NEVILLE TWP — Thirty-three seconds away from a trip to the PIHL Class A Penguins Cup championship game. It was a short span of time that will be replayed in the minds of Freeport’s hockey players for quite some time.

The Yellowjackets led defending champion Quaker Valley 3-2 in the final minute of Monday’s semifinal showdown at Robert Morris University’s Island Sports Center.

Quakers’ forward Jimmy Perkins, who had already scored twice in the game, buried the equalizer after his team had won a faceoff to the right of Freeport’s net.

With the game seemingly headed to an overtime period, the Quakers again pressured Freeport goalie Matt Huston and Cameron Peterkin found himself with the puck in front of the goal in the final seconds.

The senior’s first shot was blocked, but he controlled the rebound and sent it to the back of the net with just two-tenths of a second on the clock.

Quaker Valley’s dream of a third straight Penguins Cup title was alive and well with a dramatic 4-3 victory.

“There were a number of times earlier in the season when we didn’t have our best effort, but came back and won,” said Quaker Valley coach Kevin Quinn. “So, we’ve done it before.”

Outside of the other locker room was a sense of disbelief.

“It shows that every mistake, every second matters,” said Yellowjackets’ coach Dave Hepler. “We gave up two goals in the final seconds and the second one came with two-tenths of a second left. How often does that happen?

“Right before the last goal, there was a scramble in front of the net,” he added. “We were just trying to bang it out.”

The Yellowjackets led 2-1 after a second-period goal from Cole Hepler and a score off the stick of Hunter Kepple 61 seconds into the third period.

Perkins, who scored 43 goals in the regular season, then showed why he is one of the top players in the PIHL, regardless of class.

Teammate Ryan Lottes cleared the puck along the boards and it deflected back toward the middle of the ice and directly toward Freeport’s goal. Perkins began the sequence near his own blue line, but raced past a Freeport defender and gained control of the slowly-moving puck just feet in front of the crease before putting a shot past Huston that tied the game at two with 6:49 left.

“He was kicking himself because he missed a few opportunities earlier in the game,” said Quinn. “He’s just a goal scorer.”

The play threw momentum back to the Quakers (23-1), but it didn’t stay there for long. Just under three minutes later, Freeport’s Michael Frazetta took a pass from Hepler and wristed a shot from right of the net and past goalie Parker Sherry.

The score gave Freeport a 3-2 lead and forced Quaker Valley to pull Sherry with 1:40 left. Playing with a 6-on-5 disadvantage, the Yellowjackets (15-6-2) barely missed an empty-net goal and instead were whistled for icing, setting the stage for the faceoff won by the Quakers and Perkins’ third goal that tied the game at three.

“We didn’t want to ice it,” said Hepler. “We wanted to get it to the red line and dump it in.”

“Pulling your goalie doesn’t always work,” said Quinn, “but it worked out well tonight. We are fortunate to be moving on.”

Sherry made 18 saves in the game, while Huston stopped 17 shots.

“Matt played great,” said Hepler. “The whole team played as hard as you can play. The puck just didn’t bounce our way.”