,” said Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna. “We called time-out, said that we need to play with more desperation, press the issue, and I thought the next 5 minutes were the best 5 minutes of the year.”
It began with Colin Dachowski getting a step on a Pennsbury defender and getting hauled down, resulting in a two-minute power play for the Rams. They’d need just 11 seconds until Jack Lowery fed Lehrhaupt at the side of the net, and Lehrhaupt slid the puck in for the 3-2 lead.
“(Lowery) made a had a beautiful pass on my goal and I think as soon as we came out buzzing and got that goal, it made a whole world of difference,” Lehrhaupt said.
Colin Dachowski would give the Rams an insurance goal on a terrific solo effort less than three minutes later. With the teams playing at four skaters aside, Dachowski found some open space and sped in along the left-hand side, deftly avoided a check along the boards, and ripped a shot past Pennsbury keeper Aaron McDaniel (37 saves) to make it a 4-2 game. Andrew Lizak made it 5-2 off a beautiful feed from Aidan Boyle.
“They did exactly what teams that want to be great do,” Montagna said. “We had a tie game and they took it over. We rolled three lines the entire game, I think every line scored tonight.”
Macainsh scored his second of the night with 4:33 left off a Siegmund assist to bring Pennsbury to within two goals. The two Falcons each finished the night with 3 points (Macainsh 2G, 1A; Siegmund 1G, 2A), but Pico came up big time and again to keep the duo and the rest of the Pennsbury offense at bay. With two minutes remaining and Pennsbury on a power play, Pico made a huge stop on a point-blank blast from the hash marks.
“I pretty much know every time those guys step on the ice and make sure the defense is aware, too,” Pico said of the Pennsbury duo. “Those guys are both really good players, so when the defense is able to make the plays, or I save a shot, it boosts our confidence a lot.”
Pico ended the night with 32 saves, and he and his defensive mates—Ryan Schuler, Trey Mikulich, Dachowski, Jared Garber, and Lizak—earned rave reviews from their coach.
“I cannot say enough about my defensemen,” Montagna said. “We roll 5 and we really rely on 3 of them. They play a ton of minutes, I’m really proud of all of them tonight.”
Shane Dachowski scored on an empty net with 7 seconds left to ice the slugfest that saw Pennsbury strike first, and quickly.
Using their speed and skill off the game-opening draw, Siegmund fed Macainsh and the two came in 2-on-2 on the Rams’ defense. Macainsh fired high to the short side to put Pennsbury on top just 35 seconds into the game. But Pico shook it off and stopped the other 13 shots he saw that period, including a Pennsbury takeaway at the blue line that turned into a 2-on-1 chance.
“I used to get in my head a lot, let goals like that get to me,” Pico said. “But with this team, I know we can come back, so I don’t sweat it as much. Me and my dad talk all the time about it, staying calm and focused and how much it helps your play, so I try not to let it get in my head.”
Tyler Manto knotted the score midway through the first (Kevin Pico, Colin Dachowski assists), and Kevin Pico (Aidan Boyle assist) put the Rams ahead 2-1 with 3:35 left in the first period.
Up next for Pennsbury (11-4-1 overall) is the opening round of the Class AA Flyers Cup. The Falcons are seeded fourth in the Class AA tournament, and will begin their pursuit of the Flyers Cup when they host 13th seed Owen J. Roberts at 6 pm March 8 at Hatfield Blue.
Pennridge, meanwhile, is back in action tonight in the National/Continental Division finals against top seed Council Rock South. The Rams (15-0-1) won the first meeting between the teams, 5-0 in early December, and the two forged a 3-3 tie to end the regular season on Feb. 16.
Despite leaving it all out on the ice in the semis, the Rams are not worried about matching that intensity and doing it once more tonight.
“We wanted this one because we lost to them in the semis last year,” Montagna said. “We really wanted this one, but we’ve come this far, you don’t have to worry about us being sluggish tomorrow.”
“We’re all excited and we’re ready to go again,” Ryan Pico said. “We want to finish the deal.”
Pennridge 6, Pennsbury 3
Pennsbury 1 1 1 – 3
Pennridge 2 0 4 – 6
First period: 1, Brendan Macainsh Pb (Shane Siegmund) 16:25; 2, Tyler Manto Pr (Kevin Pico, Colin Dachowski) 7:20; 3, K. Pico Pr (Aidan Boyle) 3:35.
Second period: 4, Siegmund Pb (Macainsh) PP 15:43.
Third period: 5, Aeryk Lehrhaupt Pr (Jack Lowery) PP 11:43; 6, C. Dachowski Pr (unassisted) 9:09; 7, Andrew Lizak Pr (Boyle) 6:11; 8, Macainsh Pb (Siegmund) 4:33; 9, Shane Dachowski Pr (Lowery) 0:07.
Shots: Pennsbury 35; Pennridge 43
Saves: Aaron McDaniel (Pb) 37; Ryan Pico (Pr) 32.
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