Golden Hawks

Now that Council Rock South has wrapped up the girls' soccer championship in the Suburban One League National Conference, coach Tim Keddie says his team can focus on its ultimate goal: a PIAA title. "At the beginning of the season, we said our big goal was to compete for a state title. If we play like we did against Pennsbury and stay healthy, the sky's the limit," Keddie said Thursday after South beat the Falcons, 9-2, to take the conference crown. The win improved the Golden Hawks' conference mark to 11-1.

In a battle that featured some of the area's top wrestlers, host Council Rock South continued its domination over Council Rock North with a 36-19 win last night that had many ramifications. The victory not only put the Golden Hawks, ranked No. 5 in the state by several publications, in the driver's seat in the Suburban One League Continental Division race, but it also extended their winning streak against their archrivals to four. South has won six of the eight meetings with North since Council Rock was split.

Held to 47 rushing yards and one first down on 14 attempts, Council Rock South's normally potent wishbone offense was stymied repeatedly in the first half of Friday night's Suburban One League National Conference game against Neshaminy. The Golden Hawks came to life over the final 24 minutes, racking up 225 yards and four touchdowns on the ground to notch a dramatic 28-21 victory and spoil homecoming for the Redskins at Harry E. Franks Stadium in Langhorne. In what was arguably the biggest victory in C.R. South's nine-year history, senior quarterback Billy Fleming, a hard-hitting shortstop in baseball, carried 24 times for 150 yards and three scores.

Two days shy of Halloween, the Abington Ghosts threw more than a scare into Suburban One League National Conference frontrunner Council Rock South. Boosted by a pair of successful trick plays, including a fake punt in the late going, Abington shocked previously undefeated C.R. South, 45-35, Friday night at Walt Snyder Stadium in Newtown. With his Ghosts nursing a 38-35 lead with less than four minutes to play, coach Tim Sorber called for a fake punt. It worked. Tim Salley caught a short pass in the middle of the field from upman Jim Shelinsky and raced to the end zone for a 75-yard clinching touchdown.

Two weeks ago, in a heated regular-season girls' soccer game between neighboring schools, Council Rock South nipped visiting Council Rock North, 3-2. The stakes will be considerably higher at 7 o'clock tonight when top-seeded South (20-0-2) and second-seeded North (18-2) play for the PIAA District 1 championship at Neshaminy High. In the National Soccer Coaches Association rankings released Monday, South was rated third in the country and North 11th. Since Council Rock split into North and South in 2002, South holds a 2-1 lead in the series.

Bethlehem Catholic used a dominant inside game to romp past Gwynedd-Mercy by 65-36 in the PIAA Class AAA girls' Eastern Division championship game yesterday at Reading. The District 11 champion Golden Hawks (26-6) advance to the state championship game in Hershey on Saturday for the first time in school history. The Golden Hawks led, 15-10, at the end of the first quarter and stretched that lead with a 8-0 run to start the second quarter. The Monarchs were outscored, 17-7, in the second quarter and trailed, 32-17, at halftime.

Council Rock South's Eric Gallo, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound junior center and defensive tackle, has orally committed to play football at Virginia Tech. Gallo, who is projected to play center for the Hokies, also received interest from Boston College, Connecticut, Maryland, and Rutgers, among others. A two-year starter for the Golden Hawks, Gallo earned Inquirer first-team all-Southeastern Pennsylvania honors on defense last season. - Rick O'Brien

CORAOPOLIS, Pa. - This state championship feels more "special" than most for Council Rock South. And not just because it came after two losses in the Class AA title game over the last three years. In a game featuring a combined 16 power plays, the Golden Hawks' special teams were better than West Allegheny's. That was good enough for them to take the Pennsylvania Cup on the long turnpike drive home. Paul Cloud and Dan Ufberg scored third-period power-play goals as Council Rock South came from behind to earn its first state championship, beating West Allegheny, 4-3, Sunday evening at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center.

There were some tense moments this season for the seniors on the Council Rock South girls' soccer team. But the Golden Hawks made those moments disappear with their steady play throughout the postseason. Council Rock South capped a memorable playoff run by winning its first PIAA Class AAA state spring soccer championship last night with a 2-0 victory over Cumberland Valley at HersheyPark Stadium. After being upset in the District 1 playoffs last season by Council Rock North, the Golden Hawks, who are ranked third in the nation by the National Soccer Coaches Association, finished this season 24-0-2.

