Seneca Valley hockey beats defending state champ Pine-Richland in PIHL tournament quarterfinals
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Seneca Valley's Jimmy Murtha (21) celebrates with his team after scoring a goal against Pine-Richland in the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Jimmy Murtha (21) looks to pass the puck against Pine-Richland during the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley goalie Christopher Nichols (40) stops off a shot by Pine-Richland in the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley celebrates after Cooper Hoehn (76) scores the first goal of the game against Pine-Richland in the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley Cooper Hoehn (76) brings the puck up ice and looks to pass against Pine-Richland in the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Andrew Malichky (28) fights for the puck against Pine-Richland's Douglas Van Meter (77) in the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Braden Morin (13) takes a shot on goal past Pine-Richland's Josh Lanyard (44) in the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Marshall Hewitt (33) faces off against Pine-Richland's Colten Andrighetti (10) in the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Owen Martin (91) looks to take a shot as he is defended by Pine-Richland's Adam Proctor (9) in the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley's Marshall Hewitt (33) brings the puck up ice as he is defended by Pine-Richland's Roger Williams (88) in the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex.Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
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Seneca Valley students show their support during the PIHL Tournament Class 3A quarterfinals against Pine-Richland on Monday, March 3, 2025, at Baierl Ice Complex. Seneca Valley won 3-1. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle
WARRENDALE — Elton John’s voice spilled out of first-seeded Seneca Valley’s dressing room, proclaiming to everyone in earshot at Bairel Ice Rink he — and the Raiders — were still standing.
Though, No. 8 Pine-Richland’s first goal wasn’t.
Down 2-0 about two-thirds of the way through the second period of Monday’s PIHL Class 3A quarterfinal matchup, the Rams finally found the back of the net. But, officials concluded it was off its moorings shortly after.
The disallowed score wound up being a pivotal moment in a 3-1 Raiders win over the defending state champions.
“That was a good break that we’ll take,” Seneca Valley coach Tyler Messica said. “We kind of felt we carried play a lot up to that point, and then they get that one. It was kind of a sigh of relief for us that we got that break, but we knew that that kind of switched momentum a little bit.”
“It was a tough play,” Pine-Richland coach Jordan Yoklic said. “I don’t quite agree with the call. You know, I thought the puck was in. ... I saw the net come off. I thought the puck was over the line. It’s kind of like an instant-type play.
“We all saw it. We all saw the net move. It was a 2-on-1 situation. It goes to the net. To me, I’m going to have to re-watch it, (but it) looked like the Seneca goalie moved the net a little bit. Was it enough to disallow a goal? I don’t think it was, personally.”
The Rams (8-13) didn’t readily go away, something their opponent wasn’t all that surprised by.
“When they scored ... we were all like, ‘Crap, we’ve got to start locking in here,’” Raiders forward Cooper Hoehn said. “When they called a no-goal, we were all like, ‘We’ve got to start going.’ Because we knew that they were going to try to get on the power play. ... They got a big confidence boost out of it, and (then) we had to step up our game.”
“These guys compete,” Yoklic said. “We just talk about, you know, working hard every shift for 30 seconds. There’s going to be adversity in the game. ... That was an adverse moment.”
Hoehn notched an early goal for Seneca Valley (16-5) in the first period, and Jimmy Murtha added another in the second.
“We wanted to get a lot of shots early,” Messica said. “I think we did that in the first. We had, like, 15 in the first period, so it was kind of a good recipe to get us started.”
Pine-Richland scored 1:02 into the final frame but couldn’t pull even. The Raiders added an empty-netter with just under 2 minutes to play.
Seneca Valley faces No. 5 Upper St. Clair, which beat No. 4 Thomas Jefferson 5-4 in the other quarterfinal, in the semifinals March 10 at Robert Morris University.
