Colin South refused to touch the PIHL Class A Penguins Cup trophy that was presented to Quaker Valley in a postgame ceremony last night at Mellon Arena.

Funny, because the junior's fingerprints were all over the championship.

South had three goals to give him three hat tricks in three PIHL playoff games as Quaker Valley won its second Penguins Cup in three seasons with a 3-1 victory against Mars.

"I'm kind of superstitious, and when we won the state championship two years ago, I didn't touch the Penguins Cup then, either," South said. "So I don't know; I guess it's stupid, but that's what I was thinking again."

No one on the second-seeded Quakers (23-2) would call him stupid after he scored three goals each in an 8-2 quarterfinal win against Somerset and a 6-5 semifinal victory last week against Serra.

"Colin, he showed up big, like he always does in big games," said junior goalie Zack Taylor, who made 20 saves in the victory. "He's been great for us all season ... he's amazing."

The Quakers had jumped out to 4-0 first-period leads in each of their previous two playoff games but Mars scored the first goal last night.

South scored twice in the final 2:53 of the second to give Quaker Valley the lead -- the second of which was somewhat disputed as it came just as time expired in the period.

South scored again to put the game away while on the power play with 2:53 to play off a nice feed from George Jackson, who had two assists.

"We're not standing here if Colin's not doing what he's been doing," Quakers coach Kevin Quinn said.

Mike Heltman scored 2:05 into the second period for the No. 1 seed Planets (22-2-1), whose only two losses this season were against Quaker Valley.

"They're a good team, and I think they'll represent the western part of the state very well," Mars coach Tim Coleman said. "Their experience helps, and now we have some under our belts here. We didn't win it, but that will only help next year when we'll maybe be in this contest again."

Penguins Cup champions from all three classifications will play the winner of Flyers Cup championship games held this weekend on March 29 at the War Memorial Arena in Johnstown.

No. 1 seed Pine-Richland remained undefeated with a 5-3 come-from-behind victory at Mellon Arena.

Brandon Saad had a hat trick and Eric Febert two goals for the Rams (24-0), who won titles the past two seasons at the Class AA level.

The No. 6 seed Black Hawks held a two-goal lead midway through the contest after goals by Tyler Trocano and Matt Quigley. Even after Saad's first goal, Bethel Park (16-6-2) led, 2-1, heading into the third.

But the Rams scored twice in the first 54 seconds of that period. The Black Hawks' Tom Whetsel tied it with a power-play goal seven minutes after that, but Saad scored 1:24 later and Febert closed out the scoring with a goal with 1:40 to play.

Ben Garcia made 30 saves for Bethel Park.