CB South edged CR South 6-4 to capture the SHSHL Varsity AA championships on Thursday night. Photos courtesy of Dara N. King Photography.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD -- There were two stretches during the third period of the Suburban High School Hockey League's AA championship game Thursday night when sanity seemed to take a holiday.
The first was early in the stanza and the other came a bit later. But both contributed greatly to the final outcome, a 6-4 victory by Central Bucks South over Council Rock South at Hatfield Ice.
The first involved a series of three goals scored within the span of 2:35 that saw Rock South take, lose and retake the lead. The Titans tied the game after the Golden Hawks had taken the lead, but Rock South grabbed the lead back eight seconds later.
That lead lasted until the second of these occurrences. It all came about because of two penalties called on the Hawks in the space of 34 seconds, giving the Titans a two-man advantage for 1:26.
They took that advantage and ran with it. CB South scored two power play goals 1:13 apart and then added another 1:15 later to salt the championship away.
"It's special teams," said CB South coach Shaun McGinty. "At this level, when you're given the opportunity, you have to cash in.
"The bottom line is we had the opportunity and we were able to cash in. The bell rang and I tell the boys all the time that when it rings, you've got to answer."
What did the coach tell his players as they prepared for the man advantage?
"He really wanted us to get pucks on net," Joe DeLaurentis said. "We were just trying to get shots on net.
"We knew we could do it if we kept shooting. We had an opportunity with the 5-on-3. We were trying to get shots, but when you have a 5-on-3, you have a lot more time. We knew we could score."
That sum it up pretty well, coach?
"In a power play, you just want to get shots," McGinty said. "We went four-for-six on the power play. That's a great percentage.
"We have to do that against a team that tore us apart early in the season on our power play. They had two short-handed goals on us."
This game had all the aspects of a whatever-you-can-do-I can-do-better game. The Titans scored the first goal of the game with 10:18 gone in the first period on only their second shot of the game.
But the Golden Hawks weren't worried. They came right back 22 seconds later with a goal of their own to tie the score.
It remained that way into the second period when teams again scored once, both on the power play.
Then came the third period. Rock South grabbed the lead when Dylan Feoli scored 45 seconds into the period.
However, CB South rallied the tie the score at the 2:27 mark on a goal by Matt Stoll. But eight seconds later, Logan Hurwitz untied the score for the Golden Hawks, giving them a 4-3 lead.
Rock South was called for two penalties, one at 8:05 and the second at 8:39, to give the Titans the two-man advantage. DeLaurentis scored at 9:11 on the power play, and Reis Braccio banged one home at 10:24 to put the Titans on top. DeLaurentis' goal at 11:39 was icing on the cake.
The Titans came out slightly slower than they had on Monday night when they beat William Tennent. In the end, it didn't hurt them.
"We weren't ready for the intensity of the game," Stoll said. "I think we came out a little slow.
"They came out with a bang so we had to answer. That late third period comeback - we really needed it."
Both teams will move into the Flyers Cup tournament. Central Bucks South will play the winner of the Spring Ford-Truman game and Council Rock South faces Souderton with both games being played at Revolution Ice Gardens on Wednesday, March 8.
CB South 6, CR South 4
CR South 1 1 2 – 4
CB South 1 1 4 – 6
First period: 1, Ryan Gingras CBS (Reis Braccio) 10:18; 2, Dylan Feoli CRS (Jake Houk) 10:40.
Second Period: 3, Matt Stoll CBS (Colin Abbonizio, Braccio) 9:03 PP; 4, Matt Owens CRS (Jared Wagenmann, Feoli) 12:58 PP.
Third period: 5, Feoli CRS (Owens) 0:45; 6, Stoll CBS (Evan King) 2:27; 7, Logan Hurwitz CRS (unassisted) 2:35; 8, Joe DeLaurentis CBS (Stoll) 9:11 PP; 9, Braccio CBS (unassisted) 10:24 PP; 10, DeLaurentis CBS (Abbonizio) 11:39.
Shots: CRS 26, CBS 32. Saves: Mason Procz (CRS) 26; Kevin Dorozinsky (CBS) 22.
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