Seniors drove Council Rock South ice hockey deep in 2016
Regardless of the sport, great seasons do not just happen. They come about through focus, dedication and team camaraderie. The Council Rock South ice hockey team used that very formula to produce a strong 2016 campaign.
Starting goalie Mason Procz readily traces the Golden Hawks rise to the position of bona fide force in the Suburban Hockey League National Division and a threat in the recent Flyers Cup playoffs.
“This year’s team was great. In the beginning, some guys just wanted to fool around and we didn’t have the right motive but getting toward the end of the season, we started racking up wins. We felt really good about ourselves. Since most of the team was seniors, we didn’t want to lose and wanted to go really far. We had great energy coming at the end of the season.”
The season stats certainly give credence to Mason’s appraisal. At the midpoint, the Golden Hawks held a respectable 7-3 overall record. Over the last nine games, South was almost unbeatable, winning eight straight contests. During that stretch, they outscored their opponents by a 61-17 margin.
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The Golden Hawks were certainly on a winning roll. “Once we started playing teams that were struggling, we realized how well we could do. That brought our energy up. Once we started going against the really competitive teams, we came in with a good head of steam and great energy. We wanted to get the wins against the big teams.”
The surge led them to a second place finish in the National Division with a 12-3-1 league mark. In the SHL playoffs, they lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to eventual champ Central Bucks South in the semifinal round. Their solid performance had earned them a seventh-place seeding in scholastic hockey’s big show, The Flyers Cup.
Mason knew taking the Flyers Cup meant more than winning a big trophy. It was a way to extend South’s season. “The Flyers Cup is the most important thing for the whole team because that is what gets you to states. We took it very seriously.”
The first obstacle for the Golden Hawks was a 10th-seeded Spring-Ford team. “We didn’t know much about Spring-Ford because they weren’t in our division. We wanted to come in and play the way we played at the end of the season. We came out with a full head of steam and got the win.”
The Golden Hawks struck quickly, building up a 4-1 lead after two periods. Jake Houk, Dylan Varian, Jay Jenkins and Max Bergman found the back of the enemy’s net. At the other end of the ice, Mason played his usually stellar game, rejecting 20 of Spring-Ford’s 23 shots on goal.
Mason felt that not looking ahead in the playoffs keyed the big 4-3 win. “The important thing was not overthinking their seeding. They were a little lower seeding than we were. We needed to go in as if it was any other competitive game. Our energy and thinking it was a competitive game gave us the win.”
The next game up against the number two seeded Downingtown East team provided a whole different challenge for Mason and his teammates. “We knew they were the second seed so it was going to be a really tough game. Their team is really connected to each other. They have great chemistry. It’s hard to stop all their crisp passes to each other. They know where everybody was going to be on the ice. We kept playing and got down to one goal but couldn’t pull out another goal.”
Downingtown took a 2-0 lead with eight minutes gone in the game behind goals by Justin Cohn and Harrison Layne. After a scoreless second frame, the Golden Hawks soared back. Matt Owens tallied 41 seconds into the third period. Downingtown’s Luca Pisani answered with a goal 30 seconds later. Not willing to surrender, South’s Josh Vergules narrowed the margin to one, slapping the puck by the Cougar’s goalie with 1:20 gone in the period.
Unfortunately for the spirited Golden Hawks, the scoring flurry halted, leaving them on the short end of a 3-2 score. Though their season was over, Mason felt proud about the Golden Hawks accomplishments. “I’m going to keep improving and try to get to states before my senior year. This year was one of the most fun years I’ve had playing hockey because the team was all such good friends.”
South had definitely crafted the type of successful campaign that only bodes well for the future.
