To view photos of the Pennridge/North Penn game, visit the photo gallery and click on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
By Scott Huff
HATFIELD – North Penn (7-4-3, 17 SHSHL) needed a pair of rallies to defeat Pennridge (4-10-1, 9) by a 6-4 score in a Suburban High School Hockey League Continental Division game played at Hatfield Ice.The Knights, who remained in second place in the division behind Central Bucks East (10-3-0, 20), trailed 3-1 into the second period – tied the game at 3-3 - and fell behind 4-3 as the final period began.
The game actually wasn’t decided until the final minute with North Penn clinging desperately to a 5-4 lead. A face-off took place in the Ram offensive end, and North Penn captain Jim McKelvie took the critical draw for the Knights.
McKelvie won the draw – passed back to defenseman Caleb Witzaney who chopped the puck along the wall to Dave Heggan – who fired the disc into the open net to ice the win at 6-4 with 36 seconds left in the game.
“I like to be in that situation with the game on the line,” said McKelvie. “I am pretty successful on draws, and Caleb did a great job of getting the pass along the wall to Dave.
“Caleb had a great game for us tonight,” added McKelvie. “We saw that CB South won earlier tonight (5-0 against Souderton), and we knew that we needed to win this game to stay in second place.”
North Penn head coach Kevin Vaitis echoed McKelvie’s assessment of the play of Witzaney.“I’m thrilled that he is only a sophomore,” smiled Vaitis. “He is smart and works hard. He is one heckuva player.”
Heggan opened the scoring in the game for the Knights on a goal, which was assisted by McKelvie and Brandon Fishman.
Pennridge, though, would answer with three goals to take a 3-1 lead.
Matt Brown and Colin Murphy scored for the Rams in the first period, while Phil Egan scored a goal to open the scoring in the second period.
North Penn had its first rally to knot the score at 3-3 in the second period. The lone goal scorer for the Knights was Witzaney who scored both NP goals
Pennridge, though, would regain the lead by the close of the second period. Brown scored with 46 seconds left in the period on assists by Richard Thorton and Egan.
The Knights would seal the deal with three unanswered goals in the third period. McKelvie, Eric Himmel, and Heggan would find the back of the net for North Penn.
“We have developed quite a rivalry with Pennridge the last few years,” said Vaitis. “They always play us tough.”
“We had a couple of fundamental things we didn’t do well,” said Pennridge head coach Dave Lewis. “It isn’t a lack of talent, or a lack of effort, but we just didn’t get it done.”
North Penn 1 2 3 - 6
Pennridge 2 2 0 - 4
First Period:
NP: Dave Heggan (Jim McKelvie, Brandon Fishman)
PR: Matt Brown (Jeffrey Crowther)
PR: Colin Murphy (Kevin Scafidi)
Second Period:
PR: Phil Egan (Brown)
NP: Caleb Witzaney (Cody Matthews)
NP: Witzaney (McKelvie, Fishman)
PR: Brown (Richard Thorton, Egan)
Third Period:
NP: McKelvie (Witzaney)
NP: Eric Himmel (Richard Feher)
NP: Heggan (McKelvie, Witzaney)
Saves:
NP – Cody Matthews 28 saves
PR – Dustin Wexler 31 saves
Titans Shut Down Indians – again
HATFIELD - Central Bucks South (7-5-2, 16) defeated Souderton (2-9-2, 6) by a 5-0 score in the second game of the SHSHL season.
And the Titans repeated that 5-0 final against the Big Red in a game played at Hatfield Ice.
It was the SHSHL debut for CB South goaltender Kyle Beeson who stopped all 23 Souderton shots on goal to record the shutout.
“We felt that this would be a good opportunity for Kyle to jump into a game,” said CB South head coach Tom Coyne. “I was very pleased with the way that he played. He kept it simple and stayed square in the goal.”
After a scoreless first period, the Titans took the lead for good on a goal by Tom Dougherty in the second period.“We got off to a slow start tonight,” said Dougherty. “But as the game went on we got better and better.”
CB South scored two more second period goals as Bobby Mallon and Dominic Discenso turned on the goal light.
The Titans added a pair of unanswered goals in the third period. Andrew Farley and Matt Mason were the goal scorers for the winners.
“You might outscore Souderton, but you don’t outwork them,” said Coyne.
The Big Red managed 28 shots on goal – but could not find the back of the Titan net.
“It is frustrating,” said first year Souderton head coach Matt Montagna. “We work extremely hard, but we just don’t score. And if you can’t score, you can’t win.”
Central Bucks South 0 3 2 - 5
Souderton 0 0 0 - 0
First Period: None
Second Period:
CBS: Tom Dougherty (Tim Dirugeris)
CBS: Bobby Mallon (Connor Bechtel, Jimmy Milanesi)
CBS: Dominic Dicenso (Dirugeris, Nick Delaurentis)
Third Period:
CBS: Andrew Farley (Delaurentis, Matt Mason)
CBS: Mason (unassisted)
Saves:
CBS: Kyle Beeson – 23
S: Zach Hecht – 20
Hatters Top Trojans
Hatboro-Horsham (6-2-1,13) moved into a first place ahead of Upper Dublin (6-3-0, 12) in the SHSHL American Division with a 6-1 victory over Wissahickon (4-5-0, 8).
The game was played at the Bucks Ice Sports Center.
Kelsey Koelzer and Josh Gresko each scored a pair of goals to pace the Hatter attack, while Manny Billones and Patrick Durkin each scored solo goals for H-H.
The lone goal scorer for the Trojans was Brian Kaissi in the third period.
Hatter goaltender Vincent Mirarchi and Trojan net minder Adam Solomon each had 19 saves.
Hatboro-Horsham 2 2 2 - 6
Wissahickon 0 0 1 - 1
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