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Sports

Whiz Kid of the Week: C.J. Murray

USC Hockey captain has special talent both on and off the ice.

It's early in the third period in the PIHL AAA Penguins Cup championship game at CONSOL Energy Center and  Upper St. Clair is down by a goal to Canon-McMillan.

Senior forward C.J. Murray takes a lead pass at center ice and carries the puck across the blue line, where three defenders are waiting for him.

Murray sees the defenders, but doesn't change direction, slow down or even break stride; he heads straight at them, weaving his way between them and then beating the goaltender one-on-one to score and tie the game.

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”I knew we needed to score and I knew I was due,” Murray said after the game. “I [felt like] I had to score, and I did.”

Fast forward to overtime: Canon-McMillan has the puck in the Upper St. Clair zone, rotating it around and poised to get a shot on net. The puck gets to Brett Oldaker -- the Big Macs' captain and leading scorer who already has two goals in the game -- and he winds up from the center point to blast what could be his third goal and the game-winner.

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Enter Murray, who seemingly comes out of nowhere into the slot, drops to his knees and takes the full force of the slap shot into his chest to block it.

Those two plays demonstrate just what kind of player and captain C.J. Murray has developed into.

"He's a phenomenal offensive talent and he's learned to play defense, which makes him even more dangerous," head coach Larry Marks said. "He's so big and he has that long reach, so he's able to use his height and his body to his advantage. He's a very gifted hockey player."

Murray led Upper St. Clair in scoring this season and finished second in AAA with 30 goals and 29 assists in 20 games. Included in that total are two power play goals and three short-handed goals, indicating that not only did he score often, he did it in every situation.

"He's done that all year, and he's done that throughout his four years here," said Marks, who also coached Murray in this year's AAA All-Star Game. "He's just that special of a person."

The Panthers finished the regular season with a 13-6-1 record to finish in third place in Section 1 and earn a playoff spot. They then beat three section champions — North Allegheny, Fox Chapel and Canon-McMillan — to win the Penguins Cup Sunday night.

Murray says it took a total team effort, a change in the Panthers' style of play and the leadership of the six seniors on the team during the season to put them on the path to a championship.

"There was no I, me or my; it was just team, team, team," Murray said. "We focused on team first, and it showed up in the long run." 

Upper St. Clair has advanced to the state championship game, where they will face the Flyers Cup champion LaSalle College for the Pennsylvania Cup Saturday afternoon in West Chester, Pa.

"I don't know how the Philly side of high school hockey is, so we're going to show up and play like we do as a team, and hopefully we come up with a victory."

C.J. may not know a lot about hockey in eastern Pennsylvania, but he does know the value of hitting the books with a 3.5 GPA. As of right now, his plans for after high school are to play junior hockey and hopefully play on the NCAA Division I level afterwards.

If what Larry Marks and USC hockey have seen from C.J. Murray so far is any indication of what he's capable of, then his goals won't be that far out of reach.

Congratulations, C.J., and good luck to the Panthers in the state championship.

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