Hawks vs. Blue Devils

Coming off of a three-game losing streak and being the last spot in playoffs as the No. 8 seed, the Hawks had two very crucial points to get against the Mt. Lebanon Blue Devils.

They did just that with a 2-1 overtime victory on Thursday, Nov. 30.

It was a very even game as both teams needed the two points to jump up in the standings as Mt. Lebanon was just ahead of the Black Hawks.

Starting off in the first period, it was like everyone expected, very close as many great saves were made by Lebo senior goaltender Quinn Lynam and Bethel Park sophomore goalie Kevin Teamann.

The first period ended 0-0 with Mt. Lebanon having nine shots and Bethel Park with four.

The Hawks improved their shot total with 14 in the second period while the Blue Devils settled for three, though the score remained 0-0.

Heading into the locker room, both teams knew the game was still up for grabs, but it would be a dogfight to get there.

In the third period, there were lots of hits being thrown around left to right. Mt. Lebanon opened up the scoring at 6:43 into the period with a power play goal by Freshman Xavier Bias assisted by Liam Shinn and Sawyer Klasnick.

The Hawks did not stop battling as they knew they would still have a chance to win the game.

With 7 seconds left, Bethel Park had an offensive zone faceoff to score a game-tying goal.

With 1.1 seconds on the clock, senior Ryan Tierney found the back of the net with assists from seniors Anthony Karner and Will Alborg to keep the Hawks’ hopes alive and force overtime.

Senior Zach Mazzacone scored the dagger with about 2:45 left in overtime. His goal was assisted by captain Ethan Cooley to win it, with a beautiful bar-down goal. The Hawks moved up into sixth place in the standings from this very huge win. The final shots were 30-15.

Hawks vs. Seneca Valley

Fresh off a win against the Mt.Lebanon Blue Devils followed by a successful weekend in Jamestown, N.Y., the Hawks had another huge game on Monday, Dec. 4 against a team that was tied for first place in the AAA division, the Seneca Valley Raiders.

After a hard-fought battle with a great team, the Black Hawks came out on top with a 2-1 victory.

The game was at even strength for most of the first period. But with 3:33 left in the period, senior captain for the Raiders Ethan Lindberg scored a rebound goal assisted by Vinci Villella and Tyler Garvin.

The Raiders had a 1-0 lead going into the second period, but both teams were tied with eight shots.

But 5:33 into the second period, senior Will Alborg scored a five-hole goal assisted by Kylan Bedner. That would be it for the second period with Bethel Park having six shots and Seneca Valley having eight.

Once again in another tie game, Bethel Park still felt hot knowing they could take the lead and beat a team in first place and once again bump up in the standings.

The third period was a very rough battle as no one had room to breathe. The Hawks went short-handed from a penalty, but they knew this was no worry as they had one of the best penalty-kill percentages in the league.

It proved to show too, as during the penalty kill, senior Anthony Karner shot a beautiful bar down goal on the penalty kill assisted by Ethan Cooley to go up 2-1.

The Hawks killed off the rest of the penalty and one more too before the game had ended.

Bethel Park had 17 shots and Seneca Valley had 26.

The two points also helped the Hawks bump up into fifth place in the standings.