2023 All-Area Teams (Delco)

April 7, 2023

All-Delco Hockey Player of the Year: Drew Knight’s points kept climbing, his ego did not

RADNOR — Drew Knight’s point total reached a level that begged to be talked about.

The soft-spoken Radnor forward wouldn’t bring it up. Even at the end of the season, he won’t admit to keeping an eye on it. But within the program, or with his buddies around the league, or just to fill idle time before faceoffs, Knight was kept apprised by others as to how high his numbers were climbing. “I tried to focus on the team and keep the individual stuff out of it, which I did a pretty good job of,” he said. “But some people – whether it’s my coaches or my teammates or other people I know through the league – would tell me, ‘Oh, I see you up there.’ And I’m like, yeah I guess.”

The temptation was hard to resist, as Knight’s point total shot upward by leaps and bounds – 50s, 60s, 70s. When it hit 81 at the end of the regular season, an assistant coach pointed out its proximity to the century mark, something Knight quickly shushed away.

More important to Knight than the number was what those points allowed. For a Radnor team that has largely been a non-factor in the ICSHL’s Central Division for most of Knight’s tenure, his lamp-lighting was a pathway to relevance. “What’s more important is how the team does,” Knight said. “If it’s leading to team success, I’m thrilled with that. But if it’s not going to lead to that, there’s no point in getting all those points as an individual, because all that matters is as a team.”

Knight got the best of both worlds. In just 20 games, he posted 90 points, the kind of bananas game tallies reserved for mythical stat lines in junior hockey. That included nine points in three playoff games, one of which the Raptors won, on the way to a Flyers Cup berth.

For those standout performances, Knight is the 2023 Daily Times Hockey Player of the Year.

Joining him on the first team are fellow forwards Kain Walker of Penncrest, Dylan Kouba of Garnet Valley and Cardinal O’Hara’s Luke Melito; defensemen Nick Dignazio of Strath Haven and AJ Moleski of Haverford; and goalie Matthew Beatty of Marple Newtown. All seven honorees are seniors. Dignazio is the lone holdover from last year. The All-Delco team is selected in consultation with area coaches.

Knight is Radnor’s first hockey Player of the Year since Chris Brennan in 2003 and 2004. He’s the first hockey All-Delco from Radnor since 2017 (Clayton Proctor). Those stats speak to the ebbs and flows of the Central, where in a class or two, teams can blink out of relevance or surge to new heights. Radnor has ridden those peaks and valleys. Knight started as a freshman in a trough, the division ruled by elite powers and the gulf between tiers vast. But this year, when three of the four first-round Central playoff games were upsets according to the seeds and a seven seed in Penncrest won it all, showed how things have drifted in a more egalitarian direction.

“My freshman year, it was tough,” Knight said. “The competition was crazy. I was intimidated going into games, playing guys twice my size and these teams that have crazy talent. But I think it really evened out over my high school career and into this year where really anyone could beat anyone any night of the week. I just think that Radnor specifically is in great hands going forward.”

Knight is at the forefront of what he hopes is a Radnor renaissance. Two of the Raptors’ leading forwards, Ryan Carr and Tucker Graham, are juniors, as is top defenseman Wim Van Rossum. The Raptors started a freshman in goal most of the season in James Danner. Knight and Graham finished 1-2 in points in Delco, Graham tallying 48 in 17 games before an injury ruled him out of the playoffs. Knight’s brilliance has given them time to develop, and Knight is quick to credit Graham and Carr as a big reason for his explosive season.

“All these goals that I’m scoring and assists that I’m giving, it’s because of my teammates,” he said. “I can’t score all these goals without being given great opportunities by Tucker, Ryan, Connor Baumann, Colin French. They’re all giving me great opportunities. It’s not really an individual thing for me because if it weren’t for the people around me, I would be nowhere near where I was.” Knight was still the one finishing at rates rarely seen. Some of the tallies are ludicrous: Six goals against Great Valley-Phoenixville; six against Marple Newtown; six goals and two assists vs. Lower Merion; five and three against Garnet Valley; five and two against Haverford, the league’s best defense; four and three against eventual champion Penncrest.

