Pennsylvania State AAA High School Ice Hockey Championship
Churchill Chargers vs Erie-McDowall Trojans March 27, 1977
Played at Lafayette Sports Garden, King of Prussia, PA
Monday March 28, 1977
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Churchill High wins hockey title as western schools steal show
Don Anderson, president of the Inter-County Hockey League, stood behind the glass at the Lafayette Sports Garden Arena yesterday afternoon, shaking his head. “I don’t know where they get those kids,” he said, as Churchill High was beating Erie-McDowall, 6-5, in the championship of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey Association. “The kids from Western Pennsylvania are bigger, faster, quicker, stronger… better at everything than our kids.” The most significant development of the first genuine, state-wide, scholastic hockey championship was the shocking ease with which the four western schools blitzed past the east. In the round-robin tournament, Churchill (of suburban Pittsburgh) won three straight games to gain the final, and Erie-McDowall qualified by goal advantage over North Allegheny, another Pittsburgh area team. Richland, the fourth Western Pennsylvania school in the eight-team field, was the only team to beat Churchill in a 27-1 season. “Western Pennsylvania does what we’ll have to do next year,” Anderson said. “They play in Class A and Class B designations. They only have 12 Class A teams around Pittsburgh, but they don’t play smaller schools. By the end of the season, their kids are a step faster at every position than our kids.” Dan Sheehy, the first-year coach of Churchill, whose full-time job is as a hockey instructor, agreed. “These Eastern teams we saw here (Abington, West Chester, William Tennent and Cardinal O’Hara) probably couldn’t even beat our Class B teams,” he said. “I’ve had most of these boys on my team since they were 5. I coach them at school and teach them in a hockey school. Most of these boys go away to hockey camps in the summer, too.” So that may explain why the western part of the state is better in hockey (as in every other sport) than the east… they take sports much more seriously. The game was a serious affair, too, as Churchill bolted to a 5-2 lead with a 3-goal splurge in just 32 seconds of the final period, then had to struggle to win. “Offense has been our long suit all year,” said Churchill wing Chuck Copeland, who scored three goals. “We had the most goals in the West Penn Conference. We have the talent, and we work very well together. All the lines know where every man is all the time, since most of us have been playing together eight or nine years. Copeland’s final goal came with 1 minute 12 seconds left, when he poked the puck into an open net to give Churchill a 6-4 lead. McDowall had pulled its goalie, trying for the tying goal, and the move looked counterproductive when Don Nieratko whistled a shot past Churchill goalie Allen Gordon with just 34 seconds left, making the score 6-5. The Trojans couldn’t get the equalizer; however Churchill won the game with its three-goal outburst in the middle of the last period, all at the expense of McDowall goalie Paul Horton, who pulled himself after the fifth score. The Chargers took a 3-2 lead on Brian Sheehy’s backhander from the right slot with 10:06 left and got another 16 seconds later when Copeland swept in a backhander from the left slot. Just another 16 seconds later, Jack Foster scored for Churchill when he stole the puck in the left circle and scored on an attempted pass from behind the net, that deflected off defenseman Jay Perrone’s skate. McDowall (21-6-2) got two back on goals by Perrone and Robbie Robertson, but never could get back enough.
CHURCHILL……6
MCDOWALL……5
ROSTER:
Head Coach: Dan Sheehy
Assistant Coach: Roger Artz
Trainer: Ray Wroblewski
Mark Balogh
Stuart Miller
Dirk Johnson
Toby Ritner
Craig Foster
Tom Martin
David Artz
Brian Sheehy
Jack Foster
Frank Spena
Rick Morgan
Fran Muracca
Jack Hanna
Chuck Copeland
Mike Carpenter
Jim Horne
Glenn Cawood
Russ Beymer
Thad McKenzie
Gary Artz
Daryl Saltzman
C.B. Brinkman
Alan Gordon
