PIHL quarterfinals continue in Wednesday’s 3 games to watch

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, March 6, 2018 | 7:12 PM

Wednesday is a quiet day in Western Pennsylvania high school sports, one day before the PIAA individual wrestling championships begin in Hershey and two days before tipoff of the PIAA basketball playoffs.

Speaking of days, there are now 299 days left in 2018. There are just three days from the first permitted scrimmages and 16 days from the first games of the spring sports season in baseball, softball, track, lacrosse and boys volleyball. It is only five days away from the start of the WPIAL boys tennis season, which begins Monday with a chance of snow and the high temps in the low 40's.

And now is a good time to promote Wednesday begins a three-week Salute to the Champions shows, with visits from many of the winning coaches from the district basketball finals on The WPIAL Roundball Report at 6 p.m. on the TribLive High School Sports Network.

Cats and Quakers

One of the top quarterfinals matchups in the PIHL Penguins Cup playoffs takes place Wednesday at the Kirk Nevin Arena in Greensburg when Latrobe hosts Quaker Valley at 7 p.m.

Latrobe finished atop the East Division with a record of 13-6 while Quaker Valley finished fourth in the West with a 9-10 record. The Quakers hit the .500 mark for the season Monday with a 4-3 victory in overtime over Shaler in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs. Ben Kuzma and Beau Tomczak each had a goal and an assist for Quaker Valley while Daniel Fagan scored the game-winner 1:37 into OT.

In the only regular-season game between the two, Latrobe blanked Quaker Valley, 7-0, back in November. Brantley Miller had two goals and an assist while goaltender Gage Handwork stopped all 20 Quakers shot to register the shutout.

Class 2A second-rounder

Another PIHL Penguins Cup Class 2A quarterfinals game originally scheduled for Thursday has been switched to 9 p.m. Wednesday as Hempfield visits Pine-Richland at the Baierl Ice Complex in Warrendale.

The only meeting of the year between the Rams and the Spartans took place just three weeks ago when Hempfield captured a 3-2 victory over Pine-Richland. After a scoreless first period, the teams exchanged goals in the second period and were still tied with 4:14 left when Daniel Griffith scored to put Hempfield up 2-1. Less than two minutes later, Pine-Richland tied the game on a goal by Nick Lindauer before Matthew Bartus scored with just over two minutes left in regulation to give the Spartans the dramtic win.

Don Rebel is a TribLive High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.

Tags: Hempfield Area, Latrobe, Pine-Richland, Quaker Valley