As a Henderson alum I can say I have never been more proud in my life of my team. I played for the Warriors from 5th grade all the way through my Senior year. I won several middle school, JVA, and a Varsity league title, but never a Flyers Cup and State Cup. I was on the WCH team in 03 that lost in OT to HGP in the Flyers Cup AA Final and honestly have been bitter since then. My junior and senior year I mentored the middle school teams and worked with Latta, Cottle, Blaker, and Mattern. I remember telling them at their young age if there is every a team to win states it would be them. 06 rolls around and they did it. This team has had to put up with so much BS including team turmoil, TERRIBLE Schedules (WCH is notorious for being hated on for that...thanks Dugan), and a board that did not trust their coach Art Marcellus. As a personal friend of Art (now coach of the year!!!) this could not have happened to a nicer guy and better coach. He took this team from basically a no contender to a state champion. No one saw WCH coming out as the A winner. After seeing them win I am finally satisfied and never been more proud to bleed maroon. To the western PA people not giving us the trophy...screw them. We got the banner and the memories. You can take the trophy and read our name on it and know that you lost. When the west wins they rub it in hard, but when they lose they duck out with their little trophy and excuses. The east has always lost with class (except HH) and never been bitter. The West has growing up to do and obviously cant take losing to a BETTER TEAM!!!. Again congrats to the warriors on an amazing season and hope they can make a run next year. No one is really graduating so repeat boys, repeat.
Henderson seems to bring back their 4 stars but they also graduate 9 seniors out of a 17-skater bench. So when you say they graduate almost no one do you mean that these 9 seniors have NO bearing on the team’s success? That’s a pretty bold statement seeing as they graduate over half the skaters on the entire team. Seems like some disrespect from an alumni to most of the team. I have a feeling since you are alumni that you did not mean to disrespect your team.
Posts: 526 | Location: Delco | Registered: 18 September 2006
They are losing 9 senors, who all did a great job contributing to this years team, but they have some good players comen up from the JV squad, hopefully they can fill in the shoes of the senors and repeat. As long as the latta and cottle both stay healthy they will be a dangerous force on offense
Posts: 78 | Location: west chester | Registered: 25 March 2007
I am also surprised that no one has mentioned the HGP game. Even playing short handed much of the game they were in the game and even had it tied with about 2 minutes left. Sareveli goal to tie it was very pretty. But they took a very unnecessary interference call (questionable call in most games but consistent with what the refs were calling all game) The penalty was unnecessary because the puck was on its way out of the zone so had the HGP player been a little less aggressive on the forecheck it isn’t even a call. It gave NA a nice power play, which they were able to capitalize on making the game 4-3 I believe. Than on a 1-1 breakaway the NA player score a spectacular goal falling down he just tapped it by the HGP goalie who I don’t was ready for a shot since his defensive men had good position on the NA forward and because the NA forward was falling down.
Like I said above this game was refed very tough but it seemed to be consistent, NA just seemed to be able to adjust to it a lot quicker than HGP. For the games I have seen HGP play this and last year they are not a team that takes many penalties so they are not used to playing 5 on 4 a lot.
I was very impressed with the way the HGP fans acted, talking with one of the O’Hara faithful we both agreed that HGP has some of the best fans of any team. They packed Ice Works more than either team that played earlier which is odd because Bensalem is much farther away from Aston than Haverford or West Chester. Also the majority of the fans stayed for the trophy ceremony, which is very unusual for a losing teams student section to do.
Cudos to BigJim and the entire Ice works, like Matt said in a pervious post everything was first class. Crowed control was great as usual and the food lines even seemed to move extra quick.
Posts: 526 | Location: Delco | Registered: 18 September 2006
yea, its a shame a very soft call with under 4 minutes left in the 3rd of the state finals allowed the game to finish the way it did. holy ghost only had 2 power plays, and i thought alot of the calls were questionable. na played their system well (3rd man high/left wing lock)and were a very disciplined team in many aspects of the game. they played a good game. they seem like the kind of team that are tough to beat in a 1 game series because of their forecheck, but in a best of 3, any of the top 4 aaa teams would beat them.
Taken directly from USA Hockey's Rules Emphasis and Standard of play:
Interference
A player cannot use his/her body (“pick” or “block”) to impede the progress of an opponent with no effort to play the puck, maintain normal foot speed or established skating lane.
Examples include: Intentionally playing the body of an opponent who does not have possession or possession and control of the puck.
Using the body to establish a ”pick” or “block” that prevents an opponent from being able to chase a puck carrier.
Reducing foot speed or changing an established skating lane for the purpose of impeding an opponent from being able to chase a puck carrier
Oh, I thought this stat was pretty interesting. They're the penalty totals for each game.
Looks like as though some of the teams still aren't getting the message and almost a week after the final buzzer, teams are making excuses for their own play.
Originally posted by Dicky Dunn: Taken directly from USA Hockey's Rules Emphasis and Standard of play:
Interference
A player cannot use his/her body (“pick” or “block”) to impede the progress of an opponent with no effort to play the puck, maintain normal foot speed or established skating lane.
Examples include: Intentionally playing the body of an opponent who does not have possession or possession and control of the puck.
Using the body to establish a ”pick” or “block” that prevents an opponent from being able to chase a puck carrier.
Reducing foot speed or changing an established skating lane for the purpose of impeding an opponent from being able to chase a puck carrier
Oh, I thought this stat was pretty interesting. They're the penalty totals for each game.
Looks like as though some of the teams still aren't getting the message and almost a week after the final buzzer, teams are making excuses for their own play.
no matter what the definition of interference is, its a soft call at that time in that game. the puck was already out of the zone, its the 3rd period, with under 4 minutes left, in the state finals. unless you take someones head off, a penalty should not be called under those conditions. im not blaming that call for the loss, but you never know what the outcome would be had the penalty not been called.
Steve Walkom and Gary Bettman said before the NHL adopted their new standard of play that a penalty in the first period will be a penalty in the third period.
USA Hockey is no different.
Answer me this; does a felon who smokes crack, mugs a nun and steals a car get let off easy just because it's a full moon. That's the thinking I'm hearing on this board.
A Ghost player intentionally made physical contact on a player without the puck with the intention to prevent the Alleghney skater from joining their offensive rush. Kinda sounds like intereference falls under the definitions USA Hockey have laid out.
You know statistics are a great thing. They can be any way you want.
Dicky, while you used the lobsided penalty calls to indicate that the East players have not made the adjustment to the "new" rules. My interpretation of the quantity of penalties is that the referees did not call the games evenly. Haverford should have had more penalties than Pine Richland because of their players melt-down at the end of the game. Penalties in the other two games should not have been so lobsided.
I wasn't at the games, but I looked at the stats and they looked like typical stats for high school hockey.
There is no more "relaxing" of the standard of penalties between the first period and the third period. That went out with the new Standard of Play. If it's a penalty in the first, it's a penalty in the third.
I am nitpicking, but you don't want the refs to call the game evenly (implying the same number of penalties to each team). You want them to call the game consistently - what is called on one team is called on the other and it should not change over the course of the game.
For the past few years we heard that the West refs cost us the States now we are hearing that the Eastern refs cost us the games?
Look I love what they do at HGP as much as anyone that is not in the program but to say they had to deal with more penalties in the championship game is factually inaccurate. The fact of the matter is they averaged just over 21 minutes a game which is around 40% of the game or about 10 penalties a game. In the State game the previous post says they had 11 penalties not that out of the ordinary if you ask me. Also if I am not mistaken Mark ALansky was the ref and he is a very good official. All that being said they are a great team and the represented well and no one should cheapen that by blaming officials.