His capstone performance came in the Central playoffs, with the sixth-seeded Raptors upsetting No. 3 Marple, 6-5, without Graham. The Tigers led 5-3 after two periods, before Knight went to work. His primary assist set up Matthew Brown to get within one. He fired the breakout pass to launch Colin French to the game-tying goal with five minutes to play, then put Radnor ahead 10 seconds later.

“That was one of my favorite memories from the four years, that game,” Knight said. “We were down two going into the third period and it’s a high-scoring game and as Tucker went down, we kind of figured that we’d need to play the lower scoring games because we wouldn’t be able to put up quite as many goals. We got that nice intermission between periods in the playoffs and everybody regrouped and we had coaches come in and talk, they left and as a team, we kind of all were pumping each other up and were getting ready for that period. We came out firing.”

Knight added two goals and an assist in falling to Penncrest in the next round, then hit 90 points with a goal and a helper in a 7-2 Flyers Cup loss to Council Rock North. Whatever the final point tally reached, there was no questioning that it added up to maximizing the potential of Radnor’s season.

All-Delco Hockey: Kain Walker a major part of Penncrest’s revival on ice

Kain Walker, Penncrest: A rampaging postseason was the capper on an excellent campaign and career for the high-scoring winger. The senior, whose class didn’t win a game as freshmen, helped the Lions go from the seventh seed to their first Central title since 2005. Walker led the way with a team-high 24 goals and 42 points. His points per game tally of 2.10 was seventh-best in Delco. Walker had a solid regular season, among them two-goal outings against Radnor, Strath Haven and Springfield before the Christmas break. But he went on a tear in the playoffs: Two goals, including the game-winner, against Conestoga; a goal and two assists against Radnor; two and three in bossing Lower Merion in the final. He added two goals and the assist on the game-winner in Penncrest’s Flyers Cup Class A win over Plymouth Whitemarsh. All told, it was 13 points in five postseason games, his explosive offensive ability the ultimate difference maker in tight games.

Dylan Kouba, Garnet Valley: The senior was the anchor of a young forward corps that matured quickly this year. Kouba’s prolific scoring ensured that this early step in their development included games in both the Central League playoffs and the Flyers Cup. Kouba got to 30 goals on the season, trailing only Knight in Delaware County. He added 14 assists for 44 points and a 2.2 points per game ratio, fifth-best in Delco. He had his most productive games against Ridley – two goals and three assists in November, five goals and a helper in January. But he also registered consecutive hat tricks against Penncrest and Conestoga down the stretch of the season. Kouba feasted on nonleague competition, with a hat trick against West Chester Henderson and multi-point games in all five non-conference affairs. He also scored in the Jaguars’ Flyers Cup loss to Springfield.

Luke Melito, Cardinal O’Hara: The senior forward’s game-breaking speed helped O’Hara contend in a difficult PCL division. Melito finished third in Delco with 25 goals. He added 11 assists for 36 points, his points per game of 2.00 good for 10th in the county. His signature performance may have come on Dec. 1 when he blistered neighborhood rival Springfield for five goals in a 10-0 thrashing. He added hat tricks against league foes Father Judge, Shanahan-Coatesville and Roman Catholic (one of two five-point games against the Cahillites.) Melito scored twice in the Lions’ PCL playoff ouster against Father Judge, including the game-tying goal with 76 seconds left to send the game to OT.

