MT. LEBANON — Even as the South Fayette Lions suffered their first loss of the season in a 5-4 defeat at the hands of Wheeling Central Catholic Monday night, the Lions remain tied for first place in the PIHL Class A Western Conference.
On one hand, it’s where the Lions expected to be after a program-record 15-5-2 season in 2015-16 and a trip to the finals of the Penguins Cup. When the South Fayette bowed out last spring with a 4-1 loss at the hands of Franklin Regional, the future still looked bright for the club. The team was comprised of underclassmen. Most impactfully, all-star forward Jordan Timmons was expected to return.
Timmons was unstoppable at the Class A level in 2015-16, racking up 34 goals and 23 assists despite playing a partial schedule while honoring his commitments with the Penguins Elite U18 team. But while the Lions’ 2015-16 season ended in heartache, Timmons continued on with the Penguins Elite squad that won the USA Hockey National Championship in April. The rise to national prominence for the Pens Elite squad also came with additional attention for Timmons.
In May, Timmons was drafted in the first round of the United States Hockey League entry draft by the Muskegon Lumberjacks and in July, Timmons committed to the University of Connecticut. By then, the writing was pretty clearly on the wall for South Fayette head coach Frank Certo — Timmons would not be returning.
That put a significant damper on the outlook for South Fayette’s season. Saddled with the unenviable task of replacing the elite talent of Timmons, Certo took a bit of a different approach for his 2016-17 squad.
“This is a young team, but in a lot of ways, they learned to play without Jordan for a lot of last season,” Certo said, citing Timmons’ part-time schedule in 2015-16. “We’re grinders. We’re putting 30 or 40 shots on net to score three or four goals. But they’re a hard-working team and they’re not taking anybody lightly. They’re challenging everybody to work as hard as they are. It’s a fun group to coach.”
South Fayette players gain the zone on the rush. — BRIAN MITCHELL
Timmons wasn’t the only loss for the Lions this offseason, either. Second-leading scorer Spencer Barber graduated. Promising sophomore Jeremy Anthos transferred to Peters Township and fellow would-be sophomore Ian Kumar decided to only play for Pens Elite’s U16 squad this season.
“One of the things that’s galvanized this team is they know what because we don’t have Jordan, people don’t think we have a shot,” Certo said. “South Fayette has always been about the [midget major] kids. It’s always been about Jordan or Jack Lipovich or Jake Stack. That’s not what we’re about anymore. Now it’s about 15 kids with chinstraps on going and playing and in a lot of ways, these kids are now creating their own identity.”
Sitting in a three-way tie for first place in the conference after five games isn’t a bad place to be, and Certo thinks the Lions can develop into a bigger threat offensively as some of his younger forwards get some games under their belts.
“We need to develop a little more offensive chemistry. I’ve got some talented kids that are freshmen. They aren’t quite strong enough and they’re a little inconsistent,” he said. “We create chances, but we need to finish better. … We can’t take shifts off, we can’t take games off because the margin is thin. If we do that, we’ll be in every game.”
The Lions’ next game will be Tuesday, Nov. 15 against Wheeling Park at Wesbanco Arena.
