April 29, 1979
By Don McKee
Inquirer staff writer
Freshman left wing Al Washco scored two goals and assisted on three others as Malvern Prep defeated William Tennent, 6-3, yesterday to capture the Eastern Pennsylvania Hockey Championship at Lafayette Gardens in King of Prussia. Washco, one of seven freshmen on Malvern’s Inter-County League division champions, made his first assist 25 seconds into the game, when he found Scott Ianelli open in front of the net for the first of his two goals. “That pretty well set the tone of the game because Tennent had to play catch-up for the rest of the game,” said Malvern coach Ray Bowman. However, Tennent, was behind only 49 seconds. At 1:14 of the first period, Greg Neumann scored on Ron Hunds’ assist. With the Friars controlling most of the play in the first period with strong forechecking and skating, more physical and stronger Tennent got into penalty trouble, and Malvern wasted no time with its one-man advantage. Washco scored the first of his two goals on the power play at 7:14 of the period with teammates Jim McHugh and Steve DiBacco assisting.
The Panthers again were short a man 4:17 later, and the Friars soon had a two-goal lead on Alan Cobb’s unassisted power-play goal. In the second period, the Panthers cut the Malvern lead to 3-2, when Neumann scored his second goal at 3:04, but the Friars came back to take a two-goal lead before the period ended. Again, it was Washco, who scored his second power-play goal on an assisnews-papert from Cobb. Malvern goaltender Drew Parvin faced only 13 shots, but at 1:56 of the third period Tennent was back in the game despite its low-shot total when Ron Manto beat Parvin to the stick side. Coach Bowman then sent his top line on the ice and, with his son Steve centering Washco and Ianelli, Malvern soon scored the insurance goal. At 3:34 of the period, Bowman fought off a Tennent defenseman behind the net and found lanelli alone in front of the Tennent goal for the score. Malvern’s Mike O’Connor finished the scoring at 6:25 of the period.
