New coaches hope to make their marks at Butler, SV

By JOHN ENRIETTO Eagle Sports Editor

November 03, 2004 Last Updated: January 06, 2005 12:14 PM High School

Two new coaches, two different agendas.

Butler and Seneca Valley begin Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League play this week with new head coaches behind the bench.

Leo Cancilla replaces Bob Hoehn at Butler with the Golden Tornado coming off a 17-9 season, including the program's first-ever playoff win. Last year, Cancilla was an assistant coach under Hoehn, who resigned to spend more time with his family.

"We want to pick up where we left off," Cancilla said. "We lost a lot of talent, but we have a lot coming back.

"We expect to be in the playoffs again. I'll be very disappointed if we're not."

Mike Schall replaces Tom Ward as Seneca Valley coach. After having no varsity team in 2002-03, the Raiders returned last year and finished 7-17.

Ward resigned after the season and is now the head coach at Slippery Rock University.

"This is a building year for us," Schall said. "We're still very young and inexperienced. A realistic goal for us is .500."

Butler opens the season at 9:25 p.m. today against North Allegheny at Belmont Arena in Kittanning. B.J. Tipton, Andy Turner and Tyler Druschel, who combined for 53 goals a year ago, are gone, and veteran goaltender Bucky Holt is now playing at St. Vincent College in Latrobe.

Top returnees for Butler are left wing Spencer Crouse, who set school records with 30 goals and 53 points last year, center Greg Rogerson (19 goals) and defenseman Mike Guentner.

"Guentner was among the WPIHL's top scoring defensemen," Cancilla said. "Spencer and Greg will play on the same line as Spencer's brother, Fletcher.

"Fletcher is not as fast a skater as his brother, but he has all of his other abilities. He's only a sophomore, but should be a productive player."

The Tornado's second line will be a trio of juniors: center Bryan Rodgers, right wing Mike Barker and left wing Tory Coyle.

The third line features seniors David Schultz and Tyler Flanigan, along with sophomore Gereme Hensel.

"I expect us to have three pretty solid lines," Cancilla said. "Defense should be the strength of our team. This is the strongest defensive unit we've had at Butler in years."

Returnees John Pakutz and Rob Ramirez join Guentner at the blue line. Goaltenders are sophomore Kris Rhodaberger and junior Kim Antonetti.

Antonetti is a female goalie who gave up just two goals in her last preseason start.

"Both of our goalies will see plenty of action," Cancilla said.

Seneca Valley opened its season Monday with a 4-3 win against Baldwin. The Raiders have only five seniors: forwards Kevin Raynovich, Brent Tranger, Scott Schultz and Nate Hannes, and defenseman Dan Nelson.Raynovich is the team captain, and Tranger was one of the Raiders' top scorers last year."We have 15 players on the varsity, but we have two freshman teams," said Schall, a 1997 Seneca Valley graduate. "The bulk of our numbers are in the lower grades."Other key players on the Raiders' varsity include freshman defenseman Joey Salasa, goaltenders Jeff Reed (junior) and Nick Miller (sophomore), and forwards Mike McChesney (sophomore), Matt Jarrett (freshman) and Travis Scharrar (junior)."We want to be defensive-oriented because we don't have the firepower to be involved in shootouts every night," Schall said. "We want to win games 2-1 or 3-2."The Raiders will play their home games at Warrendale Blade Runners.

Coach Eric Glover returns for his second year with the Planets, who are coming off a 7-12 season and have only two seniors: defenseman and captain Shaun Becker and center Steve Matuzak.The top returning scorer from a year ago is junior winger Mike Riefner."We had a lot of bad attitudes last year and a new coach with a new system," Glover said. "I'm very excited about this season."I don't see any weaknesses. Ninety percent of the high school teams our size only have two lines. We'll have three very balanced ones."The Planets also have third-year starting goaltender Bryan Ross back. He had a 4.00 goals-against average last year."That's not indicative of how he played or how good he is," Glover said."I think we can challenge for the Penguin Cup this year. The talent and depth are there. It's up to them."Mars will play its home games at Warrendale BladeRunners.

The Yellowjackets are coming off a 6-16 season in which they dropped their final eight games, but coach Dave Hepler returns one of the WPIHL's top scorers in Dustin Gaworski.Gaworski scored 27 goals and added 16 assists a year ago.Freeport plays its home games at Belmont Arena. Hepler could not be reached for comment.

Because of a lack of players, Knoch won't field a varsity team for the second successive year. A program must have 12 players between grades 10 and 12, and "we don't have that," coach John Nicholas said.The Knights were 1-19 at the varsity level in 2002-03. They won five games at the JV level last year.Senior forward Andy Hay is the team captain, with senior forward Scott Olmstead the assistant captain. Alex Schaffer is the defensive captain.Other key players are freshmen R.J. Hughes and Shane Donnelly."We'll have a varsity team next year," Nicholas said. "There's light at the end of the tunnel. Right now, we just have to keep improving."