Northampton head hockey coach Brian Ruff isn’t totally surprised that his team is the number-one seed heading into the Lehigh Valley Scholastic Hockey League (LVSHL) playoffs.

The Konkrete Kids have literally all been on the same page.

Northampton had a 11-0-1 record going into the opening round of the playoff against Parkland March 2.

The Kids did defeat the Trojans 9-1 at the PPL Center.

NHS jumped out to a 5-0 lead before the Trojans cut it to 5-1, but the Kids would score the next four goals to bring home the win.

Derek Raudabaugh the first goal and finished with two. Blaise Anderko made it 2-0 and Shane Grubbs scored the third goal to open the second period. Jackson Repetz made it 4-0 and would add the ninth goal as well.

James Dolan made it 5-0. Ashtyn Dremock would get the Kids back on track to make it 6-1 before Grubbs added his second goal of the game to make it 7-1.

Raudabaugh added two assists as did Repetz. Colin Becker, Anderko, James Dolan, Hunter Jacoby, Rian Leyfert and Ian Brawn added assists.

Austin Wolfe made 23 saves in net for the win.

The Kids accomplished their goal of getting back to the LVSHL finals, which are Thursday, as they were eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs last year.

“We thought we would have a good year, but I don’t know if we expected this,” said Ruff before the playoffs. “The kids have really come together, and they are playing really well. From the get-go, they have really had everything together.”

For Northampton, the secret has been keeping one system across their junior varsity and also their youth teams. Their JV team had a 9-0-2 slate, and their middle school team was 7-1-1. Only their youth team was struggling with a 1-9 mark. Both the JV and middle school teams were top seeds in their divisions.

“We have a huge contingent of JV kids who moved up to the varsity this year,” added Ruff. “Our success has been based on all of us playing on the same system. Our kids can make an easy transition because they know what is ahead for them.

On the varsity level, Ruff has been impressed with the goalie tandem of Wolfe (2.67 goals against average) and Ty Tomasic (2.64).

“They made the move from JV, and they have both been playing well,” beamed Ruff. “They’re only sophomores, and we’re excited to see what they can do over the next two years.”

Brawn is the Kids’ leading scorer with 18 goals and 18 assists, Raudabaugh has 13 goals and 25 assists, and Repetz has 14 goals and 14 assists to pace the Kids’ offense.

In spite of their success, Ruff doesn’t want his team to take anything for granted. The Kids have won the LVSHL Cup in three of the last four seasons. Since Ruff took over the program in 1991, the Kids have won eight Cups.

“We equate the season to a horse race,” offered Ruff. “If a horse is winning by 20 lengths, the jockey is still whipping the horse to keep going.

“We’ll see what happens.”