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Twin Rinks of Pennsauken High School Hockey Tournament:
Championship Games on December 31, 1997

By Joe Mahaffy
SJSports Staff Writer

Results from the Holiday Tournament...

Game 1 - Junior Varsity "A" Championship - Farrell Lions vs. St. Anthony Friars
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In the Junior Varsity "A" Championship Game, Farrell Lions defeated St. Anthony Friars 5-1. Lions' Caputo had a hat trick and an assist while his teammate Tarantola had 2 assists. Goalie Pravato stopped 14 of 15 shots in leading the Farrell Lions to the victory.

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2nd Place St. Anthony's Friars

Period 1 - This was the first round of the holiday tournament and both teams started out with good end to end play. This period saw no scoring but physical play. The only three penalties came late in the period where Friars' Effinger was called for interference with 58 seconds left in the period. Lions' Fracchiolla also went off for hooking. With only 16 seconds to go, Friars' A. Effinger went off for boarding.

Period 2 - With the period starting, St. Anthony's was short-handed and the Lions wasted no time. Lions' Caputo scored the first of days eventual hat trick with a powerplay goal at 12:27, assisted by Tarantola. At the 7:08 mark, the Lions made it 2-0 with Ardizzone's even strength goal that was assisted again by Tarantola. Penalties were to Pravato (Lions for slashing, 6:42), Rodin (Friars for holding, 6:42), McBride (Lions for hooking, 4:25), and Defonte (Lions for cross checking, 0:15).

Period 3 - With the Lions being shorthanded at the start of the period, Caputo scored his second goal of the game unassisted at 12:28 that brought the Lions to a 3-0 lead. Moments later, a great face-off win by Caputo helped in an assist of a goal when he drew the puck back to the point man. Ardizzone ripped a high slapshot from the point that went past the blocker of St. Anthony's goaltender Vega. The shot went right into the upper corner of the net and was a tough shot to save. To their credit, Vega and the Friars did not quit. He saved many difficult shots. But with 7:08 left in the period, the Lions had a great offensive play with beautiful passing and the eventual hat trick goal by Caputo. The assists went to Keenan and Racioppi. The passing and movement were tremendous. Finally, Friars' Gillespie scored an even strength goal at 3:38 to knock out Pravato's shutout for the final score of 5-1. Lions out shot the Friars 32-15.

More Lions vs. Friars Photos

Game 2 - Junior Varsity "B" Championship - Lenape Indians vs. St. Anthony's Friars
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In the Junior Varsity "B" Championship, St. Anthony's Friars defeated Lenape Indians 6-1. Casey Lamar scored 2 goals and Ken Carney had a goal and 2 assists for the Friars.

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2nd Place Lenape Indians

Period 1 - The second game of the holiday tournament gave alot of goals with little penalties. The Friars must have been inspired to play with the loss of their brother Junior Varsity team. They came out moving the puck very well. The play in this period had good physical contact with the Indians getting the edge in the hitting department. The period had only 4 shots and no goals. Lenape accounted for 3 of those shots. Penalties in this period went to Eric Urban (Friars for elbowing, 7:05) and Ken McLure (Indians for cross checking, 6:05).

Period 2 - The Friars picked up the pace in this period. At 8:49, Friars' Casey Lamar scored the opening goal assisted by Jim Pellizi and Eric Urban. The Friars did not waste any time in getting their second goal at 5:55 when Casey Lamar scored again, assisted by Jay Becker. The scoring continued with another even strength goal by Mike Terrilli at 3:10. Ken Carney and Matt Turi assisted in the goal to give the Friars a commanding 3-0 lead. Penalties were to Ken McLure (Indians for cross checking, 12:09) and Mike Terrilli (Friars for interference, 7:29).

Period 3 - The Indians began to fight back and getting their first goal. Ken Mclure redeemed himself for the two earlier penalties with an unassisted goal at 9:27. With a 3-1 deficit, Lenape played with a jump in their skating. But St. Anthony's quickly diffused this with a goal by Eric Urban from Ken Carney. Quickly, the Indians witnessed the game slipping when Becker received a pass back to the point and shot through a good screen to beat goaltender Pat DeGrazia. The Friars played very well in front of the net and good point passing would make it difficult for DeGrazia to do his job. Ken Carney would put the final nail in the scoring when he was assisted by Matt Turi and Mike Terrilli with 1:10 left in the game. Final score was 6-1 Friars. St. Anthony's out shot Lenape 26-11.

More Indians vs. Friars Photos

Game 3 - Varsity Championship - McDevitt vs. Lenape Indians
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In the Varsity Championship, Lenape Indians defeated McDevitt 7-3. Jeremy Reed had 2 goals and 2 assists, and Manny Tocco had a goal and 2 assists for the Indians. McDevitt's Andre Lennertz had 2 goals.

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2nd Place McDevitt

Period 1 - This third and final game proved to be the game of the tournament. The period showed that McDevitt and Lenape both came to play. McDevitt started out quickly with Andre Lennertz's even strength goal at 12:47 assisted by Tom Clark and Shane Renaud. Lennertz was playing very well for McDevitt and almost connected on a great two-on-one fake move. The Indians took advantage of McDevitt's penalties assessed to Tom Clark (roughing) and Mike Smith (tripping) by scoring a powerplay goal at 4:10 by Dan Whitlock assisted by Jeff Bagnoli. This was the result of the two man powerplay and good passing by the Indians to capitalize on their fifth shot. McDevitt's Lennertz added another goal on a great backhand at 2:59 with tremendous passing with Matt Biase. McDevitt added another goal to go up 3-1.

The game started to take a turn for the worse with Lenape's Jon Schnepf getting a high sticking and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. McDevitt's Biase also went off for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. This started an extremely physical tone for the rest of the period. Shots in the period were 10 for McDevitt and 6 for Lenape.

Period 2 - The leftover emotions from the first period brought an increased intensity and physical play. After an intense sequence of checking Matt Biase, things became heated and Biase was given a gross misconduct for threatening the referee. This caused the McDevitt fans to become very upset because of Biase's importance to the team.

The Indians took advantage of the loss of Biase by scoring the powerplay goal by Jeremy Reed at 5:47. The goal was assisted by Rick Salvador and Jon Schnepf. The Indians stepped up their play, especially with the defensive pairing of Whitlock and Schnepf. Reed would add his second goal of the period at 1:17 assisted by Manny Tocco to tie the game at 3-3. Shots were 6 for Lenape and 4 for McDevitt.

Period 3 - This period saw the Indians bringing the puck into the offensive zone well. On one of those plays, they almost gave up a goal when a quick defensively lead rush by Lenape's Schnepf turned around into a McDevitt three-on-two. Indians goaltender Sean Sheehan stopped that rush and played well throughtout the period. The Indians would go on to a goal by Jeff Bagnoli, assisted by Manny Tocco and Jeremy Reed at 10:21. That's when they would continue to smell blood and scored again at 8:14 when Rick Salvador broke up a McDevitt offensive pass to break away and score unassisted. Tempers would flare up again and the referee started assessing penalties to calm things down. With a two goal deficit, McDevitt's Coach Harkin pulled the goalie with a minute remaining. The Indians would counter with two empty net goals by Tocco assisted by Reed and Mike Weiss unassisted. The final score was 7-3 Indians. McDevitt outshot the Indians 19-17.

More Indians vs. McDevitt Photos