PHILADELPHIA—On Friday evening the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference, APAC, playoff seedings were finalized as La Salle College High School defeated St. Joseph’s Prep 6-3.
The scoring opened up quickly with the Explorers scoring a goal two minutes into play. Collin Keiser scored the first two goals, and Chris Wnek added another to give La Salle a three-goal advantage. St. Joe’s Prep didn’t find the back of the net in the first period, as the Hawks entered intermission down three goals to none.
La Salle’s David Kimmel got the scoring started in the second period with a shorthanded attempt to put the Explorers up 4-0. St. Joe’s tallied once with a goal off the stick of Jeffrey Hammond with about six minutes remaining in the second. La Salle scored once more before the horn sounded with a goal from Chase Hannon, making the score 5-1.
Heading into the third period Andrew Centrella gave some life to St. Joe’s Prep late push to bring the score to 5-2. La Salle answered a minute and a half later with a shorthanded goal from Kimmel. Centrella scored again eight minutes into the 3rdfor the final goal of the game.
With a regulation win, La Salle (3-3-2-1) locked up the #2 seed for the APAC playoffs. St. Joe’s Prep (3-2-0-4) would’ve earned the second seed in any other situation than a regulation loss. The two squads will face off again on Monday afternoon at Hatfield Ice in the semi-finals. La Salle enters into the playoffs with 35 goals for in 2019-2020. They are led by Kimmel who finished the regular season with 12 goals and seven assists. St. Joe’s Prep finishes its regular season the least goals for in the league, with 30. St. Joe’s Prep’s leading scorer is Hammond who has nine goals, but the Prep thrives on assists with Jimmy Craig and Centrella above 10 assists a piece.
La Salle vs. SJPrep Game Highlights:
Post Game Interview with La Salle head coach Walter Muehlbronner:
The other semi-final will match the #1 ranked Holy Ghost Prep (5-3-1-0) with #4 ranked Malvern Prep (2-5-2-0). That semi-final will occur Monday afternoon at Grundy Ice Arena. Holy Ghost Prep has the highest goal differential and scored a league high 32 goals this season. Byron Hartley leads the league in scoring with 21 goals in his senior campaign. Malvern Prep gave up the most goals this season, 42, and has the lowest differential at -6. Matt Harris leads the squad in goals with 19 and Jack Costabile has a league high 20 assists.
The winners of the semi-final games on Monday will meet on Wednesday at a time to be determined. The highest seed remaining will host the championship game. League statistics and results can be found on the league website at https://www.theapac.org/.