Biggest game yet
You might think Steve Meyers would have his hands full bringing his team back down to earth as it prepares for one final game.
But that's not the case.
The Mars High hockey coach watched his team hoist the Penguins Cup Tuesday night after defeating Bishop McCort, 3-2, in the Class A final at Mellon Arena.
The Planets (23-1) will face Bayard Rustin (22-2) in the state final at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Ice Line in West Chester.
Mars is riding a 19-game winning streak while the Golden Knights have won 17 straight.
"Honestly, I think we'll be a lot more focused for this game as opposed to the Penguins Cup," said Meyers. "It was so hard for us to get to and win the Penguins Cup. We've had a lot of good teams, but always came up short. Now that we've won it, we can put distractions behind us and focus on the next game."
Bayard Rustin, which is located in West Chester, beat Hershey 4-3 in the Flyers Cup final last Saturday at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.
"We have a few players on our team that know a bit about them from traveling teams," Meyers said. "We know they're a deep team and they don't give up many goals."
In fact, the Golden Knights gave up just 26 goals in 21 games during the regular season, with senior goalie Phil Allmaier stopping 271 of 288 shots for a save percentage of 94.1.
Rustin, which plays its home games at the Ice Line, has four players who finished the regular season with double digits in goals, led by senior wing Bill Gaffney's 21.
Junior Brian Christie (14), senior Pat Kinch (14) and junior Matt Capone (10) are the others.
"It's probably going to be trial and error at the beginning of the game," said Meyers. "We're not sure what defense they're going to show us, things like that."
Though senior forward Jake Robash is Mars' leading scorer with 37 goals in the regular season, the Planets have many players who can score. In Tuesday's win, Mars received goals from Mike Mazzotta, Brady Sipe and Andrew Santa.
"Every team has a game plan for Jake, but our second line has carried us lately," said Meyers.
That second line includes seniors Derek Sitterly, Matt Wingert and Santa up front.
Mars sophomore goalie Tyler Stepke proved he was ready for the Penguins Cup stage, making 26 saves, and Meyers is expecting a similar performance Saturday.
"I didn't meet Tyler until this year, but, right from the get-go, he's been great. He's really skilled for a little guy and you can never count him out."
Rustin coach Nick Russo could not be reached for comment.
