KITTANNING - As hats of all kinds flew onto the ice - winter hats, baseball hats and even a propeller hat - teammates surrounded Josh Schreckengost in a congratulatory ring of humanity.

The Freeport High School hockey team had much to celebrate Thursday night, much more than a simple hat trick.

It was a night in which nearly every Yellowjacket had a gloved hand in a 7-1 PIHL playoff win over Deer Lakes at the Belmont Complex.

Schreckengost had three goals, Dustin Gaworski added two more and 10 different players had a goal or an assist as Freeport (15-8-1) overcame a sluggish start to thump Deer Lakes.

"When you spread it around, it keeps the bench excited," said Freeport coach Dave Hepler. "It's great to see that."

Freeport was sluggish on offense in the early going and Deer Lakes was setting the tone physically.

The Lancers (7-15) outshot the Yellowjackets 14-4 in the first period, as the teams played to a 1-all deadlock.

It wasn't the kind of start Hepler had in mind.

"We came out trying to go up-tempo," Hepler said. "We didn't play very well in the first period. We did exactly the opposite of what we were trying to get done."

Hepler switched from two lines to three and started putting pressure on Deer Lakes goalie Rich Smith.

The Yellowjackets took advantage of Smith's weakness to the stick side, scoring five of their goals to that side.

While Freeport's offense was struggling early, its freshman goalie was not.

Timmy Zahumensky turned away the many Deer Lakes' scoring chances early in the game, stopping all but one of the 24 shots he faced.

"I told Timmy he kept us in the game," Hepler said.

Once the puck started to hit the back of the net for Freeport, it did so in bunches.

Schreckengost scored his second goal early in the second period and then Gaworski, who left the game briefly with a separated left shoulder, scored a spectacular goal with 1:10 left in the period.

Gaworski slipped through two defenders, briefly lost his balance, did a 180-degree clockwise spin and slapped the puck into the top left corner of the net for his first goal of the game.

Gaworski's bum shoulder has been problematic this season - it just didn't look it against Deer Lakes.

"You have to be one tough cookie to separate your shoulder and come back into the game," Hepler said. "He just tightened that brace up as tight as he could and went back out there."

Just 40 seconds later, Zach Hepler scored again to give the Yellowjackets a comfortable 4-1 lead at the end of two periods.

"We played very well in the first period, then we started to force things," said Deer Lakes coach Terry Marynchak.

Gaworski scored again at the beginning of the third period and Schreckengost got the hats flying onto the ice with 3:19 remaining in the game with his third goal.

Jason Bubb tacked on another score with 26 seconds remaining.

Deer Lakes was particularly interested in stopping Gaworski, but it was unable to do so after the first 15 minutes.

"Sometimes we overreacted to what he was doing," Marynchak said.

Freeport got two assists from Zach Hepler and one each from Charlie Rowley, Braden McQueen, Beau Zack, Cody Barker and Lucas Crisman.

The Yellowjackets must wait to see who they will face in the next round of the playoffs, but most likely they will play a higher seed.

"It definitely won't be a home game - unless there are a lot of upsets," Hepler said.