North Penn downed Lansdale Catholic 5-2 in a battle of neighboring rivals on Wednesday. To view photos of all the action, please visit the photo gallery.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD – The toughest position to fill on a high school ice hockey team is the goalie.
Let's face it. No one really wants to stand in there while getting peppered with frozen rubber disks.
No one, that is, except the goalies for North Penn and Lansdale Catholic.
The Knights' goalie, Cody Matthews, got the better of the Crusaders' net-minder, Helen Cooney, as North Penn won the game at Hatfield Ice 5-2.
But the score isn't an indication of how the two goaltenders played.
“Both goalies played phenomenal,” said North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis. “I've been lucky the last three years to have Cody and Jake (Wolff) both in the net.
“It doesn't matter which one of them I play in net, they both play phenomenal. We can always rely on our goalies to bail us out.”
Matthews was especially strong in goal for the Knights. He made 35 saves and fought through a five-minute penalty situation at the end of the second period.
But Cooney was no slouch in her own right. The sophomore stopped 37 shots in her first game back on the ice.
“She just got cleared to play yesterday,” Mark DiDonato, the LC coach, said. “She's been out four weeks with a concussion.”
DiDonato's big problem is that he has no back-up goalie right now. That makes Cooney's time in net very important – and long.
“She plays for the girls team and she has a club team,” said DiDonato. “I don't want to burn her out.”
Vaitis definitely has the advantage over DiDonato in goalies since he has two who have been with him for three years.
“I've got two of possibly the best goalies in the league,” he said. “Cody was in the net tonight and Jake's going to be in next week.
“Cody had some big saves for us early in the game and getting through that five-minute penalty was big for us. We got out of that at 2-1, got our lines back together then and just kept on playing and ended up putting a couple more in the net.”
That five-minute spot at the end of the second period was big for both teams in different ways. North Penn played strong defense and survived through a two-man deficit for the latter part of it while Lansdale Catholic couldn't dent the net to tie the game.
“I think the key to the win for us was we just kept on playing our system,” Vaitis said. “For us it was just that we kept on playing and eventually the breaks were going to go our way and we'd start putting the puck in the net.”
For DiDonato, it was just the opposite.
“That was a problem,” he said of the lack of offense during the five-minute penalty. “That was the main stumbling block.
“That was our missed opportunity. You've got to take advantage of that.”
North Penn jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the opening period. With 3:39 left in the first period, Caleb Witzaney picked up a loose puck near the blue line, skated through the LC defense and flipped the puck into the top right corner of the net for the unassisted goal.
The Knights upped the ante early in the second period. Matt Barkley scored with 12:52 remaining with assists going to Kevin Saylor and Jeremy Snyder.
But the Crusaders didn't go away. They got on the scoreboard slightly less that four minutes later when J.T. Volpe beat Matthews off an assist from Nick Cunningham to make the score 2-1.
Lansdale Catholic tied the game with 5:01 gone in the third period. Pat Longhitano scored a short-handed goal with an assist from Anthony Valerio.
But then Witzany stepped up again. With 7:23 left in the game, he scored his second goal, also unassisted, to put the Knights back in control.
That goal was followed about two minutes later by a score by freshman Alex Peterson and then three minutes after that by a marker by Christian Ahn. Matt Stella got the assist on Peterson's goal and Peterson assisted on Ahn's goal.
Witzany drew praise from his coach.
“He's the best defenseman in the league,” Vaitis said. “He's the best player in the league.
“He does such a good job back there defensively. He kind of leads the charge and does a great job with it.”
The victory was also a bit of revenge for the Knights against the Crusaders.
“That was a big game for us,” said Vaitis. “We tied them last year 4-4.
“I think we got lucky with the tie last year. They kind of outplayed us.
“It was important for us to have a good start which we did. We came out and jumped on these guys early.”
North Penn 5, Lansdale Catholic 2
Lansdale Catholic 0 1 1 – 2
North Penn 1 1 3 – 5
First Period
Goals: Witzany (NP) unassisted 3:39. Penalties: Haney (LC) roughing 15:25; Bideau (N) tripping 13:35.
Second Period
Goals: Barkley (NP) 12:52 Saylor and Snyder assists; Volpe (LC) 8:54 Cunningham assist. Penalties: McCorry (LC) interference 11:25; M. Longhitano (LC) and Saylor (NP) 11:11 cross checking; Saylor (NP) 4:49 5-minute major and game misconduct; Witzany (NP) 25.1 tripping.
Third Period
Goals: P. Longhitano (LC) 10:59 Valerio assist; Witzany (NP) 7:23 unassisted; Peterson (NP) 5:18 Stella assist; Ahn (NP) 2:14 Peterson assist. Penalties: Carty (LC) 12:18 tripping; Nace (LC) 3:54 roughing.
PENNRIDGE 6, SOUDERTON 3
The Rams knocked the Indians from the ranks of the undefeated on Wednesday night, this despite being outshot 35-11. The difference in the game was the 32-save performance of Pennridge goalie Steven Wilms and the superb four-goal effort of Matt Brown in the third period that turned a 3-2 deficit into the big win.
The Indians led 1-0 at the end of one period, thanks to a goal by Daniel Rock (Alex Politsky/Kyle Milosec assists). They upped that lead to 2-0 after Dylan Manto scored an unassisted goal nine seconds into the second period, but the Rams came roaring back, using goals by Andrew Wunnenberg (Aaron Crosson assist) and Leland Stockman (Tyler Shagen/Steven Wilms asssits) with Stockman’s a power play goal. The Indians went on top 3-2 after Rock scored his second goal of the night, this one with a Connor Walsh assist.
The third period belonged to Brown, who scored the equalizer 90 seconds into the period (Tyler Shagen/Stockman assists). Brown connected for the game winner midway through the period, using a Shagen assist. For good measure he added two more, the first with a Michael Eagan assist and the next – a shorthanded goal – with assists from Shane Dotterer/Stockman.
While the Indians saw their record drop to 4-1, the Rams improved to 2-2 on the young season.
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