Nick Dignazio, Strath Haven: The lone repeating All-Delco player, Dignazio shined even as the Panthers struggled, though he did help them qualify for the Flyers Cup. Dignazio did whatever was required. Nominally a defenseman, he largely played as a center in a hybrid position, taking draws and leading rushes but also recovering deep. He scored a team-high 22 goals and 37 points, good for 2.06 points per game, ninth best in the county. In 13 league contests, he lit the lamp 18 times and had 29 points. That includes a hat trick in November against Haverford, two and two against Radnor and a four-goal outing against Ridley. Dignazio had a goal and an assist in each of the Panthers’ non-league games against the West Chester schools. He had a hand in both goals, with a goal and an assist, in a 4-2 loss to Hershey in the first round of the Flyers Cup Class A. Also an All-Delco in soccer, Dignazio will continue his career in both sports at Ithaca College.

AJ Moleski, Haverford: The senior converted defenseman was immensely valuable to the Fords, who finished the regular season as the top seed in the Central League. Faced with having to replace their entire defense from last season, Moleski stepped up to helm the blue line, helping the Fords allow 31 goals in 13 league games. That’s the lowest total in the league, and only one other team allowed fewer than 46. Moleski added five goals and seven assists, including a helper in the Fords’ win over Garnet Valley in the first round of the Central League playoffs. The left-handed shooter added a goal and two assists against Garnet Valley and Lower Merion in the regular season and a goal and a helper against Ridley and in nonleague games with Perkiomen Valley and Downingtown East.

Matthew Beatty, Marple Newtown: The Tigers had a special season, and the senior goalie was a big reason why. In the last half-decade, the Tigers have gone from not competitive enough to play in the Central League to this year finishing third in the standings and winning a Flyers Cup Class A game. Beatty backstopped that effort with an .891 save percentage, third-best in Delco, and a goals-against average at an even 4.00. He made 24 saves early in a win over Springfield that signaled Marple’s arrival, then 28 in a 2-1 loss to Haverford just ahead of the playoffs. Beatty made 25 saves in a 7-2 win over West Chester Henderson in the Flyers Cup before missing their ouster against Lower Dauphin due to injury. Beatty is Marple’s first hockey All-Delco since defenseman Matt Taxin in 2010.

All-Delco First Team

Dylan Kouba, Sr. F, Garnet Valley
Drew Knight, Sr. F, Radnor
Kain Walker, Sr. F, Penncrest
Nick Dignazio, Sr. D, Strath Haven
AJ Moleski, Sr. D, Haverford
Luke Melito, Sr. F, Cardinal O’Hara
Matthew Beatty, Sr. G, Marple Newtown

All Delco Second Team

Tucker Graham, Jr. F, Radnor
Ryan McGlade, So. F, Haverford
Zachery Dembzynski, Jr. F, Marple Newtown
Hayden McGinnis, Sr. D, Sun Valley
Aidan Kertis, Sr. D, Springfield
Fiona Walker, So. G, Penncrest
Andrew Craig, Sr. G, Garnet Valley

Honorable Mention

Archbishop Carroll: Mario Dewees, Carter Hritz, Cole Miller
Cardinal O’Hara: Andrew Graney, Bode Peterson, Finnegan Plummer, Patrick Roney, Liam Schickling, John Shelton
Garnet Valley: Owen Doyle, Latham Hutchinson, Jake Robinson
Haverford: Vladimir Hartman, Andrew Henderson, Owen Rabadam, Gus Scuderi
Marple Newtown: Ethan McKay, Tenzee Z’Ningray
Penncrest: Nick Del Pizzo, Nash Grant, Matt McKay, Eddie Morroni, Jackson Wickman
Radnor: Connor Baumann, Ryan Carr, Colin French, Wim van Rossum
Ridley: Colin Huppman, Billy Schultz, Matt Stranix
Springfield: Devin Hoban, Frankie Izzi, Jake O’Brien, Danny White
Strath Haven: Annie Dignazio, Charles Leuthold, Brock Reid
Sun Valley: Nate Benz, Aiden Bourne, Julian Diehl, Will Newnom, Liam Polsky

By Matt De George
The Daily Times