North Penn captured the SHSHL National title Thursday. Ben Reese was there to cover the action. Photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos. CLICK HERE to go directly to Suburban One Sports' ICE HOCKEY GALLERIES.
SOL National title game
NORTH PENN 6, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 3
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — There are very few high school ice hockey players who can take over a game all by themselves.
Over the years, there have been several in the Suburban High School Hockey League. They usually play on teams that have plenty of talent to go with the dominant player.
North Penn has one. His name is Sam Norton.
He capped off his junior year with a dominating performance in leading the Knights to the SHSHL championship on Thursday night at Hatfield Ice. Norton scored three goals as North Penn topped Central Bucks South 6-3.
“Credit to Sam,” his coach Kevin Vaitis said. “Sam had a monster game.”
His first two goals negated an early Titan lead. His third broke a 3-3 tie in the second period which got the Knights back in the lead for good.
“Big guys show up in big games,” Vaitis said. “(Chris) Silvotti did it for us last night (in a 11-1 win over Pennsbury) and Sam did it tonight.”
Norton has been the object of a lot of hype after helping the Knights win last year’s Flyers Cup and state championship. It carried over to this season.
“I don’t see the hype as something I’ve got to live up to,” Norton said. “We’re expected to do it, so we just come out and play our game, it shouldn’t be a problem. We shouldn’t have to worry about it.”
When North Penn needed a big play, Norton was there. When the Knights needed a big goal, Norton got it.
Perhaps the biggest of his three goals was the tiebreaker in the second period. The Titans had just tied the game at 3-3 at the 8:30 mark of the second and looked like they were coming on strong.
But there was Norton.
Twenty-eight seconds later, he beat South goalie Nathan Napolitano to snap the tie and start the Knights on their way to a big celebration.
Was that a set play or did it just come naturally?
“It came naturally,” Norton said. “Coming into this game, I knew I had to be big, had to be a big player. I thought I did my job well today.”
Vaitis was encouraged by his team’s comeback at that point.
“I thought the guys worked hard,” he said. “When they came back and tied it at three, nobody panicked.
“We’ve been in situations like this before and we just continued to work through it. Work hard, get pucks deep, do the simple things, try to limit turnovers.
“We’ve got an extremely talented team from top to bottom, forwards, defense, goaltending. I’m just so proud of these guys.”
CB South coach Josh Sklar also was proud of his team.
“We battled to the end,” he said. “We had the two best teams in the league going at it, and sometimes the bounces just don’t go your way. They’re a deep team, but we battled and we tried and did our best and sometimes it just doesn’t get you there.
“I woke up this morning and texted both (assistant) coaches and I said that if we’re going to win, we’re going to have to go through both teams (Council Rock South and North Penn). We got through one, but we didn’t get through this one.”
Both teams had some lapses offensively and defensively.
“It wasn’t our cleanest; we made some mistakes,” said Vaitis, “but we capitalized on some as well. When you get to this point in the season and you’re playing a team like that, it’s not going to be perfect.”
Sklar acknowledged that his team also made mistakes.
“Every shift means something,” he said. “Every shift’s important.
“Every shift matters. You’ve got to be relentless.
“You cannot take two, three, four, five minutes off. We took a couple of minutes off, and it really hurt us.”
The Titans broke from the gate quickly. They scored the first goal of the game as Ryan Montagna beat North Penn goalie Andy Norton on the power play with only 1:29 elapsed in the game.
Sam Norton then took over. He scored two quick unassisted goals to give the Knights the lead and Declan Leahy added one for a 3-1 lead heading into the second period.
In the second, Ryan Frey got things going for South, scoring at the 3:05 mark. Joe Slobodrian got the Titans even at 3-3 at the exact midpoint of the 17-minute period.
But then Sam Norton untied it 28 seconds later with his unassisted goal. Danny Cabrales and Nolan Shingle followed that up with goals of their own for a 6-3 lead that held until the final buzzer.
Both teams now get ready for the Flyers Cup beginning next week. North Penn will play Shawnee from New Jersey on Tuesday evening at 8:30 while CB South will face Downingtown East at 6:15 on the same night.
North Penn 6, CB South 3
CB South 1 2 0 — 3
North Penn 3 3 0 — 6
First period: 1, Ryan Montagna CBS (Dominic Gibson) 1:29 PP; 2, Sam Norton NP (unassisted) 4:01; 3, S. Norton NP (unassisted) 6:54; 4, Declan Leahy NP (Izzy Cabrales) 13:52.
Second period: 5, Ryan Frey CBS (unassisted) 3:05; 6, Joe Slobodrian CBS (unassisted) 8:30; 7, S. Norton NP (unassisted) 8:58; 8, Danny Cabrales NP (Landon Hostetter) 10:16; 9, Nolan Shingle NP (I. Cabrales) 12:00.
Third period: No scoring.
Shots: CBS 22, NP 44. Saves: Nathan Napolitano (CBS) 38, Andy Norton (NP) 19.
SHSHL American title game
HATBORO-HORSHAM 4, PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 3 (OT)
(Check back for a follow-up article on the Hatters’ OT win in Thursday’s title game)
Vincent Graziani's goal in the opening minute OT propelled the Hatters to the dramatic win and the SHSHL American title on Thursday at Hatfield Ice. Nathan Nemchinov had the assist.
Hatboro-Horsham 2-0-1-1 4
Plymouth Whitemarsh 1-1-1-0 3
Shots: HH 42, PW 26; Saves: Patrick Murphy (HH) 23, Max Yoder (PW) 39.
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