This week’s notebook features Pennridge, Abington and Upper Moreland.
NO REST FOR PENNRIDGE’S WEARY …Timex used to brag that its wristwatches “Take a licking and keep on ticking.”
That motto just might end up being appropriated by the Pennridge ice hockey team, which continues to lose players to injury, yet continues to motor along. As teams head into February, the Rams maintain second place in the Continental Division at 9-3-2 (20 points). North Penn is close behind at 8-3-3. And despite all the injuries, the Rams possess an impressive 13-4-2 overall record.
So how do they “keep on ticking”?
“The kids have been unbelievable,” said coach Larry Wheatley. “They’ve picked up the slack. Everybody’s chipped in. Guys that you really didn’t expect to do much, or even hear from, have really picked up their games.
“I’m happy with all of them. I could pick each game and give you two or three different guys who have stepped up. You can’t pick one or single anyone out. It’s all of them.”
The Rams could have been dealt a crushing blow when goalkeeper Dustin Wexler (whose brother Jake is the latest addition to the injury list with a broken hand) went down with a groin injury. Fortunately for the Rams, they’ve got another excellent goalie on the team.
Eric McCrorie – who had been splitting time with Dustin Wexler in the nets – has played in all but seven minutes in the past six games and will continue to carry the load until Wexler can return. In addition to his solid play, which included his first shutout of the season, McCrorie has adjusted well to being the “main man” between the pipes.
“It’s tough when you’re the only guy, there’s no real push to be the best, but he’s put the pressure on himself,” Wheatley said of the senior. “The games we really need to win, he’s been in them.”
Nonetheless, Wexler’s presence is missed when he’s unable to suit up.
“We told them, they not only have to be thriving off each other, they have to be best buddies as well,” Wheatley said. “If they’re on the bench, they need to be talking to the goalie when they come over during timeouts. You notice things from the bench and you can relay that to the goalie. Not having him on the bench is tough.”
Wheatley said that Wexler appears close to returning to the ice, though he admits he’s not opposed to taking extra care and extra time if need be.
“Dustin’s been practicing with us, he looks sharp, he doesn’t look like he’s lost anything,” Wheatley said. “If he’s good to go, he’s going to be playing this game.
“But he injured his groin before, which makes us even more tentative. If he’s not quite ready, I’d rather have him for playoffs than push him right now. Eric’s carrying the load, so it’s not a big deal.”
The remaining skaters are doing quite a bit of carrying the load as well. Wheatley said he’s keeping the players focused only on the task at hand and not asking them to look ahead.
“They’re really kind of overworked right now,” he said. “We’re only running two lines, so it’s kind of tough.
“We’re trying to look at the closer goal, the next game. I feel they’re overstressed right now, and putting a lot of extra pressure on them by focusing on the payoffs would send the wrong message. Right now we’re just trying to take it game to game and try to deal with the problems as you get them.”
And he’s hoping that maybe one or two of the walking wounded will be cleared to play down the stretch. Because while Wheatley is trying not to add any pressure to his team, he certainly wants them – especially the nine seniors – to be able to take something solid out of this season.
“At the beginning of the season we took them away to camp,” Wheatley said, “and we asked them, ‘What are your achievements in hockey?’ You never heard, ‘I won this,’ ‘I won that,’ so this is a chance to do that, to do well. We’re hoping to be there in the end. We’re hoping we can get back one or two of these guys so that we can be that powerhouse I feel we can be.”
GHOSTS LEARNING LESSONS, MOVING FORWARD … Abington coach Pat Croce had high hopes of a quick revival for the Galloping Ghosts’ ice hockey program. In reality, the 2011-12 season has been a lesson in patience, learning from mistakes and overcoming adversity.
“In terms of where we are overall, I thought we would have been making the best of our opportunities, and we weren’t always doing that,” Croce said. “I thought there were times where we kind of took some steps backwards.
“Considering that we’re really trying to build the program from the ground up, if you expect anything different, you’re probably being too optimistic. Any time you get a group of young individuals together and some of them are used to winning, some of them aren’t, and you’re trying to develop them as a whole, you’re going to wind up taking a step backwards here or there. It’s all part of the growing progression.”
If it sounds as though Croce is unhappy with the effort of his players, nothing could be further from the truth. It hasn’t necessarily been easy, but those backward steps teach lessons, and Croce believes his team has taken those lessons to heart. That will – and does – make the Ghosts a better team.
“A lot of times people fall back on their comfort zones, and that’s been the case at times with our team,” Croce said. “Our comfort zone has been individual play, losing focus on the team aspect. Or when things don’t click, the default is to blame other things for the outcomes of games other than what they really are. In the beginning, we saw a little bit of that. Now, I think we’re in a better place. We don’t make those excuses. We might not come out on the winning end, but we always play a hard game. That’s all part of the growing process.”
The players are starting to show that growth. The Ghosts are packed with plenty of talented young players – particularly on defense – who will only continue to improve as they gain experience and improve their chemistry as linemates and teammates.
“Alex DiCristofano has a brother who played at McDevitt that was very good,” Croce said. “Alex on par to be just as good, if not better. Paul Abendroth is a junior who’s a pretty big and strong kid who works hard and he’s pretty nifty around the net.
“Our defense looks really good with Alex Gordon and Nicholas Scipione and Justin Adamski. Matt Berman is doing very well. And we have some freshman kids who really stepped up and played varsity for us while we had some guys injured. Guys like Nick Schenk and Brian Scipione. So on the defensive, I think we’re pretty solid.”
