North Penn & Council Rock South advanced to next week’s Flyers Cup semifinals. North Penn/Pennridge & CR South/Boyertown photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for galleries of both games. CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports' SHSHL ICE HOCKEY GALLERIES.
Flyers Cup AA quarterfinals
#2 NORTH PENN 5, #7 PENNRIDGE 0
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — It was almost like the passing of the torch in the Flyers Cup quarterfinal game between North Penn and Pennridge.
The game was won by the Knights, 5-0 over the Rams, advancing to the semifinals against Downingtown East on Thursday, March 13, at Hatfield Ice.
The torch passing came from the two teams’ nets.
The graduating senior goalie, Jacob Winton of Pennridge, considered by many to be the best goalie in the Suburban High School Hockey League, may be passing his crown to the freshman, North Penn net minder Andy Norton, who tossed the shutout at the Rams.
Winton actually made more saves than Norton, 25 to 24. However, those five goals scored by the Knights ran their total shots up to 30.
“Andy was outstanding in net,” said NP coach Kevin Vaitis. “Andy’s a freshman and he lives for these moments.
“We have two very good goalies in Andy and Aidan (Quigley). They’ve been great for us all season long.
“We knew putting (Norton) in net tonight he was going to bring his ‘A’ game, and he proved us right.”
How about the top goalie mantle being passed from Winton to Norton?
“If that’s the case,” Vaitis said, “I’ll take that because Winton has two state championships and two Flyers Cup titles. If he’s passing the torch to Andy, it means a lot of good things for North Penn.
“Hats off to Winton. He’s had an outstanding high school career.”
Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna wasn’t sure about the passing of the torch. But he does know that North Penn is going to be good in the coming years.
“They’re going to be an absolute monster to deal with moving forward with all the guys they have and only graduating one player,” he said. “Even when we got a chance in the second period, it was a lot of one and done. There were no rebounds; we weren’t getting great chances.”
For Norton, whose brother Sam is a sophomore forward on the team, it was a special game.
“I was really excited,” he said. “My first Flyers Cup game. I was just so excited to get out there and go, show them what I could do.”
And Norton didn’t concern himself with Winton.
“I’ve played him before,” he said. “We knew his groin was a bit hurt, so we got him moving.
“I knew my game was solid. I really didn’t worry about him too much, I just worried about me.”
North Penn opened the scoring in the first period. Nolan Shingle, off assists from Danny Cabrales and Sam Norton, beat Winton with 7:53 gone in the stanza on the power play.
Things remained that way at 1-0 until the 11:51 mark of the second period. James Boyle scored with an assist from Cabrales, once again on the power play.
It changed a bit in the third. North Penn scored three times to put the game out of reach. Cole Pluck scored twice in the third period and Landon Hostetter finished off the scoring.
Boyle finished the game with a goal and an assist to pace the Knight offense.
“Boyle had a great game for us,” said Vaitis. “He’s played well all season.
“He’s always a threat back there offensively whenever the puck touches his stick.
“He’s the third Boyle to go through the program. And he might be the most talented of the three.”
The game was bittersweet for Montagna. He will be leaving the program along with assistant coach Chris Pico.
“It’s hard,” he said. “I know it’s the right decision.
“I’ve coached club for almost 30 years, and I’d take coaching a big high school game over anything you do in club.
“I’m going to miss it. I’m going to miss it a lot.”
North Penn 5, Pennridge 0
Pennridge 0 0 0 — 0
North Penn 1 1 3 — 5
First period: 1, Nolan Shingle NP (Danny Cabrales, Sam Norton) 7:53 PP.
Second period: 2, James Boyle NP (Cabrales) 11:51 PP.
Third period: 3, Cole Pluck NP (S. Norton, Boyle) 1:16; 4, Pluck NP (Nolan Shingle, Cabrales) 7:33; 5, Landon Hostetter NP (Chris Silvotti) 14:24.
Shots: P 24, NP 30. Saves: Jacob Winton (P) 26; Andy Norton (NP) 24.
#1 COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 5, #9 BOYERTOWN 3
There are comebacks, and then there’s the Golden Hawks comeback in Thursday’s Flyers Cup quarterfinal in a game they trailed 3-0 with less than 12 minutes remaining.
Just when it looked as though a postseason of great promise would come to a heartbreaking end, the Hawks
came roaring back, scoring five unanswered goals in the final 11:19 in an inspired comeback to earn the win.
“It’s called heart, a lot of fight in them,” Rock South coach Joe Houk said. “We had (40)-plus shots on goal after two periods.
