DLN ALL-AREA: Owens the latest star in West Chester Rustin’s dominant dynasty

WESTTOWN >> The level of success at West Chester Rustin is unprecedented.

The Golden Knights entered the season with five straight Flyers Cup titles, and five straight state championships.

Each senior class knows what is expected of them, even if that means they have to grow quickly and lead the way.

For Matt Owens, the increased responsibility and pressure was a challenge he embraced.

“I had to improve most by becoming a leader,” Owens said. “By being the captain of the team, I had to make sure everyone was in line and wanted to win.”

Owens did all of that and more, leading Rustin to its sixth straight Flyers Cup title and sixth straight state championship.

Along the way, he also earned the honor of being the Daily Local News All-Area Ice Hockey Player of the Year.

Owens broke Rustin’s all-time scoring record with 111 goals and 87 assists for a total of 198 career points. This year alone, Owens scored an absurd 55 goals and tallied 30 assists while receiving All-Flyers Cup team honors.

Those numbers did not come without hard work in practice and the help of his teammates, in particular linemate and 2017-18 DLN All-Area Player of the Year Nick Ferraro.

“Nick Ferraro has definitely helped me improve a lot, we play on the same club team together and have played on the same line for Rustin for three years now,” Owens said. “I was probably worst at moving the puck, Nick Ferraro on my line seems to move the puck well and we work together, throughout the year we improved that and by the end of the year we just knew where each other were at all times.”

This type of chemistry is nothing new to the Rustin hockey team.

“Coach Russo likes to mention the fact that a lot of us started in elementary school together,” Owens said. “Which is pretty cool playing from elementary school all the way up to our senior year of high school.”

With every hero’s journey, there comes a struggle. Even on the way to more postseason hardware.

For Rustin, that struggle has come in the Ches-Mont League championship, where the Golden Knights fell to Henderson, 6-4, just days before the beginning of the Flyers Cup.

“Losing in the Ches-Mont Championship definitely opened our eyes a little bit,” Owens said. “We knew we couldn’t be beat when we were all playing together and playing our best hockey, but it opened our eyes to the fact that we could possibly lose in the Flyers Cup, especially since it’s one and done.”

Despite the loss right before the Flyers Cup, Rustin put the pieces back together and won its sixth straight Flyers Cup with a 5-1 win over Hershey at the Wells Fargo Center.

Surprisingly, Owens said his favorite game of the season was not the Flyers Cup championship, where he scored two goals, but a game where he helped erase a four-goal deficit by scoring three times and notching three assists in a 7-5 win over Cardinal O’Hara.

That is the MVP-caliber play Rustin was happy to have this season, en route to clinching yet another state championship.

“The highlight of my season, in addition to the Wells Fargo, was coming back against Cardinal O’Hara,” Owens said. “That game was special because it really showed the heart and character that Rustin brings to the table. We were losing 5-1 in the second period of that game and really brought it to them in the third. We ended up winning, 7-5. That game alone showed that no team could count us out of any game, no matter what the score was.”

The impression Owens made on the Rustin program will be the latest model as the Golden Knights make a run at a seventh straight state championship next season. But Rustin must turn to a new leader, as Owens moves on to Penn State to study actuarial science.

The leadership and heart Owens brought to every game may live on through his younger brother, Justin, and the other underclassmen who are next in line for a Rustin program that is used to being on top.