Surprising Olentangy wins first Blue Jackets Cup championship
PRPC struggles, loses both games in tournament

As seen in ThisWeek News
Thursday, February 28, 2008

CORY STEGER
ThisWeek Staff Writer

By Laurie Stevenson/ThisWeek Austin Zurbriggen (right) of PRPC tries to knock the puck away from Olentangy's Alex Titus during their Blue Jackets Cup game last Friday at the Chiller at Easton. PRPC lost 3-1 as Olentangy went on to win the title.

By Laurie Stevenson/ThisWeek PRPC's Tyler Cole (left) and J.D. Klinger defend against Olentangy's Alex Titus last Friday during their Blue Jackets Cup game.

Olentangy was seeded fourth entering the Greater Columbus High School Club Hockey League Blue Jackets Cup, but won the program's first title after beating Athens 3-1 in the championship last Sunday at Chiller North.

"It's unbelievable, really," Olentangy coach Tim Pennington said. "These kids were near the bottom of the standings at one point and we kind of drew a line in the sand and said from here on out, we're going to make a run."

In a double-elimination tournament -- all games except the final were played at the Chiller at Easton -- the Braves needed to beat Athens once to earn the championship. The Bobcats were the second seed, but were unable to penetrate the Braves' defense, led by goalie Luke Highley, who held Athens scoreless through the first two periods. Highley finished with 30 saves, including several in the final moments after Athens pulled its goalie.

Ryan Herrmann led the Braves on offense, scoring two goals including the winner.

"(Athens) is a good team, but they had played a lot of games in the tournament and we knew they had to be tired, so our whole goal was to wear them out and out-skate them," Pennington said. "We figured that if we could out-skate them and put pressure on them that we had a good chance of winning the game."

Olentangy was seeded behind Pickerington/Reynoldsburg/Pataskala/Canal Winchester, Athens and Newark, despite having won seven games in a row. The confidence easily carried over into the tournament as the Braves cruised to an 8-2 win over No. 5 Westerville in the first round Feb. 21. The Braves found themselves matched up against PRPC in the second round and won 3-1 to advance to a semifinal. There, the Braves held off Newark 5-3 last Saturday.

The whole team played well throughout the tournament, but the Braves were buoyed by the play of Highley, who allowed just seven goals in four games for a 1.75 goals-against average. Christian Periera led all players in the tournament with nine points on two goals and seven assists. Herrmann tied for the lead in tournament goals with six. Periera also managed to lead the tournament in penalty minutes with 22.

Four years ago, Olentangy played in its first Blue Jackets Cup championship game, losing to top-seeded PRPC 7-6 in the final. Playing in just their second Blue Jackets championship game did not phase the Braves.

"Our kids were loose," Pennington said. "Our (junior varsity) had played in their championship game right before us and they were all out there watching them and rooting them on and they were loose. Nobody was uptight at all. They were just confident."

Athens made its way through the losers bracket after falling to Newark 2-0 in the second round. The Bobcats found redemption later, beating Newark 1-0 to advance to the championship game.

Hilliard/Southwest turned some heads despite losing to Newark 6-1 in the first round. The Wildcats fell to the losers bracket, where they then defeated Northeast 5-3 and then upset PRPC 7-5 on the strength of five goals by Tim Hahn to advance to a semifinal, where they lost to Athens 4-0.

PRPC failed to win a game in the tournament. The two-time defending champion Prowlers were missing three of their top players in Zach Wiard, Adam McGrath and Ryan Straker against Hilliard. Wiard was out with a concussion and McGrath and Straker were held out because of league suspensions.

"We ran into a hot Olentangy team," PRPC coach Jay Catherine said. "Really, a few questionable penalties took some of our top players out and we didn't get the job done."

Its performance in the Blue Jackets Cup was disappointing, but Catherine was pleased with the way the team handled losing.

"I told them I was proud of them," he said. "We had a lot of guys that stepped up. We lost two hard-hitting defensemen, and a lot of guys that didn't have many minutes against Olentangy played Hilliard. It wasn't for lack of effort that we lost and I was proud of the way they responded."

Up next will be the Buckeye Cup, which will begin March 7 and is sponsored by the North Coast High School Hockey League in Cleveland.

PRPC opens against the Rocky River Buccaneers, Olentangy faces the Lakota West Firebirds, Athens plays the Cincinnati LaSalle Lancers and Newark battles the Lakewood Rangers.