Croce points to last Thursday’s loss to Central Bucks South, one of the top teams in the SHSHL, as an example of how the Ghosts are growing and learning. Trailing 6-0 heading into the final period, Abington played a solid third, taking eight shots on goal to the Titans’ nine, and playing South to a 2-1 period.
“As the game went on and the score went up, we started to focus on, ‘Let’s win the next shift. Let’s win the next period,’” Croce said. “You look at the third period and we played a 2-1 game. That’s progress. At the beginning of year, we had some spells where we would go down by four goals and we couldn’t battle back. Now it’s a lot different.”
The Ghosts, just a year removed from not even fielding a varsity team, have put together a very respectable 6-11-1 record (4-9-1 in National Division play). They’ve recorded league victories over Neshaminy and Central Bucks West in the new calendar year and their remaining four games feature a matchup against William Tennent (which the Ghosts beat 3-1 in December) and a game against Pennsbury, which edged the Ghosts, 3-2, on Dec 8, as well as games against both Council Rock teams.
“The last time we played Pennsbury, we had two kids missing,” Croce said. “We were pretty thin there for a while, and we were focusing on everything going wrong, I think we’ve pulled it back together now. We’re in a good place now to give those teams tougher battles. It would be great to give Council Rock South a really good run for their money and see what happens.
“I’m happy with the way our team is now because of what we had to go through to get to this point. There’s a genuine attitude among all the boys that they want to come together and they want things to click and they want to be better. I think we’re in a better place now than we were in the middle of the year.”
GOALTENDING LEADS BEARS TO BRINK … Lansdale Catholic has already locked up the top spot in the American Division. Wissahickon sits in second with seven points and two league games left. Upper Moreland is in third with six points and one league game remaining. That means the Trojans will need to earn no more than one point in their last two league games to give the Golden Bears a shot to leapfrog the Trojans in the standings and into second place.
Of course, Upper Moreland must win Wednesday’s game against Upper Dublin first, or – to them, at least – the results of Wissahickon’s remaining games are moot.
Right now, all the Bears are focusing on is what’s in their own hands. And that means taking care of Upper Dublin.
“We know it’s our last league game,” said Upper Moreland coach Jim Stampler. “They handled us easily the first time we played them (3-0 on Dec. 1) and the guys took it pretty seriously the last time (a 6-4 Upper Moreland win on Jan. 19) and we’re going to take them pretty seriously Wednesday night.”
Perhaps no player will be more key to the Bears’ fate than Jared Burch. The junior netminder has been solid – and oftentimes spectacular – this season for the 7-8-1 Bears (3-5-0 in league play).
“Jared Burch has got to be one of the top goalies, not just in (Class) A, but AA as well,” Stampler said. “He’s the guy that carries the bulk of the load.
He’s really quick. He’s extremely confident. We’re being outshot in a lot of games, and he’s kept us in most games.”
In addition to his skill on the ice, Burch has developed into an intense leader for the Golden Bears.
“Jared’s one of those guys, he’ll get on a defenseman if he’s not doing the right thing, which is good. It’s another coach on the ice,” Stampler said. “He’s such a competitor and he expects everybody around him to be just as good a competitor. That’s what he wants and what he demands and that’s what makes him good.”
That will to win is something that has spread to the rest of the team as well.
“We have a lot of guys who want to win,” Stampler said. “Last year the kids were happy if we got a win; this year the kids expect to win and they’re upset if they don’t, so it’s a big difference from last year.”
Burch is supported by a solid, young defensive corps that will only get better in the future.
“Josh Barber’s been a real surprise for us,” Stampler said. “Here’s a kid who never played defense before last year. He’s been a plus for us. He hits people, throws his body around. Jake Park is a freshman who’s going to be an animal down the road. He’s big, strong and fast. He’s all the things you look for in a good defenseman. Our captain, Eric Tompkins, is a little guy, but he’s fiery, great on the bench, great in the locker room, keeps everybody focused.”
The young Upper Moreland squad finishes out the regular season with crossover games against likely playoff teams Pennsbury and North Penn. While the team is not looking any further down the road than Upper Dublin, Stampler expects that his squad will rise to the occasion against the two high-scoring non-league teams.
“We tell the guys, when you have these crossover games, they’re measuring sticks. You want to see how you do against those teams,” Stampler said. “We took Council Rock North to the last couple minutes of the game a couple weeks ago (a 3-2 North win on Jan. 18). We’ve done well against a lot of the top teams.”
ON THE ICE …February begins this week. That means that for the teams jockeying for a postseason berth, about every game means something in terms of points or seeding or simply gaining momentum for the second season.
Among the games to watch this week:
Upper Moreland at Upper Dublin, 8:40 p.m. Feb. 1, Bucks County Ice Sports Center.
Abington at Council Rock North, 6:50 p.m., Feb. 3 Warwick Ice Arena.North controls its destiny in the playoff hunt. National Division foe Abington is out of the running, but can still play spoiler. The Ghosts and Indians battled to a 2-2 tie when the two teams met in early November.
Souderton at Archbishop Wood, 7:15 p.m. Feb. 3, Bucks County Ice Sports Center.Wood has the edge in a three-way battle for positioning in the National Division. Souderton is in fourth place in the Continental but is still hoping for a higher playoff berth. This one will have playoff implications.
Lansdale Catholic at Wissahickon, 8:55 p.m. Feb. 3 at Bucks County Ice Sports Center. LC has already clinched the top spot in the American Division. A Wissahickon win secures second place for the Trojans.
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