March 31, 1998
Wally Muehlbronner, the first-year head coach of La Salle’s ice hockey team, worked this season on developing senior Mike Mauriello into a stay-at-home sort of defenseman While Mauriello did concentrate more on his defensive assignments, he still found time to cross the blue line and be part of the Explorers’ dangerous attack. And, as it turns out, Muehlbronner is happy Mauriello did. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Mauriello scored the game-winning goal with 25 seconds remaining in regulation and La Salle nipped Germantown Academy, 4-3, Sunday night at the CoreStates Spectrum in the championship game of the Class AAA Flyers Cup.
Mauriello one-timed a shot from the left point past sophomore goalie Dan Angeline to break a 3-3 tie and give the Explorers their second Flyers Cup championship in the last three years. They swept GA, 2-0, in the best-of-three finals (the old format) in 1996. “Mike’s been very steady on defense this year,” said Muehlbronher, “but he can shoot, too. And we’re extremely happy that he found the net on that shot.” La Salle will play Pittsburgh Centra. Catholic, a 6-1 winner over Meadville in the Penguins Cup final, for the state championship at 3 pm, Sunday at the Ice Garden Rink, southeast of Pittsburgh. The Explorers routed the Vikings, 13-1, in a tournament earlier this season. The Explorers took a 3-0 lead against GA on two goals by junior Sean Heron and one by senior Dan Felix. The Patriots’ Justin Holmes broke free on the left side and beat junior goalie Justin Levin with 2:31 remaining in the second period to provide the Suburban High School Hockey League champions with their first tally. “In the early going, they really clogged things up on us,” said GA coach John loia. “They pinched in real good on the sideboards, and they did a good job of covering for their defensemen. We didn’t get too many good scoring opportunities in the first two periods.” GA senior Jason Jobba made it a 3- 2 game at the 12:12 mark of the third period and Kyle Neary, the Patriots’ explosive senior winger, scored the equalizer on a breakaway with 6:25 left in the game. “We knew [Neary] was their main threat,” said Levin, who stopped 21 of GA’s 24 shots. “He’s a talented kid, and he’s tough to check.” loia believed at the time that the shift in momentum would carry the Patriots to their first Flyers Cup title since 1995. “In our minds, when we scored that third goal, we thought, “This is our game.’ But we never really followed through on it,” Ioia said. “We never got a good scoring opportunity after that.” An overtime session was averted when Mauriello, the tournament’s most valuable player, intercepted a clearing attempt by Holmes and quickly blasted a shot past Angeline. Mauriello also recorded assists on both of Heron’s goals. “We were not going to change anything when the game was tied at 3-3,” said Muehlbronner, whose team went 14-1-1 en route to winning the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League championship. “We just needed to re-focus, dig deep within ourselves, and find a way to score one more goal.” For GA, Mauriello’s last-minute shot put an end to a season in which the Patriots posted a 29-4-2 overall record, went undefeated in SHSHL regular-season action for the fourth straight year and claimed their first postseason title in three seasons. “It wasn’t a lopsided game,” said Neary of the loss to La Salle. “It was a very competitive game. They just got the bounces at the right time.” Neary, who totaled nine points in three Flyers Cup games, and GA senior defenseman Danny McDonald joined the Explorers’ Mauriello and Heron on the all-tournament team. La Salle lost to Meadville, 3-2, in the Class AAA state championship game two years ago.
Falcons fall to GV. Garnet Valley jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period and went on to beat Pennsbury, 4-2, Sunday at the CoreStates Spectrum in the championship game of the Class A Flyers Cup. The Falcons, sixth-place finishers in the Lower Bucks County Scholastic Hockey League, held a 10-7 advantage in shots in the first period. They managed only three shots on goal, however, in the second period. Mike Pacitti had two goals and two assists to pace Garnet Valley, which defeated Radnor in a semifinal playoff. His tally with 11:33 remaining in the third period gave the ICSHL squad a 3-0 lead. Pennsbury senior winger Scott Fyffe scored at the 4:43 mark of the third period and junior winger Mike Watson followed with a goal a little more than two minutes later to make it 3-2. But Pacitti killed the comeback by scoring an empty-netter with 50 seconds to play.
Vikings look ahead. Archbishop Wood bowed to Archbishop Ryan, 3- 1, last week in the semifinals of the Class AA Flyers Cup. Senior winger Eric Coughlin netted the squad’s only goal, scoring with less than nine minutes left in the third period. Under second-year coach Eric Tye, Wood went 8-12-2 during the regular season and placed fifth in the SHSHL American Division. The Vikings swept sixth-place Hatboro-Horsham, 2-0, in a best-of-three series to qualify for the Class AA tournament. Seniors Dan Boyle and Greg Hart assisted on Coughlin’s goal. Freshman goalkeeper Ryan Costa turned away 30 of Ryan’s 33 shots. Ryan lost to Unionville, 5-4, in Sunday’s Class AA final.
By Rick O’Brien
The Philadelphia Inquirer
