PIHL Team of the Week: West Allegheny defense best in league

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, December 16, 2018 | 11:45 AM

The saying “defense wins championships” is talked about in most sports. It’s a point of emphasis for most sports teams at the high school level, especially on the rink, as defense can lead to good forechecking and goals on the opposite end of the ice.

That rings true for the first Trib HSSN PIHL team of the week of the season. West Allegheny won its only game last week 10-0 over Sewickley Academy. The 10 goals give West Allegheny 91 on the season, but perhaps more impressive than their goal total being the second best in the PIHL, may be that the Indians have only allowed 13 goals this year, which is the best goals against in the PIHL.

West Allegheny (9-1) scored three goals in the first and second periods, and four in the third, to go along with only allowing 12 shots on goal. Goalie Josh Ferry stopped all 12 in the shutout. Clay Bovaline had a hat trick, while Jacob Gyergyo and Nicholas Sweet both contributed two tallies and two helpers. Shane Nolan recorded two goals and three assists, as well.

The win against Sewickley Academy, third-year coach Brian Boehm said, was just another showing of his team trending up at the right time.

“When you’ve been doing this awhile, you learn your team’s peaks and valleys,” said Boehm. “Against Sewickley, that’s a team we opened the regular season against and won 5-1. We take pride in the defensive side of the game without having to play a conservative trapping style that some teams revert to. We thought we could’ve played better in that first game. We were better in that end Monday, and goal scoring has never really been an issue for us.”

Boehm said his team wanted to assert some dominance against Sewickley Academy and make a statement to itself.

It did.

For Boehm, it all starts in the goal crease and in the defensive zone. The play on that end sets the tone for one of the deepest scoring offenses in the four classifications of the PIHL. That’s the philosophy Boehm brought in to the program.

“Our puck possession has been great, even in the one game we lost,” Boehm said. “If people want to think we’re one dimensional and can only score, let them. We’re probably going to have six to eight guys score 10 or more goals so that will likely make us a tough out. Our goaltending has been great, but we may have the best defensive core in the league.”

In fact, Boehm said he’d go as far as saying one of his defensemen, Nicholas Bandi, is the best player on the team.

“(Bandi) leads that defensive unit, but we have several others that have been awesome,” Boehm said. “We’d do nothing offensively if it’s not for the work our defensemen do in our zone.”

Of course it also helps to have a goaltender in Josh Ferry, who is 7-1 and has allowed just 10 goals on the 162 shots he’s faced. Ferry, who Boehm said has a tremendous work ethic, holds a save percentage of .938 and a goals against average of 1.25.

The Indians have a meeting with unbeaten Montour ahead of them Monday at the Baierl Ice Complex. The Spartans, who are two points ahead of West Allegheny in the Class A North standings, are responsible for the only blemish on the Indians’ resume this season.

West Allegheny will have a chance to avenge that loss, and Boehm said his team will be ready.

“Just win. Every game is big for us. We have our sights set on some bigger prizes,” Boehm said. “We show up at the rink when the schedule tells us to. If I have any advice for Montour, it’s to bring the same game they brought the first time.”

Kyle Dawson is a freelance writer.

Tags: West Allegheny