Peters Varsity Hockey Strengthens Hold on First Place

It was Senior Recognition Night Monday for the Peters Township varsity hockey team, and it was a combination of scoring from the seniors and underclassmen that helped the Indians to a 8-3 win over Pine-Richland at the Iceoplex at Southpointe.

The win improves the Indians’ record to 14-2-1, and solidifies their hold on first place in the PIHL AA standings. This game set them up in good position, as the Penguins Cup Playoffs draw closer.

Senior Ben Dachille scored a pair of goals for the Indians, and junior Alex Dagnal scored another pair of goals. Senior Hayden Edmunds, and juniors Jacob Brown and Taylor Cox added the other goals.

The Indians began the scoring at the 9:55 mark of the first period, when Edmunds lifted a shot past goalie Brendan Bagnato. Dachille got his first goal of the evening 10 seconds later, giving the Indians a 2-0 lead after one period.

Cox scored 45 seconds into the second period, and Dagnal blistered a slapshot past Bagnato from the slot, on a neat pass from Cole Snyder less than a minute later giving the Indians a 4-0 lead. Head Coach Rick Tingle said this may have given his team too much confidence.

The Rams got their first goal of the evening  a little over a minute later when Julian Rizza scored a goal off the rush, firing a hard shot past goalie Woody Shell. Dagnal scored his second goal two minutes later, but Dillon Kossy scored for Pine-Richland before the close of the period, to send the teams to the second intermission with the Indians leading 5-2.

“We had it going real well, but we gave them momentum on penalties,” Tingle said.  “We were alright, but [Pine-Richland] got the sniff that they had a shot [to win] and you just don’t want to do that when someone’s lying down.”

The Indians took control of the game early in the third period, when Dachille scored his second goal of the night, but Pine-Richland made it 6-3, on a goal by Simon Ince at the 7:44 mark.

The Indians’ Jacob Brown gave the momentum back to Peters, when he scored on a hard slapshot from the left point at the 4:43 mark, and move-up player, Kevin Lui, added an insurance goal with a little over a minute remaining.

“I give Pine-Richland and Coach Bagnato a lot of credit for the way they came back,” Tingle said. “They kept fighting to the end and they weren’t taking it lightly by no means.”

Tingle was not surprised at how the underclassmen were able to step up and score key goals.

“It’s always a team effort with us,” Tingle said. “We have not had one guy that’s scoring all of the goals or doing this or doing that. Everybody plays hard right through. It’s a whole team effort."

The Indians have three games remaining on their schedule, including next Monday night at home against Gateway. They finish their regular season on the road against Greensburg Central and Thomas Jefferson.

Both Woody Shell and Taylor Kuhn shared goaltending duties in honor of Senior Recognition Night.

The seniors graduating are Michael Amelio, Ben Dachille, Hayden Edmunds, Mike Glicksman, Taylor Kuhn, Evan Mitchell and Woody Shell.

The Indians haven’t lost a game since Nov. 1 against West Allegheny. Since then, they have won eight straight, following a 7-7 tie with Elizabeth Forward on Dec. 9. Prior to that they were undefeated in five games since their loss to West Allegheny.

So far this season, the Indians have scored 113 goals while allowing 35.

Stay tuned for Monday, Feb. 14 coverage of Peters versus Gateway.