Pennridge advanced to the Flyers Cup final against Council Rock South with a win over Downingtown West at Hatfield Ice on Thursday night. Photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f710114994
Flyers Cup AA semifinal
#1 Pennridge 10, #4 Downingtown West 1
By Craig Ostroff
It was a shockingly impressive total for Pennridge – 6 goals, including a Shane Dachowski hat trick, one power play goal, two shorthanded tallies and chasing Downingtown West’s starting goalkeeper.
That’s a lot of accomplishments for a single game. But the Rams managed to do all that before the buzzer had even sounded to end the first period.
So what did the top-seeded Rams do for an encore across the final two periods? They maintained the intensity and aggressive play, added four more scores, and kept the explosive Whippets’ offense under control to steamroll to a 10-1 win in Thursday’s Flyers Cup Class AA Semifinal matchup. Playing in the shadow of the banner honoring the 2022 State Championship Pennridge squad, the 2024 team punched its ticket to its third consecutive Flyers Cup Final.
“From the opening drop of the puck, they were incredible tonight,” Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna said of his charges. “(Downingtown West) beat the crap out of us in a preseason tournament and it wasn’t even close. So, I didn’t really know what to expect, but we were great. But I’ve said this over and over for three years, with this group, every single big game, even the ones we’ve lost, these guys show up.”
It took just two minutes to open the scoring, as Andrew Savona deftly stole the puck in the neutral zone, then scored off a setup from Kevin Pico.
Shortly thereafter, the Rams found themselves with a two-man advantage, and with a Whippet player without his stick in the defensive end, Shane Dachowski ripped in a shot from the side of the net (Tyler Manto and Pico assists) to make it 2-0.
The Rams then worked some shorthanded magic, scoring two goals on the same Whippet power play, with Dachowski (Colin Dachowski, Pico assists) hammering home a
pass across the goalmouth, then Josh Kelly (Shane Dachowski assist) ripping home a left-handed snapshot from the right side of the ice less than a minute later to double the lead to 4-0.
“Every time we’re shorthanded, we’re told to just go,” Shane Dachowski said. “We’re really good at that.”
“We love shorthanded goals, we thrive on shorthanded goals,” Montagna said. “We preach offense, we want to go offense, and that was a real backbreaker tonight. A lot of teams want to just ice the puck, but we are looking to go, stretching off the draw in every shorthanded situation. We have a philosophy that teams get lax defensively (on the power play) because they’re looking to score. We took advantage of that tonight.”
Nolan Shaw (Dhilan Howard assist) made it 5-0 before Dachowski completed the hat trick on a wraparound from behind the net on the rebound of a Pico shot. Savona also picked up an assist on the goal.
The Whippets scored their only goal of the game early in the second on a power play, and had several chances to add another, but Rams’ goalkeeper Jacob Winton (30 saves) made several big stops to keep Downingtown from gaining any additional momentum.
Then the Rams added two more, with Shane Dachowski (Manto assist) netting his fourth of the game and sixth of the Flyers Cup Tournament on the power play, followed by Nolan Shaw’s second of the night when he whacked at a bouncing shot from the point that found its way through a logjam in front of the net and into the cage.
“They made it 6-1 and I was getting ready to call a timeout,” Montagna said. “We scored to make it 7-1 and that stopped a lot of their push, but they came hard there. But its 6-1, with 12 minutes left in the period, Jacob had to make 3 or 4 big saves. They make it 6-2 there, it gets interesting.”
Not that the Rams were going to let that happen. Despite their sizable lead, there was never any question as to whether the team was going to be able to maintain its intensity.
“It’s a semifinal game, every shift counts,” Manto said. “We put up six in a period, they can certainly put six back. You have to play every shift.”
Manto, who had been mistakenly announced as a goal scorer in the first period, made it count in the third, scoring on a long shot from the left boards (Jared Garber assist) early in the third before Pico (1 goal, 4 assists) capped off the scoring with an unassisted goal with just under 11 minutes left in the game.
“As a defenseman, it’s always nice to score, but that’s not really my job,” said Manto, who finished with a goal and two helpers. “I take pride in trying to stop guys and keeping them off the board.”
And the Rams did just that. Lost amidst the 10-goal outburst was a solid defensive effort from the top seed that limited second chances and killed 5 of 6 Whippet power
plays.
“They’re very heavy on the rush, so we tried to eliminate the rushes as much as we could, kept moving and tried to control the puck in the zone when we could,” Manto said.
The win propels Pennridge into the Flyers Cup Class AA Final for the third straight year. And they will face a very familiar opponent for the right to hoist the Cup.
The Rams will square off against second seed Council Rock South in Wednesday’s final, set for 8:45 pm at Hatfield Ice Arena Gray. It will be a rematch of the 2022 final, which saw the Rams earn a 5-1 victory to win the program’s first Flyers Cup. It will also be the fourth meeting of the year between the two league rivals. Pennridge won the first matchup 7-3 on December 13. The Golden Hawks took an 8-7 overtime victory on February 7, then used a four-goal third period to pull away for a 7-2 win on February 29 to successfully defend their SHSHL 2A National Division Championship.
For all the hard work and grueling effort it’s taken to get to this point, this matchup seems to have been all but inevitable. And there’s no one else that the Rams would rather play.
“This is the only way it could have ended,” Montagna said. “We got them two years ago, we both fell a little short last year, and from Day 1 this year, this was the only way it could have happened.
“I wanted South to win, I wanted this to be a Suburban League final and I wanted it to be us two because we’re the two best teams and that’s what you want to see. I have a ton of respect for them and they’re really, really good and we struggled with them the last couple games, so we’ll see what we can do.”
“It means everything, it’s a rivalry, it’ll be a fun game,” Manto said. “As a senior, I’d love to win it. It’s important to focus on our game, and whatever the game plan is, we’re going to follow it and play our best.”
“I think we all wanted to play South again, especially after the league championship, and two years ago we played them (in the Flyers Cup Final),” Shane Dachowski said. “They’re our biggest rival, everyone on our team is looking forward to it. I think everyone knows what they need to do when we go out there.”
Downingtown West 0-1-0 1
Pennridge 6-2-2 10
First period: 1. Andrew Savona Pr (Kevin Pico) 14:56; 2. Shane Dachowski Pr (Tyler Manto, Kevin Pico) 13:05 PP; 3. Shane Dachowski Pr (Colin Dachowski, Kevin Pico) 7:40 SH; 4. Josh Kelly Pr (Shane Dachowski) 6:52 SH; 5. Nolan Shaw Pr (Dhilan Howard) 5:15; 6. Shane Dachowski (Kevin Pico, Andrew Savona) :51.
Second Period: 7. Joseph Butter DW (Stephen Plzak) 14:19 PP; 8. Shane Dachowski Pr (Tyler Manto) 10:05 PP; 9. Nolan Shaw Pr (James Rush, Colin Dachowski) 5:58.
Third period: 10. Tyler Manto Pr (Jared Garber) 12:45; 11. Kevin Pico Pr (unassisted) 10:57.
Shots: Downingtown West 31; Pennridge 43. Saves: Justin Adams, Tom O’Brien (DW) 33; Jacob Winton (Pr) 30.
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