North Penn had a Senior Night celebration to remember, defeating neighboring Souderton 11-1. Ben Reese recaps the evening. Photos provided by Keith Clemens Photography.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD -- Every team holds a Senior Night.
However, some of them do more than just honor the seniors on the team. They honor the entire team regardless of what class the players are in.
North Penn and Souderton both held their Senior Nights on Wednesday at Ice World. There were nine seniors honored, five from North Penn and four from Souderton.
However, the North Penn seniors had a better night, collecting an 11-1 mercy rule victory over Souderton. Andrew Galetta led the way for the Knight seniors with two goals and four assists with Alex Stevens contributing a goal and an assist, George Boyle adding two assists and Connor Atkinson notching an assist, his first point of the season.
"For a number of these seniors, they're four-year varsity players," said North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis. "The seniors - it's their night so they're not going to come out and go half-speed. They bring it right from the beginning."
Souderton coach Matt Montagna has a special feeling for senior night.
"I think it helps to recognize that you did accomplish something over your four years," he said. "It's nice to honor these guys who, through bad seasons and good, have been here.
"We have two guys on this team who went 0-18 in their freshman year. It's a special night for the kids."
Now how about the underclassmen?
"It's a great night for them to look up to the upperclassmen," Galetta said. "They really do respect us and I appreciate them. I hope in the coming years they can look at this night and remember it and hope to do better than that."
Vaitis agrees.
"It does benefit them," he said. "They don't want to let the seniors down. There's more energy when they come out to play."
"They see that it's more than just hockey," Montagna said. "It's something that shows that your coaches, your parents, your friends - they're proud of you and you did a good job. When the younger kids see that they think it's kind of cool."
It might not seem like it, but an 11-1 game which ended with 5:20 left to play does affect the playoffs. While it doesn't change what North Penn will be doing next week, it does leave Souderton a bit in limbo.
"We have to wait and see how the other teams do," said Montagna. "We're waiting on Neshaminy and Truman.
"If we won, we were in but we didn't. I'd love to get it. That's what we play for.
"Tonight, we didn't help ourselves. This team has gotten better. It doesn't reflect in tonight's play but we've gotten better and that's all I care about."
As for the Knights, it was a foregone conclusion that they were in the playoffs. This game just cemented it.
"We knew where we were going to be in the playoffs," said Vaitis. "We're going to be the fourth seed, opening up against (Council) Rock North.
"There were things that we wanted to fine tune before the playoffs and I think we did that tonight. We're in a position now that we're ready to go on Monday night."
Galetta is looking forward to the playoffs.
"We got 11 goals up," he said. "We go into the next game with momentum.
"We play Council Rock North on Monday and we put eight goals on them last time. Hopefully we can add some more to that."
Galetta got things going for the Knights in the first period, scoring at the 5:19 mark. That started the ball rolling as North Penn scored five times in the opening period including goals at 5:57 and 6:28 (John Kim's first goal of the season) and the two more at 10:15 and 12:11.
In that opening stanza, the Knights fired 20 shots on Souderton goalie Jon Pritchard. The Indians took only two shots on Chris Maiden in the North Penn net.
The scoring slowed down a little bit in the second period. The Knights netted three goals and the Indians scored their lone marker, by Sebastian Watters, his first goal of the season.
In the third, it appeared to be just a matter of time before North Penn ended the game early. Nathan Oh and Stevens scored 12 seconds apart and Joshua Kaufhold ended it at 10:40.
The SHSHL playoffs begin Monday and continue Wednesday and Thursday. The AA playoffs will be composed of the top eight teams in the National and Continental Conferences and the A playoffs will have the top four teams in that conference.
North Penn 11, Souderton 1
North Penn 5 3 3 – 11
Souderton 0 1 0 – 1
First period: 1, Andrew Galetta NP (Nathan Oh, Tyler Greenstein) 5:19; 2, Greenstein NP (Oh, Galetta) 5:57; 3, John Kim NP (Alex Stevens, Connor Atkinson) 6:28; 4, Oh NP (Greenstein, Eric Sarbacker) 10:15; 5, Luke Van Why NP (Galetta) 12:11.
Second period: 6, Jared Albano NP (Greenstein, George Boyle) 2:55; 7, Greenstein (unassisted) 5:28; 8, Sebastian Watters S (Tyler MacPhee, Austin Mower) 7:41; 9, Galetta NP (G. Boyle) 10:49 PP.
Third period: 10, Oh NP (Galetta) 5:20; 11, Stevens NP (Joshua Kaufhold) 5:32; 12, Kaufhold NP (Galetta) 10:40.
Shots: NP 57, S 13. Saves: Chris Maiden (NP) 12, Jon Pritchard (S) 46.
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 3, PENNSBURY 3
The Patriots took a 3-1 lead into the final period when the Falcons came roaring back to knot the score, forcing the Patriots to settle for the tie.
Goals by Colin Quinn and Owen Long (Jake Semrow assist) gave the Patriots a 2-0 lead. Jake Sieger found the net on a power play goal, using a Ben Dous assist, to make it a 2-1 game at the end of one period.
Jasen Cluckey scored midway through the second period to put the Patriots on top 3-1. That lead turned out to be anything but secure.
Dous scored just over a minute into the period, and it was a 3-3 game when Jake Machlovitz scored a power play goal (Dous/Anthony Bench assists) 5:29 into the final period. That 3-3 tie stood the rest of the way. Both goalies – East’s Chris McIntyre and Pennsbury’s August Dous – recorded 22 saves in a contest that saw both teams take 25 shots.
Central Bucks East 2-1-0 3
Pennsbury 1-0-2 3
Shots: CBE 25, Pennsbury 25.
Saves: Chris McIntyre (CBE) 22, August Dous (P) 22.
First period: 1, Colin Quinn, CBE; 2, Owen Long CBE (Jake Semrow) 5:46; 3, Jake Sieger P (Ben Dous) 6:56.
Second Period: 4, Jasen Cluckey CBE, 8:00.
Third Period: 5, Ben Dous P, 1:05; 6, Jake Machlovitz P (Ben Dous, Anthony Bench) 5:29.
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