Hockey: Penncrest’s Central League ride keeps rolling past Radnor, into final
ASTON – The Central League hockey tournament hasn’t exactly gone to the plans posited by the seeds. But then Penncrest doesn’t exactly fancy itself as your usual No. 7 seed.
The Lions pulled a second upset – at least by the seeds – in as many nights by getting past sixth-seeded Radnor, 6-3, Tuesday night, to reach Thursday’s Central League final.
Awaiting them is No. 5 Lower Merion, which handled top-seeded Haverford in the earlier semifinal at Ice Works. Not that, six games into an unusually hectic league tournament, identifying with the limitations of your seeding is all that popular.
“We had a rough start, a few injuries,” Penncrest goalie Fiona Walker said. “We came together toward the end of the season, really pushed for what we’re all working for. We’ve had a downhill few years, and we’re just reaching our peak. We’re going uphill, and we’re taking it back.”
Tuesday, that meant three goals from their top line, with Eddie Morroni and Kain Walker suppling a goal and two assists each, then a power-play and an empty-net tally by Nash Grant in the final three minutes to seal it.
Backstopping it all was Fiona Walker, who made 23 saves. In particular, she frustrated Radnor’s leading scorer, Drew Knight, who tallied twice but was visibly miffed that it wasn’t more.
“I challenged him pretty well,” the sophomore goalie said. “I didn’t really give him any options. I was happy to shut it down.”
Penncrest held a 25-14 edge in shots on goal through two periods, and the pressure paid off in forcing Radnor mistakes. Radnor led, 2-1, after one period. But Penncrest tied the game on the power play in the first two minutes of the second, Nick Del Pizzo jamming home a loose puck near the crease on the Lions’ fourth shot on the man advantage.
The Lions caught Radnor in the long change, slow to get their blueliners off the ice, leading to a 2-on-0 at 6:48 of the period. Morroni drove down the left wing and slid a pass onto the tape of Kain Walker to tap home and make it 3-2. Eight minutes later, Del Pizzo picked off a wayward clear to the middle of the ice and found Scott Scranton, who slipped a shot along the ice under the pads of Radnor goalie James Danner for what went down as the game-winner.
Fiona Walker limited Penncrest’s liabilities. She twice stopped Knight on partial breakaways in the second, then had another where her post-to-post movement was quick enough to force Knight to fake a backhand and stuff a forehand attempt short-side.
“We’ve just got to tell him to get the next one, because we know he’s going to get it again,” Radnor winger Colin French said of Knight. “We know he’s a great player.”
Radnor, with a shorter bench and down a top-line forward in Tucker Graham due to injury, started quickly. French scored three minutes into the game on the power play, Knight with the keep along the boards and French walking off the half-wall across the face of the crease to tuck home a backhand.
Morroni got Penncrest on the board 5:50 in, alert at the post with his stick on the ice as Walker moved the puck his way from behind the net. Knight put Radnor back ahead, a rush down the left wing that he pushed across the goal line on second effort.
Despite the short bench, the Raptors running just two lines and two defensive pairings on back-to-back nights, Radnor tired before the second-intermission ice cut. But after rallying twice from a two-goal deficit against No. 3 Marple Newtown in the first round, they found some fight despite the heavy legs.
“We’ve seen it all season,” French said. “I don’t know how many comebacks we’ve had this season, but when a team gets up on us, we never give up. We find magic a lot, especially in the third period. We tried it again, but it didn’t work out.”
Knight scored his fourth goal in two games on the power play 3:54 into the third period, after a Ryan Carr rush down the right wing and a cross-ice feed to Knight, to make it 4-3. Radnor had a brief power-play chance to get even, Fiona Walker making one big glove save on the kill. But Radnor committed a penalty to even it up, and 18 seconds into the man advantage, freshman defenseman Grant ripped a slapper through the five hole, which was about enough to send the Lions onward.
