By Scott Huff
The Suburban High School Hockey League opened its league best-of-three championship finals in both the Class AA and Class A Divisions Tuesday night. The second game of the series will be played Wednesday with a third - if needed – to be played on Thursday night.The Class AA title series features Central Bucks East and Pennsbury while the Class A championship series features regular season champion Hatboro-Horsham against Lansdale Catholic.
All games for both the Class AA and the Class A will be played at the Bucks County Ice rink. The Class AA games begin 7 pm, while the Class A games begin at 8:40 pm.
The results for the all-important first game in both classifications are in, and …
Central Bucks East is still the Beast
Central Bucks East spread out the scoring as the Patriots opened the three-game set with Pennsbury with a 4-1 victory. Four different Patriots found the back of the net in the contest.
“The seniors would like nothing better than to win the (SHSHL) playoffs and end their careers with an exclamation point,” said Central Bucks East head coach Ken Latchum. “The core of this team has really been together six to eight years, counting club, middle school, and junior varsity.
“I felt that both teams came out a little sluggish,” added Latchum. “We got off to a quick 2-0 lead, but when Pennsbury scored it seemed to wake us up.”
CB East scored a pair of first period goals by Joe Ridolfi on a power play at 4:23 and on an even strength goal by John Esposito. The Patriots outshot the Falcons 10-8 in that initial period.
The second period was scoreless and East net minder Justin Goila stopped all five of Pennsbury’s shots, and Falcon goalie Ben Herring stopped 12 East shots on goal.
Pennsbury sliced the lead to 2-1 on a goal by Linder Kenyon with 8:30 left in regulation.
“When we got it to 2-1, I thought we were back in the game,” said Pennsbury head coach John Bria. “But we had a couple of mental lapses, and they came back and got two quick scores.”
The Pats scored what proved to be the final two goals of the game in a 23-second time span in the third period. Mike Palmer scored at 8:04, and Tom Schloendorn scored at the 7:41 mark to conclude the scoring.
“I thought we did a great job of stopping (SHSHL leading scorer) Ken McCormick,” said Latchum. “He hurt his collarbone early in the game, and he really didn’t look the same. Any time he doesn’t score on you, you did something right.”
“Ken will put some ice on it, and he should be ready to go,” said Bria. “He has a strong sense of confidence in what he can do – and that’s why I love the guy.
“We have to learn quickly from our mistakes,” added Bria. “We want to extend the series to a third game, but we have to be ready both mentally and physically.”
Score By Periods:
Central Bucks East 2 0 2 * 4
Pennsbury 0 0 1 * 1
First Period:
CBE: Joe Ridolfi (Mike Palmer) -- [power play]
CBE: John Esposito (Austin Cinalli) – [even]
Second Period:
None
Third Period:
Pennsbury: Linder Kenyon (Nigel Honegger) – [even]
CBE: Palmer (Nick Patullo) – [even]
CBE: Tom Schloendorn (Esposito) – [even]
Shots On Goal:
CB East – 35
Pennsbury – 22
Saves:
CBE – Justin Golia – 21
Pennsbury – Benjamin Herring – 31
No Moe, No Jack, But there is a Manny
Manny Billones scored the game winning goal in overtime as the Hatters of Hatboro-Horsham bested Lansdale Catholic – 5-4. The game – like every other Class AA or Class A games – was played at Bucks County Ice.
“There was so much electricity in the air tonight,” said Hatboro-Horsham head coach Tricia Silvestri. “Our student section really comes out to support us, and the players played the game with a lot of energy because of it.
“The one thing that we have to be careful about is not to get too comfortable,” added Silvestri. “We won the first game of the series – and that is great – but it doesn’t give us anything but a one-game lead in a three-game series.”
The Hatters – who won the SHSHL American Division regular season title this year – jetted out to a 2-0 first period lead on goals by Patrick Durkin and Chris Giuliani.
The Crusaders – who finished third in the division behind Hatboro-Horsham and Upper Dublin – tied the score on goals by Andrew Hart and Anthony Valerio. The Hatters regained the lead by the close of the period on a goal by Durkin.
LC scored a pair of third period goals off the sticks of Michael Shiels and Kevin Quinn, while the Hatters scored on a goal by Giuliani. The game spilled into overtime.
The only shot of the overtime period was taken by Hatboro-Horsham’s Billones – and it proved to be the game winner.
“We play them at the same time and the same place,” said Silvesrti. “And I hope we have the same result – minus the overtime.”
Score By Periods:
Hatboro-Horsham 2 1 1 1 * 5
Lansdale Catholic 0 2 2 0 * 4
First Period:
HH – Patrick Durkin (Harry Nesbitt)
HH – Chris Giuliani (Nesbitt & Durkin)
Second Period:
LC – Andrew Hart (unassisted)
LC – Anthony Valerio (Hart & Joe Magarity)
HH – Durkin (Manny Billones & Josh Gresko)
Third Period:
LC - Michael Shiels (Pat Longhitano)
HH – Giuliani (unassisted)
LC – Kevin Quinn (Brendan Curtis)
Overtime:
HH – Billones (unassisted)
Shots On Goal:
Lansdale Catholic – 22
Hatboro-Horsham – 24
Saves:
LC – Ben Mills – 19
HH – Jimmy Salfiti - 18
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