FALCONS' OFFENSE TAKES FLIGHT -- There was little doubt coming into the 2011-12 season that the National Division would yet again contain some of the top teams in the Suburban High School Hockey League. There was little doubt that Pennsbury would be one of those top teams.
For the Falcons, though, there was some doubt as to where their offense would come from.
Having graduated Ken McCormick and Mike Hlatky, who combined for more than 75 goals and 150 points last season, Pennsbury coach John Bria came into this season looking for scoring from newcomers as well as from returning players who would need to step into larger roles.
He's received both.
After nine and 10 games, respectively, Nigel Honegger and tri-captain Luke Matthews are both ready to shatter their point totals from last season. Honegger has a team-leading 16 points, with a pair of shorthanded goals among his seven tallies. Matthews has a team-leading 10 goals among his 15 points.
And as far as newcomers are concerned, the Falcons -- as well as their opponents -- are getting a long look at a freshman who may be one of the most dangerous forwards in the league for the next four years in John Thornton.
"John is a real special player," Bria said of the frosh, who is tied with Honegger with 16 points. "We knew he was good, but so far he's really exceeded his expectations. He's done a phenomenal job this year. He plays with such poise and confidence as a freshman, it's almost like he's a junior or senior out there. He's really not intimidated by the bigger kids at all. He really comes to play."
In addition, defenseman Ryan Murphy has eight points, and 10 other players have registered points this season.
Those contributions have been crucial for the Falcons, who enter December with a 6-3-1 overall record, 3-1-1 for 7 points, tied for third in the National Division. Their 38 goals are second only to league-leading Council Rock South in the division.
"That's what we were striving for, we had to spread out the scoring," Bria said. "Last year we relied on our guns, McCormick and Hlatky. They're gone, and the kids realized they had to step up. That's the nice part, we've got a little more spread-out scoring."
Of course, when it comes to Pennsbury ice hockey, defense and goaltending have always been the name of the game. And that's no different this year.
Ben Henning and newcomer Jeff Stitt have split time in goal for the Falcons, who have already posted a pair of shutouts this season. Leading the defense are Drew Sweetland, Ryan Daley and tri-captain Murphy. They're also joined by a freshman on defense, as Mike Tarasiewicz joins the blueliners.
"The defense has done a pretty good job," Bria said. "We're still making mistakes, but we try to improve on them every game. We'll go as far as our defense and goaltending will carry us, I'm convinced of that. If we don't play good defense and have good goaltending, we're not going to go very far in the league and in playoffs."
As they head into December, the Falcons will get a pretty good idea of where they stand, especially on defense. Pennsbury will meet undefeated Council Rock South -- which has scored 54 goals heading into Wednesday's games -- on Dec. 1 (at 8:55 p.m. at Grundy Ice Center), then turn around to face Pennridge and its league-best 57 goals the next night at 7:20 p.m. at Hatfield Ice.
"We know (Council Rock South) can put pucks in the net," Bria said. "We've got to try to limit our mistakes. We've got to play a mistake-free hockey game. We're going to do the best we can, and if we can do that, we have a chance, and that's all we want to do, is have a chance. Because we know they're that good, but at the same time, we're not afraid of them.
"I told them we'll get a real indicator of where we are after Council Rock, and Pennridge Friday night. South will be a good measuring stick for us, to see where we're at. We upset them last year in the league playoffs, so I'm sure their returning players probably will be thinking about that. That was one of our perfect games, and that's kind of what we have to do again."
YOUTH IS SERVED AT UPPER MORELAND -- Upper Moreland went winless in the American Division season and had just two wins all last season. Their leading scorer didn't even reach 20 points.
Coming into this season, the Golden Bears had just three seniors leading a squad that would rely heavily on young players, including freshmen in key roles.
But that didn't stop coach Jim Stampler from setting a lofty goal for his team.
"This is a club that's never been to the Flyers Cup," Stampler said. "So I put it out there at the very beginning, 'I'm not going to be happy unless we make it to the Flyers Cup.' They bought into that, bought into playing good team defense, defense-first, and if we keep goal totals down and stay out of the box, we can be successful.
"When you have a young team like that, they want to be good, and that's half the battle. No matter what I ask them to do, they go out and they do it because they want to be good."
What a difference a year makes. The Golden Bears enter December with a 4-3 overall record, and they're 1-2 for 2 points and third place in the American Division. And last year's leading scorer, Matt Baumgardner, already has 18 points in seven games in his junior campaign.
The big difference, offensively, has been the addition of freshmen Sean Lloyd and Nick Park. Heading into Wednesday's games, Lloyd's 13 goals were tops in the league and his 19 points put him tied for second. But it was when Park was moved up to the first line that the Golden Bears became a true offensive threat.
"I was hoping Baumgardner would give me what he's giving me, he was a pretty good producer last year as a sophomore," Stampler said. "He's gotten a little bit bigger, a little bit faster, improved his game. Lloyd is a freshman, I wasn't sure how he was going to make the change over from jayvee to varsity. But he's a big kid and he wants to be good and he wants to win. He started out as a second-line player and now he's on the first line.
"Nick Park is usually a defender on his club team, but we put him up there because he's such a good passer, and as soon as we put him up there, that line started taking off. He's a guy that's just willing to pass the puck and dish off to everybody else. We didn't expect to have him up there, but it's worked out quite well for us."
