Armstrong overwhelms Upper St. Clair in PIHL Class 2A Penguins Cup semifinals

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, March 14, 2018 | 9:21 PM

Armstrong's offense may have found yet another big-time goal scorer in Gio Romeo.

Romeo led a high-powered River Hawks offense to an 11-4 win over Upper St. Clair on Wednesday night in a PIHL Class 2A Penguins Cup semifinal at the RMU Island Sports Center.

Romeo scored five goals in 19 regular-season games. He nearly matched that total against the Panthers with four tallies.

“It felt great. We just picked things up quickly and put the pedal down,” Romeo said. “It's a lot of fun whenever we're bonding as a team in such a big game like this and we're just pouring it on the whole game.”

Top-seeded Armstrong (18-3) moves on to play for the Penguins Cup at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

“It is awesome,” Romeo said. “All of us have dreamed of this for so long, and it's finally here.”

Nick Benvenuti also had a hat-trick for the River Hawks, who collected a PIHL-best 121 goals in the regular season. They had eight more in an 8-2 win over Franklin Regional in the quarterfinals.

“Up front, we don't have a weak guy,” Romeo said. “Everybody can score, and everybody can grind and pass. We can move the puck really, really well up front.”

Romero opened the scoring when he fired a shot from the slot for a 1-0 lead 3 minutes, 40 seconds into the game. The River Hawks pushed their advantage to 2-0 on Romeo's second goal 1:33 later.

A Jace Rearic shot deflected off Benvenuti's shoulder and sailed into the net to give Armstrong a 3-0 edge 7:57 into the first.

Romeo completed the hat-trick with 3:36 left in the first when he slipped past the Upper St. Clair defense, took a long pass from Jacob Gross, deked the goaltender and scored the breakaway goal for a 4-0 lead.

Gross found the back of the net 1:49 into the second period. On a two-on-one, Gross fired the puck inside the near post for a 5-0 lead. The River Hawks cashed in again 43 seconds later when Kutch scored.

The Panthers (12-9), a late addition to the semifinals after Hampton had to forfeit for using an ineligible player in a quarterfinal win over USC, broke the shutout when Joe Pulit converted on a wrister 4:12 into the period. Armstrong answered with another Romeo goal 30 seconds later for a 7-1 lead.

USC's Devin Rohrich trimmed the deficit to 7-2, but Benvenuti scored on a breakaway to make it 8-2. The Panthers' Sam Sweet scored late, but Benvenuti cashed in once again 16 seconds later for a 9-3 lead at intermission.

Kutch's goal 2:34 into the third pushed Armstrong's lead to 10-3 and initiated a running clock. Michael Daley added a late goal for USC, while Easton Hooks scored for the River Hawks.

“Even though we got a big win, we can do so many things better,” Armstrong coach Lee Grafton said. “I know what this team is capable of. We can be a much better team than what we saw.”

Joe Sager is a freelance writer.

Tags: Armstrong, Upper St. Clair