(story shared with permission from North Catholic Athletics.  Alex Brown / NC Athletics)

Cranberry Twp, PA - There are rivals, and then there is Central Catholic.  Since 1939 North Catholic has had no greater adversary than the Central Catholic Vikings. From the gridiron to the mound, and yes, the rink, no matchup would rise to the top of the calendar more than the Central Catholic game. Over the last two decades, the frequency of these matchups has greatly decreased, but the animosity has never dissipated. And on the 28th of January, the antipathy will be renewed once again, as for the first time since 2022, the Central Catholic Vikings will face off against the North Catholic Trojans, and they will do so under the roof of the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

When these two clubs last met on the 2nd of February 2022, it was one of the most electrifying North Catholic sporting events of recent memory. It took place at the newly furnished Hunt Armory, where both teams got into a firefight that went back and forth until it was settled in overtime by Senior defenseman Mario Smith, who joined fellow Senior Tay Melis on a 2-on-1, where he put it home on the blocker side to win it for the Trojans in an OT thriller.

Now, the next riveting chapter between these two squads is about to be written; here's a look at how each team is doing so far this season:

The Triple-A Vikings are 7-7 on the season but are coming into this matchup playing some of their best hockey of the year thus far. They are riding a 3-game winning streak, most recently winning overtime against the defending Triple-A champs, Peters Township. They are led by a strong selection of 14 upperclassman forwards, all looking for redemption from their loss two seasons ago.

For North Catholic, the Trojans are continuing their meteoric rise in the Single A standings, winning 7 in a row and 9 of their last 10, which brings them to an 11-3-0-1 record on the season. That's good enough for 2nd place in the Varsity A Gold Division. They are led by their dynamic first line of Beckett Dunn, Ryan Berry, and Anthony Neely, who have combined for 35 of their 73 goals this season. This North Catholic team is as deep as any Trojans team in years. They can roll three lines of forwards that can play against any team's top line in the league, and their defenders have been rock solid, minimizing quality scoring chances while playing aggressively on the offensive end. Not to mention that the Trojans' goaltending has been some of the best in Single A, as they have given up the 3rd least goals in their division and hold 2nd best save percentage.

There's the tale of the tape between these two historic schools, as they finally meet again on January 28th as the nightcap of a 3-part gameday event. The festivities will kick off with the North Catholic Middle School Team taking on Central Catholic's middle school squad at 3:30, followed by the North and Central Catholic JV Teams facing off at 5:00. It all leads up to the main event at 6:30, where both Varsity teams will suit up to reignite this showcase series.

Tickets for the showcase are available online.  Adult tickets are $5 and students are free.  To purchase your tickets, click here. 

All games of the showcase will be carried LIVE on the North Catholic Sports Network.  You can watch online or on your smart TV by downloading the Boxcast app and searching North Catholic High School.  

We look forward to seeing you there to watch it with us!

Central Catholic versus North Catholic. It's more than a rivalry. It's tradition.

It was all for Paul.

Vikings Hockey alumni, old friends, fellow police officers, and family members gathered at the Hunt Armory Thursday night, December 22, 2023 for Annual Paul J. Sciullo Memorial Alumni Game.

Thank you to the Pittsburgh Icemen (a hockey team made up of Pittsburgh Police officers and public safety personnel from Pittsburgh and the surrounding area) for giving our old-time alumni players a great battle on the ice. A big thank you also goes out to all of the young alumni for one of the biggest turnouts ever!

We were honored to welcome Paul’s dad and friends to the evening’s festivities and proud to donate all proceeds to the Sciullo Scholarship Fund for children of first responders at Central Catholic High School.

Paul, the captain of the ‘91 Central Catholic Vikings varsity team, was tragically killed in the line of duty as a Pittsburgh Police officer in April 2009. We will always remember him.

Thank you to the Pittsburgh Penguins for their generous sponsorship of the evening’s festivities and supporting the Sciullo Fund and Pittsburgh first responders.

We are excited to announce that the 2023 Paul J. Sciullo Memorial Alumni Game returns on Thursday, December 21st, 2023 at The Hunt Armory!

Join us for a special night of hockey, friendship, and some good old-fashioned Vikings spirit in honor and remembrance of Paul, former Vikings Hockey captain and Pittsburgh Police officer lost in the line if duty.

The night kicks off with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police team, the Pittsburgh Icemen, taking on the Central Catholic Vikings Hockey Club Alumni Team.   After that, two Vikings Alumni teams battle it out on the ice.

Register to play HERE.

All proceeds benefit the Paul J. Sciullo Scholarship for first responders at Central Catholic High School. For more information on how to donate, please visit:

www.centralcatholichs.com/pages/give

Under "donation designation", select "endowment", and choose Paul J. Sciullo II Memorial Fund.

We can’t wait to all of our former players back on the ice!

Central Catholic's official news network, Viking News Network, featured Head Coach James Eller, varsity captain Nathan Cox, and co-captain Josh Moline on Thursday, November 2, 2023.   This broadcast comes just ahead of a big rivalry game against North Allegheny.  The Tigers are tied with the Vikings at the top of the rankings  in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League (PIHL).

See the VNN broadcast here! 

Rewatch the LIVE BROADCAST of Central Catholic vs. North Allegheny here.  Just type Central Catholic in the search bar.