Council Rock South's Eric Gallo, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound junior center and defensive tackle, has orally committed to play football at Virginia Tech. Gallo, who is projected to play center for the Hokies, also received interest from Boston College, Connecticut, Maryland, and Rutgers, among others. A two-year starter for the Golden Hawks, Gallo earned Inquirer first-team all-Southeastern Pennsylvania honors on defense last season. - Rick O'Brien

When you lose four starters from a team that reached the quarterfinals of the state tournament, you don't necessarily enter the next season expecting a lot of success. But the more basketball Villa Maria played this girls' basketball season, the more the Hurricanes accomplished. By the time they captured the District 1 Class AAA title, they found themselves in the state tournament as an underdog and loving every minute of it. They won three straight games in impressive fashion.

When a team loses four starters from a squad that reached the quarterfinals of the state tournament, it doesn't often enter the next season expecting a lot of success. But the more Villa Maria played this season, the more the Hurricanes accomplished. By the time they captured the District 1 Class AAA title, they found themselves in the state tournament as an underdog and loving every minute of it. They won three straight games in impressive fashion. Their astounding effort continued Tuesday night at William Tennent.

This season hasn't always been easy for first-year Council Rock South coach Kim Francis. Then again, nothing has been quite that easy for the girls' soccer teams in the Suburban One League's National Conference, but Francis is hoping the hard times and close games will help prepare her Golden Hawks for the playoffs. Coming off a 17-5-1 season but having lost a lot of players to graduation, the Golden Hawks have battled all season, against some of the best teams in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

This season hasn't always been easy for first-year Council Rock South coach Kim Francis. Then again, nothing has been easy for any of the girls' soccer teams in the Suburban One League's National Conference. But Francis is hoping the hard times and close games will help prepare her Golden Hawks for the playoffs. Coming off a 17-5-1 season but having lost a lot of players to graduation, the Golden Hawks have battled against some of the best teams in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Many of them just happen to play in the same conference as C.R. South.

With all of the pressure and high expectations, it's been hard for the top-ranked Pennridge girls' soccer team to have fun this year. That much was evident in the first half of Monday's 3-1 win over Council Rock South in a cross-division Suburban One matchup. It's even been difficult for first-year head coach Audrey Anderson to sit back and enjoy her team's success. But Monday afternoon there was at least one player having fun on the field - goalkeeper Amanda O'Hara. The junior had her first-career assist in the second half, when she punted a ball over the Golden Hawks defenders and onto the foot of senior forward Megan Shenk.

STATE COLLEGE - It didn't take long in Friday's PIAA Class AAAA baseball final at Penn State for Corey Baiada to realize that La Salle batterymate Kevin Long had arrived with his "A" game. "He had a lot of confidence, had good movement on his fastball, and he was getting a lot of first-pitch strikes," the senior catcher said. "When he's got things going like that, he's tough to beat. " Long got even better as the contest progressed, retiring Council Rock South's last 12 batters, and the Explorers, becoming the first District 12 program to gain top state honors on the diamond, downed the Golden Hawks, 3-1, at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

A year ago, both Council Rock South and La Salle saw their baseball seasons end in devastating fashion. In an error-marred state-quarterfinal playoff, C.R. South yielded three runs in the bottom of the seventh and bowed to Spring-Ford, 6-5. La Salle, after jumping out to an 11-0 lead in the first 11/2 innings of a Catholic League semifinal against Neumann-Goretti, gave up 13 runs in a nightmarish sixth inning and fell, 18-13. The chance to come full circle comes on Friday, when the Golden Hawks and Explorers clash in a PIAA Class AAAA championship game set for 1 p.m. at Penn State's Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

The origin of Bret DeStefano's nickname, "Bart," dates back about a decade, when he was playing in a Little League tournament for Northampton. "The P.A. announcer called me Bart DeScripto, " the Council Rock South lefthander said. "He got both my first and last name wrong. The first name stuck. " With his teammates chirping "C'mon, Bart" throughout Thursday's PIAA Class AAAA state baseball quarterfinal vs. Coatesville, DeStefano pitched the Golden Hawks past the Red Raiders, 5-1, at Spring-Ford's Ram Stadium.