“We got that one (goal), and the floodgates opened. I knew it was going to happen. My guys just never quit. Every single game we’ve had to come back to win – we’ve won. We just outworked them, totally outworked them.”
The Hawks’ comeback was the very definition of heart, and it began with arguably the game’s biggest goal when Jeremy Rayher connected on a
power play goal with assists from Jake Weiner and Jackson Mosley to make it a 3-1 game.
Just over a minute later, Jake Weiner turned a pass from Jake Maurer into a goal that trimmed the Bears’ lead to one, and the game was deadlocked when Jordan Sarne scored a power play goal with a Rayher assist. The electrifying three-and-a-half-minute span was capped when Jagger Smith (Weiner assist) scored a goal with 7:54 remaining that gave the Hawks a 4-3 lead and stood as the game-winner.
Weiner’s empty net, short-handed goal with 38 seconds remaining gave the Golden Hawks their final margin of victory.
“We talked about it – win, lose or draw this game, we’re proud of these guys,” Houk said. “Just come out and do your job. I said, ‘If you come out and do your job, everything else falls in line. We’ve come from behind before. Now’s the time to dig down deep.’
“We got down 3-0, but as soon as we got that one – 3-1 is not where you want to be sitting. Not on our side but their side because now we’ve got the momentum. They called that timeout – we came back and put a couple more in. It was a good win for the kids. They really fought hard to get to where they’re at right now. I’m happy for them.”
The Golden Hawks’ dominance was underscored by their lopsided 68-23 advantage in shots. The Bears took a 2-0 lead in the opening period – a power play goal by Noah Cutillo (Brayden Havrilla) and the second by Logan Brown (Cutillo assist). They took that 2-0 advantage into the third period.
Through two periods, the Hawks held a 43-17 advantage in shots over the Bears, but they had nothing to show for it, thanks to the heroic effort in goal of Tyler Griffith who turned away all 43 shots.
Less than a minute into the third period, Jax Drost (Cutillo assist) scored a short-handed goal that put the Bears on top 3-0, and the stage was set for the Golden Hawks’ comeback.
“It was a good game,” Houk said. “I thought we outplayed them most of the game. A couple of dumb mistakes on our part on the defensive end - they got that shorty, which was absolutely unacceptable, and we’ll go back to the drawing board and work on that.
“I thought we outplayed them, but you have to finish. When you put enough shots on goal, one’s bound to go in. We fed on it from there.”
Council Rock South will face a red-hot 12th-seeded Spring-Ford team that – on the heels of its OT upset win over Central Bucks South – sent fourth-seeded Haverford home with a 4-0 quarterfinal win.
Boyertown 2-0-1 3
Council Rock South 0-0-5 5
Shots: Boyertown 23, CRS 68; Saves: Tyler Griffith (B) 62, Trey Prozzillo (CRS) 20.
First period: 1. Noah Cutillo B (Brayden Havrilla) 14:10; 2. Logan Brown B (Noah Cutillo) 7:20.
Second period: No goals
Third period: 3. Jax Drost B (Noah Cutillo) 16:20; 4. Jeremy Rayher B (Jake Weiner/Jackson Mosley) 11:19; 5. Jake Weiner CRS (Jake Maurer) 10:01; 6. Jordan Sarne CRS (Jeremy Rayher) 8:26; 7. Jagger Smith CRS (Jake Weiner) 7:54; 8. Jake Weiner CRS, 00:38.
Flyers Cup A quarterfinal
#1 GARNET VALLEY 10, #8 PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 0
Garnet Valley looked every bit the part of the top-seeded team, opening up a 7-0 lead after one period and bringing an early end to the contest with three more in the second.
Garnet Valley held a 34-13 advantage in shots.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 0-0-0 0
Garnet Valley 6-4-0 10
Shots: PW 13, GV 34; Saves: Julian Lucks/Lucas Bennett (PW) 24; Garrett Stoops (GV) 13.
First period: 1. Evan Reilly GV (Owen Parker/Dylan Orr) 14:28; 2. Kaden Longo GV (Nolan Stott) 13:10; 3. John (Jake) Morrow GV (Dylan Orr/Kevin Walton) 8:57; 4. Nolan Stott GV (AJ Tenhauisen) 7:53; 5. Jake Robinson GV, 4:01; 6. Kevin Walton GV (Jake Robinson) 00:57.
Second period: 7. Kevin Walton (John Morrow/Aiden Delfin) 15:30; 8. Kevin Walton GV (Nolan Stott) 12:33; 9. Jake Robinson (Dylan Orr/Matthew Abbonizio) 9:09; 10. Jeremy Hyczka GV (Owen Parker) 2:06.
- Log in to post comments
