Shaler notebook: Titans hockey looks for scoring options

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, October 31, 2018 | 11:36 PM

Shaler hockey coach Steve Stayduhar believes his team has the style they need to play down pat.

The Titans want to be a tough-minded, gritty squad on defense.

In order to continue to progress into a Class AA Penguins Cup contender, Shaler (1-1-3) will need to build its offensive foundation.

Before dropping a 5-1 game to North/West Division leading Pine-Richland Tuesday night, the Titans allowed nine goals in four games.

Offensively, Shaler is still seeking adding a little more danger to the lineup. The Titans rank 10th out of 14 teams in the classification with 13 goals.

“That’s a work in progress,” Stayduhar said. ‘We’re playing pretty good in our own end. We’re giving up low percentage shots. (Goaltender) Darren (Rasimczyk) is doing a great job of stopping the puck.”

So far, Shaler has only had five different players score goals, led by four apiece from Adam Baginski and Sam Stayduhar. Spencer Platt has also contributed three.

Steve Stayduhar said Shaler needs more kids find ways to score. The Titans are working on how to develop more balance.

“We’ve tried switching lines, that hasn’t seemed to do it,” he said. “We’re showing them techniques to score goals.”

Shaler has had some bad luck along the way. Three of the Titans games ended with shootouts, including one where Shaler and Hampton had to send out 16 shooters before a victor was decided.

With the Titans’ defensive foundation, Stayduhar believes the team will have a chance to hang in games until the defense catches up.

“This team is disciplined,” Stayduhar said. “These guys are doing great, when you consider how young we are. Our goaltender is our only senior. We have few players returning who got a lot of minutes last year. They are calm and disciplined.”

Volleyball bows out of playoffs

The Titans didn’t let second-seeded Baldwin take the easy way out of the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs.

Shaler shook off a rough start and avoided a sweep as the highlanders won the five-set match, 25-11, 26-24, 29-31, 12-25, 15-11 loss Monday night.

Tia Bozzo had a team-high 35 assists for Shaler. Oyinda Agbale led the Titans with 10 kills and six blocks.

Shaler football earns playoff bid

The Titans took all of the math out of the equation in its regular season finale against Fox Chapel.

Shaler built a 35-point halftime lead en route to a 62-0 win last Friday. The Titans played West Allegheny in its WPIAL Class 5A first round playoff game the results of which were too late for this edition.

Shaler running back Joey Kremer hit a milestone for the Titans against Fox Chapel by rushing for 97 yards and two touchdowns. Kremer became the first Shaler running back to reach the 1,000-yard plateau in two decades.

Josh Rizzo is a freelance writer.

Tags: Shaler