Backing up the potent offense are junior Jared Burch, a three-year starter in goal, and seniors Eric Tompkins and Robert Goold leading the defense. Josh Barber, a converted forward, leads all UM defensemen with 7 points.
"All our defensemen are back," Stampler said. "Defensively, we're in good shape, and we have a really good goalie in Jared.
"I'm really happy with where we are, but for as good as we are right now, we're going to be much better by the end of the year."
The Golden Bears will have plenty of tests during the month of December to gauge just where they stand and how good they can be. They'll host Upper Dublin at 7:20 p.m. Thursday at Wintersport Ice Sports Arena, then they'll have a home-and-home set against Wissahickon on Dec. 14 and 15. The following week, Upper Moreland will face William Tennent in a National Division crossover game, then meet Continental Division frontrunners Central Bucks South.
"The next four or five games are going to be really tough for us," Stampler said. "I think we'll know by Christmas how good we're going to be."
The Golden Bears have already notched a victory over Abington, and took a huge step forward in a 5-1 loss to Council Rock South on Oct. 10, a game in which Burch faced 52 shots.
"Council Rock South was a real moral victory," Stampler said. "I think that's when they realized, if we can hang with these guys, we can play with anybody. We put it out there before the Rock game, 'Here's your measuring stick. If you can hang in there with this team, we're going to be able to play with anybody.' Council Rock's beaten up a lot of teams a lot worse than 5-1. That was big, and then we turned around and beat Abington, that made them realize right there that we can play with these guys."
And, with six more league games to be played in the young season, it means that the Golden Bears control their own destiny.
"I think this team can contend," Stampler said. "We still have a fairly young team but we're getting pretty good.
"We try to take each game individually, try not to look too far ahead. But I try to look at the season as a first half and second half. The way we're playing right now, even if we come in at .500 the first half, we can do better the second half, and then we'll be where we need to be."
PENNRIDGE OFFENSE TO FACE LEAGUE TESTS -- Quick … name the two teams in the Suburban High School Hockey League that entered December with five players already in two-digit scoring.
The first team should be fairly simple … Council Rock South. The second team … maybe not so easy. After all, this squad had a 6-16-1 overall record last season and had just one player among the top 40 point-scorers in the league.
What a difference a year makes, because Pennridge enters the final month of 2011 with a 6-2-1 overall record (2-2-1 for 5 points, fourth place in the Continental Division). And heading into Wednesday's games, the Rams led the SHSHL with an eye-popping 57 goals and five players with at least 10 points. The high-scoring Rams have a pair of 10-goal games and a 13-goal explosion in a victory over Upper Dublin earlier in the month.
Matt Brown, last season's leading scorer, leads the way again this year with 12 goals and 19 points (both tied for second in the league) in eight games. Shane Lyons has 11 assists among his 15 points, Kyle Henofer has 9 goals and 12 points, and Justin Roberts and Zach Heitzenrater each have 7 goals and 10 points on the season.
That offense will be tested as the season moves on. The Rams will play 12 Continental Division foes among their 14 remaining games, and there's no shortage of fine defense and goaltending in the division.
Central Bucks South and Souderton have allowed just 16 goals thus far, and North Penn has allowed a mere 19 goals to go along with its impressive 45 goals scored. Jake Wolff and Cody Matthews have split time in goal for the Knights, who have yet to lose a game this season (5-0-4 overall, 4-0-2 league). Powering a very spread-out Knights' offense is Jeremy Snyder with 12 points and Ryan Merk, Caleb Witzaney and Matt Stella with 11 points each. Ten other players have figured in the scoring for the Knights, who are especially dangerous on special teams with four power play goals and three shorthanded tallies, two of those from Ted Stoler.
The Knights enter December a point back of division leader Central Bucks South (6-1-1 overall, 5-0-1 league). Connor Bechtel's 13 points lead the Titans, with Nick DeLaurentis close behind with 11 points. Bobby Mallon has 7 assists among his 9 points, and Dominic Bova and Kevin Casey are proving to be shorthanded specialists, with each netting a pair of goals with a man down. The Titans boast six power play and six shorthanded goals on the season. Kyle Beeson and Adam Calabrese have split time in goal for the Titans, who have posted one shutout and have allowed a total of three goals in the past three games.
Central Bucks East sits third in the division (2-4-2 overall, 2-4-2 league). Eight of the Patriots' 23 goals have come on the power play. Austin Baty's five goals in the past two games have helped power East to their first two wins of the season. Baty leads the team with 9 points in seven games. Zach Davis has 6 points and Joe Ridolfi, Austin Chase and Joe Sculley each have five points.
Souderton opened the season with 23 goals in its first three games. But the Big Red have found the net just five times in their last three games heading into Wednesday's games. They stand at 3-3 overall, 2-3 in the league. Brian McMullin leads the team with 9 goals and 13 points. Tyler Dipietro has 10 points and Dylan Manto 7. Peter Clarke has tended the nets in every game and has a 2.67 goals against average and one shutout for the Big Red.
Central Bucks West opened the season with a 7-5 win over Lansdale Catholic in a crossover game, but has gone winless in its next seven games. The Bucks stand at 1-7 overall, 0-7 league. They are led offensively by Austin Siemion and his 10 goals and 13 points. West begins the new month with a game against Hatboro-Horsham, which is winless in eight games this season. The two teams will square off at 8:40 p.m. Thursday at Bucks County Ice Sports Center searching for a victory.
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