Council Rock South won its first Flyers Cup matchup with Spring Ford 12-0 two nights earlier in the tournament’s Class 2A opener and that battle was called after two periods.
Here, the Suburban High School Hockey League champions were on top of Cherokee 3-1 in a second-round pairing but had struggled to pad that lead in a duel that was becoming littered with penalties and delays.
“You don’t wanna be up 3-1 because that could go either way,” said longtime CR South head coach Joe Houk. “We talked about it. We said, ‘If we get this next goal, it’s going to be big going into the third period.”
The Golden Hawks did better than that, finding the back of the net twice before the end of the second period en route to a 7-1 victory.
With 3:17 left in the middle frame, CR South senior Blaize Pepe scored from in front of the Chiefs’ net then sophomore Jake Weiner tallied his second of three goals for the game on a power-play strike with 1:53 remaining.
“The two goals we scored toward the intermission, they were huge,” admitted Houk. “Both of those guys had good games tonight.”
“We were just trying to close it out,” added Pepe. “There was a lot of nonsense going on out on the ice and we didn’t want to get anyone suspended.
“So we just kept pushing and got some goals. The game was pretty much over from there.”
On their way to that 3-1 first period lead, the Golden Hawks got goals from Illia Muhkin (on the first shot on net), senior captain Kevin Koles and Weiner, outshooting Cherokee 18-9 along the way. In the second period, South outshot the South Jersey High School League rivals 14-8.
By the third period, the only thing the frustrated Chiefs seemed to be mounting were penalty minutes.
Forward Anthony Florio was hit with 12 minutes in penalties a minute into the final frame and defenseman Sam Resto was tossed from the contest a few minutes later.
Meanwhile, Council Rock just kept putting the puck in the net.
Again on a power play, Weiner scored, this time, on a backhander over the left shoulder of Cherokee goalie Liam Flynn with 11:45 left in the third period.
“We got pucks deep and we wore them down a little bit. Once we get control of the puck in their zone, we cycle very, very well,” explained Houk. “I thought our guys did a real good job with that. We caught them running a couple of times.”
With 7:35 left in the final frame, Jackson Mosely went down in the corner of the ice after taking a vicious hit along the boards from Chiefs defenseman Brayden Popper, who was promptly sent to the penalty box on a five-minute major.
Eight seconds later, the Golden Hawks tallied yet again on the power play with Pepe converting a feed from Chase Tovsky into his second goal of the contest.
At that point, Cherokee had tallied 17 more penalty minutes than shots (19-2) in the final period. So with another Flyers Cup duel (Pennridge v. Downingtown East) looming on the same ice the same evening, officials suspended the contest with 7:05 remaining on the game clock.
“It was a tough one with the sole reason being the physicality that those guys were bringing,” stated Houk. “You don’t ever wanna get into a penalty duel like that.
“I’m proud of my guys for keeping their heads. I think they had 20-some penalties, compared to our three or four.”
South’s players agreed with that summation.
“We’ve lost control and gotten penalties in the past,” explained Pepe. “We’ve been trying to get away from that. We’ve been a lot better the last few games.
“We know that’s what we’ve got to do if we want to win the championship.
The Golden Hawks have outscored their first two Flyers Cup foes by a total margin of 19-1.
“We got a great offense but the next round, we got either Boyertown or CB South,” stated Pepe. “We know it’s going to be tough and we’re going to have to play a lot better than we did tonight.”
In its 12-0 victory over Spring Ford March 5 at Grundy Ice Rink, CR South saw seven different players scoring goals for its side with Nikita Volobuiev notching a hat trick. Additionally, Jeremy Raher, Jordan Sarne and Koles tallied twice in the Flyers Cup opener while Weiner, Pepe and Jonah Weston recorded single strikes.
“It’s great; anyone can put the puck in the net this year,” stated Pepe. “Everyone’s got a role on this team.”
In addition to notching the game-winner against Cherokee a few minutes after Luke Resto tied the score for the Chiefs, Koles is the Golden Hawks’ points leader in Flyers Cup action thus far with a pair of goals and four assists vs. Spring Ford and a goal and four helpers against the Chiefs.
“He’s great. He brings it every game,” stated Pepe. “He’s a two-way player so we know we’re going to have him on defense and we know he’s going to chip in and get a lot of points for us.”
Rock South moves onto the Flyers Cup semifinal vs. Boyertown – a 4-1 victor over CB South – March 14 back at Hatfield Ice. Pennridge – a 5-2 winner over Downingtown East – takes on Downingtown West in the other semifinal.
Should the Golden Hawks and Rams both win their semifinals, the teams will head to the championship either March 19 or 20 in a rematch of the SHSHL championship where South toppled Pennridge 7-2.
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