West Chester East blanks Hershey for third straight Flyers Cup title
WEST GOSHEN >> Dynasty status was bestowed on the West Chester East ice hockey team Monday night at Ice Line. The Vikings scored twice in the final minute of the first period and went on to post a 4-0 victory over Hershey to win their third straight Flyers Cup A title in dominiating fashion.
East goes on now and try to capture its third consecutive Pennylvaina Cup crown on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Pittsburgh against Kiski Area, 4-1 winners over Fox Chapel late Monday.
The Vikings continued a run of superiority for the West Chester schools. Between East, Rustin and Henderson, they have 15 of the last 16 titles. East and Rustin have won 11 straight between them. The last school to win without a WC in front of its name was Springfield (Delco) in 2011.
“I feel great,” said East coach Eric Wolf. “To win the Flyers Cup, 4-0, I told the boys in the (locker) room, that’s doing it in style. Hanging a goose egg on a very good team, that was unexpected.”
“One Flyers Cup is a huge deal, but three is sick,” said Joey Cardarelli, who had two goals on the evening. “I’m really happy.”
East, who completed its Flyers Cup run by outscoring its opponents by a 17-7 margin, has started fast in its two previously games, but took a while to on the board against the Trojans.
The Vikings were getting the better of the chances as they were keeping Hershey mostly to the outside, resulting in relatively easy saves for goalie Cam Chandler.
Anthony LoGiurato almost put East on top at the 12:50 mark when he fired a pass from Chase Khounsacknarath off the left the post. LoGiurato had another good chance moments later as his point blank shot was kicked out by Hershey goalie Jayden Noss.
Noss made 16 saves in the period and looked like he was going to help bring the game scoreless into the first intermission.
“We knew he was going to be good,” Wolf said of Noss. “We watched him against Rustin and he was tremendous there. It took a little persistence on our part, in which there was a lot, and that’s what you need against a goalie like that.”
One of the key scoring cogs all season along with Trey Jefferis — Cardarelli put East on the board with 1:14 left. He was five feet inside the blueline, when he uncorked a shot that beat Noss over his stick shoulder to send the East fans and student section into hysterics.
“I saw a hole, the goalie was down and I shot it and hoped it went in,” Cardarelli said. “It definitely got the energy up and the crowd into it.”
It didn’t take long for the Vikings to double their lead — 16 seconds in fact. Off a faceoff, defenseman Nolan Schemmer fired another long range shot, which beat Noss to put up East, 2-0.
They slowly started to control the game and made it 3-0 nearly three minutes into the second as Luke Wilson beat Noss inside the left post.
Hershey’s best chance came as sophomore Matthew Dalkiewicz beat Chandler, but his shot clanged off the crossbar.
Cardarelli put the final touches on the scoring with 42 seconds left to make it 4-0. Cardarelli capped his night by being awarded the Bobby Clarke Award as the tounament Most Valuable Player.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “Two of my best friends — Dylan Krick and Henry Thornton — won it the last couple of years and they pressed between me and Trey to win it, so we kind of battled to get it. Obivously, it’s a big honor and I’m happy to win it.”
Looking to at least avoid the shutout, Hershey was held to just four shots in the third period and 19 for the game.
“We did a good job stepping up and contest their shots,” said Schemmer. “Cameron did a great job with the saves.”
East now will head to the Western part of the state for another three-peat and to cap another season with an on-ice celebration.
“We checked almost all of the boxes. We have one big one to get coming up on Saturday,” said Wolf. “The boys are excited about that. We’ll enoy this one tonight, then we’ll start preparing for Saturday.”
Notes: Jefferis headlined the All-Tournament team along with teammates Schemmer and Mikey Tordone along Blake Umberger and Joseph Pavone of Hershey. … Once again, former Flyer Bob “Houndog” Kelly was present to help present the awards.
West Chester East 4, Hershey 0
Hershey 0 0 0 — 0
WC East 2 2 0 — 4
West Chester East goals: Cardarelli 2, Schemmer, Wilson.
Goalie saves: Noss (H) 37; Chandler (WCE) 19.
