Central Catholic clinging to playoff hopes

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Central Catholic has been through a tumultuous season that has seen the team tumble from the best record in Class 3A a year ago to a three-way tie for last place.

And yet, even as the Vikings are left with only one game remaining on their slate, they can still qualify for the Penguins Cup playoffs.

All they need is a win against Plum in their finale on Monday and a little bit of help.

“We’ve got a week to prepare because it’s our last game and they’ve got some games in hand, so does Canon-Mac,” Central Catholic coach Bill Connelly said. “It’s good in a way because it sets our focus just on bringing our best effort for that game and just wait and see. But there have been a lot of things this season we’ve had to adjust to, so I think the boys are ready in that regard.”

Central Catholic (4-11-2-0) lost most of its top scorers from last year but still had high expectations with senior goaltender Nathaniel Cava and an experienced group returning that had been to the finals. All that changed quickly when senior forward John Null, who scored goals in each of the Vikings first two games, sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament and was out for the season.

“It’s been tough for him as a young man, as an athlete and as a teammate not to be out there,” Connelly said. “But he’s been there for every game.”

Without him, Central Catholic had to adjust on the fly and, as the losses continued to mount, the coaches had to make adjustments. Giovanni Palumbo picked up some of the slack and is the team’s leading scorer with eight goals and 20 points, but the team is also without its second-leading scorer, Anthony Perdue, with a broken hand and even had to move defenseman Carlo Bertoni from the blue line to the front line as a forward.

“He’s been a big part of our success, even though we haven’t had much of it,” Connelly said. “I can’t say more about him. He did everything he can in the locker room and in team meetings and on the ice to help the team.”

A Central Catholic win against Plum (5-10-0-0) would likely be enough to push the team into the playoffs, but there are no guarantees. Canon-McMillan (5-12-0-0) still has a game remaining, but even a win against Butler (8-7-1-0) would get the Vikings into the postseason because it owns the goal-differential in the two games the teams split during the season.

Plum would also have an opportunity, but it would need to come up with three points in its final two games, at Mercyhurst against Cathedral Prep (11-4-1-0), a notoriously tough place to play, and at first-place Peters Township (12-2-0-1).

“We’ve been in that situation in previous years where we’ve needed that win and got to make a run,” Connelly said. “I think we embrace it and, if we’re going to get there, let’s just get there now.”

Class 2A

All five playoff spots have been locked up in the Class 2A North/West Division for a couple of weeks as Armstrong (14-3-0-0) has clinched the top seed, with Pine-Richland, Hampton, Quaker Valley and Mars all within two points of each other.

Things are a bit murkier in the South/East Division, but everything should become clearer on Monday.

After last Monday’s games, Hempfield (9-6-1-1), Shaler (9-7-2-0), Baldwin (9-81-0) and Penn-Trafford (9-9-00) were the bottom four in the division and were vying for the final two postseason slots.

Hempfield played PineRichland Thursday night and now all four teams have only one game remaining in the regular season. If the Spartans lost, they will play Monday at Baldwin with the winner heading to the Penguins Cup tournament.

Shaler will have its chance on Monday as well when it takes on Franklin Regional while Penn-Trafford closes out its slate with first-place Latrobe.

Greensburg C.C.

Greensburg Central Catholic was once one of the best hockey programs in the PIHL. The Centurions won back-to-back Class 1A Penguins Cup titles in 199293 and became the first team ever to move up in classification to take Class 2A in 1994.

They also remain the only program from the western part of the state to win a Pennsylvania Cup title one year, move up in classification and win the following year, which they did in 199394.

Yet the program fell on hard times.

In 2010-11, the team won three games in Class 2A and dropped to Class 1A where it went 1-18-0 and ended the season on a two-game losing streak, then went 0-22-0 the next year before dropping down to the developmental league in 2013-14 and folding its tent.

This year the Centurions hit the ice in the top three classifications again for the first time since 2012-13 and the results were somewhat expected for a program that’s feeling its way again. Greensburg Central Catholic ended its 28-game Class 1A losing streak with a 5-4 victory against Blackhawk, but the team is now 0-13-1-0 in its past 14 with two games remaining.

Still, the team has shown progress and it could be a sign that the Centurions aren’t that far off from once again being a championship program.