Penncrest Knocked Out of Flyers Cup Tourney in Third Round

WEST CHESTER— was selected as the No. 16 seed (out of 20) in the A Division of this year's Flyers Cup tournament. They beat the No. 17 seed Hershey Bears 4-1, and then posted the surprise victory of the tournament by knocking off the No. 1 seed West Chester Rustin—the two time defending champion—by a score of 4-3 in overtime. But their road to the Flyers Cup ended Monday night against Garnet Valley.

It took just more than one minute for the Jaguars to get on the scoreboard, with Bryan Ely sending a wrister through heavy traffic that found its way into the net past a screened Garrett Johnston. A minute later, Garnet Valley's Anthony Bertone battled over a loose puck, spun around one Penncrest defender and slipped it between Johnston's pads to put the Jags up 2-0.

Penncrest battled hard to prevent the deficit from growing, but their passing was a little off the mark and they missed a few one-timer attempts. Despite that, they spent much of the remaining first period applying offensive pressure in Garnet Valley's end of the ice. Defensemen Bill Ankrum and Sam Impagliazzo did a great job of keeping the puck inside the blue line to feed their forwards more scoring chances, but the Lions just couldn't find the twine.

"I thought we played hard, but not disciplined," said Penncrest head coach Steve Mescanti. "We chased the game, got out of position and took penalties. All those things got us away from what we need to do to be successful."

Gabe Chuckran played three periods like a young man possessed, dazzling the crowd with a set of shifty moves past several Garnet Valley players and scoring just 11 seconds into the second period. The goal invigorated the Lions, and they took the fight to the Jaguars for most of the second period. Garnet Valley goaltender Michael Selverian stood on his head to keep his team's lead. Penncrest took a few penalties in the second period, but the hard penalty killing work of players like Brendan Howanski and Chris Prince kept the game within one goal.

With 5:08 left in the period, Garnet Valley sprung a 3-on-2 rush that resulted in a goal by Brian Boyle. Two minutes later, Penncrest Captain Matt Menta appeared to have scored, but the goal was immediately waved off as played with a high stick, drawing boos from the Penncrest stands. The Lions took another penalty in the last two minutes, but Menta's incredible effort and dazzling moves drew not one but two penalties, suddenly swinging a shorthanded situation into a powerplay.

After a massive flurry of Penncrest scoring chances towards the end of the period, the score remained 3-1, despite Penncrest having outshot the opposition by a whopping 30-15.

The third period started out similarly to the second, with Penncrest coming out roaring. A total team effort on the powerplay culmunated with Marc Gekoski's point shot being blocked, picked up by Menta and slammed home, closing the gap to one goal again.

After that, things got ugly. Both teams played physical hockey, but Penncrest fans became increasingly more agitated and vocal over several non-calls against Garnet Valley, including a number of questionable plays that involved Menta being knocked or hauled to the ice. With 3:38 left, Menta was slow to get up, spending some time getting checked out by the coaching staff before resuming play. Tensions built and words were exchanged between the two sides of the stands until security stepped in and ejected a handful of young Penncrest spectators. One spectator was spoken to on Garnet Valley's side, but after exchanging words with security, he was allowed to remain. This apparent home-team bias only served to fuel the fire in the frustrated Penncrest crowd.

As it was through most of the game, Penncrest had the majority of offensive pressure and several quality scoring chances, but just couldn't get the puck past a sharp Selverian, who played like an octopus in pads. Garnet Valley sealed the deal by scoring an empty-net goal with 12 seconds left, ending Penncrest's bid for the Flyers Cup. The Lions fought like their namesake up to the final buzzer, and can still be proud of their effort Monday night, as well as the accomplishment of knocking the No. 1 seed, two-time defending champs out of the tournament.