The Central Catholic Vikings varsity team opened the 2023-2024 regular season in strong fashion at home against the Bethel Park Hawks at Alpha Ice Complex in Harmarville, PA Thursday night.

Goaltender Tom Puhalla made 27 saves to secure the shut out victory.  Christian Zvacky opened the scoring drive for the Vikes midway through the first period.  Early in third, Josh Moline netted another one with team captain Nate Cox capping the scoring at the end of the third.  The final score Vikings 3 Hawks 0.

See all of the game action captured by Simply Sisters Photography here.

 Also, find more on ice action from PGH Photographer Bill George here.

Be sure to check out the full 2023-2024 regular season schedules for Central Vikings Varsity, Junior Varsity 1, Junior Varsity 2, and Middle School by clicking on the calendar tab at the top of the page.  

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram to stay up to date on all Vikings Hockey action!

Roll Vikes!

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League (PIHL) has released the LIVE broadcast schedule for the 2023-2024 regular season.  The Central Catholic Vikings Hockey varsity squad will be featured seven times.  The first live broadcast will be on Thursday, October 26th when the Vikes take on Baldwin at 9:00PM at Ice Castle Ice Arena.

Other LIVE broadcast games include big rivalry games with North Allegheny, Peters, Pine Richland, and Upper St. Clair:

Thursday, October 26th, 9:00PM vs. Peters

Thursday, November 2nd, 9:00PM vs. North Allegheny

Tuesday, November 7th, 9:00PM vs Peters

Thursday, November 30th, 9:00PM vs Pine Richland

Monday, January 15th, 8:00PM vs. Peters

Thursday, February 22nd, 7:00PM vs. Upper St. Clair

Thursday, February 29th, 7:00PM vs. Upper St. Clair

PIHL partners with TenBand.TV, TribHSSN, JRM Video Productions, and  Pittsburgh Hockey Digest to stream over 80 regular season games throughout the season.

Go to www.tenband.tv/howto for details on how to watch the Vikings varsity games this season!

Roll Vikes!

The Central Catholic Vikings varsity hockey team started the preseason with a strong performance in a long-standing tournament that draws the top schools from the area.

Dubbed the “St. Margaret Fall Face-off,” this tournament has served as an unofficial start to the high school hockey season in Western PA. Each year, over the course of one week in early September, 16 teams – four varsity teams in four divisions of “pool” play – face-off for bragging rights … but the real winner is the St. Margaret Foundation and all who it serves.

Since 1993, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League (PIHL) has sponsored this pre-season charity tournament at Alpha Ice Complex in Harmarville, PA to raise money and awareness for the St. Margaret Foundation. 

This year, preliminary games began on Tuesday, Sept. 5 and ran through Thursday, Sept. 7. After 30 preliminary games – all of which were held at Alpha Ice Complex – the winner of each “pool” advanced to the semi-finals and championship game, which was held on Monday, Sept. 11 at 5 pm and 9 pm, respectively.  To accommodate 30 games over three days, most of the practice ice time for amateur and school teams who call Alpha Ice Complex home is “blacked out” to accommodate the needs of this long-running PIHL charity tournament.

This year, the Central Catholic Vikings Hockey Club faced Shaler, Baldwin and Mt. Lebanon in preliminary round play.  The team won its first game against Shaler, suffered an overtime loss to Baldwin in game 2, and etched a win in game 3 against Mt. Lebanon.  The Vikings made it to the semi-final and lost in a hard-fought game to Pine Richland, the eventual tournament champion.

Through this tournament, PIHL raises several thousand dollars annually for the St. Margaret Foundation, giving it the means to “help St. Margaret patients with the essential needs not covered by insurance yet are necessary to heal, remain independent and have hope.” For more information about the foundation’s programs, please see: https://www.stmargaretfoundation.org/

Mr. James Eller has been named interim head coach of the Central Catholic Ice Hockey team for the 2023-24 season.  Eller served as an assistant coach and has been instrumental in the team's success through the 50th Anniversary celebration in the 2022-2023 season.

He succeeds Bill Connelly, '04, who has transitioned to become the interim men's hockey coach at Chatham University.  We thank Coach Connelly for his years of coaching at Central and welcome Eller to lead our program.

Thank you to The Pittsburgh Penguins, Franklin Nova, and Gateway Engineers for your support all season long!

Also, a special thank you to our 23-24 Vikings Yearbook sponsors:

West Penn Police Recreation League

Excel Signworks

Capezzuto's Pizza

and all of the small businesses and Vikings family and friends for your generosity!

Central Catholic Vikings Hockey Club is proud to have celebrated our 50th Anniversary during the 2022 - 2023 season!  Check out our 2022-23 news page for info about how we celebrated this exciting milestone. https://www.centralcatholicvikingshockey.com/news2022-23 

(Keep our website and social media (Facebook and Instagram) on your "speed dial." Should be a lot of fun!! Roll Vikes!!

To learn more about Vikings Hockey Club's past seasons, please see our comprehensive 2021-2022 Vikings News page. 

Curious about other seasons? Please see the 2020-2021 Vikings News page under the "History" tab in "About Us" on the main menu.

Each year goes by so fast ... we will try to archive our activities as best we can!