Fairview Tigers - 1977 - 1981 - 1982 AA

MOON TWP - Alright everybody lets all jump on the Moon bandwagon.....besides the Tigers were impressive in defeating Kittanning at the Belmont last week and they have been scoring in bunches, so coach Eric Boring's squad had to be a little confident. Now Peters Twp head coach Mark Cooper, he likes this kind of action. A challenge to his squad early in the season. Just what the Indians needed early in the season, was a threat to the crown as the defending Pennsylvania AA champions. Early in the first period the Tigers took a penalty after some sustained pressure from Peters Twp, which put the Indians on the power play and it didn't take long for coach Coop's squad to make Moon pay as Christian [a/k/a the squirrel] Minnella banged home a rebound to give PT a 1-0 lead. Moon took two more penalties towards the end of the period and Matt Clackson went coast to coast and scored at 3:42 to extend the lead to 2-0. Peters Twp dominated the opening period, but the Tigers got a break as Dave Alberga shot a puck from behind the net when glanced off a PT defenseman and behind Kyle Kittleberger to cut the lead to 2-1 with just 1:09 remaining. After Moon's Valente tied the score at 14:42, the Indians Brandon Rubeobeat the Tigers defense to the puck and slammed a shot through the 5 hole past Andrew Slifkin to give Peters a 3-2 lead again at 12:14. Moon took some undisciplined penalties and the result was that Peters Twp made them count as Mike Sherer and Harry McGovern tallied to give the Indians a comfortable 5-2 lead. Kittleberger made a great stop on Brad Alayon with 41 ticks remaining in the middle frame. Peters would go on to score four more goals in th final period as Minella, Mike Papaciak [2 goals]and Rubeo scored to lead the Indians to a 9-4 victory. The statement of this game was made by Papciak at 6:08, who while killing a 5 on 3 disadvantage beat the Moon player to the puck then proceeded to wind his way around five Moon defenders and backhand a shot past Slifkin with 6:08 remaining....sure it made it 8-3, but a message to Class AA that the champions are not ready to relinquish that crown yet !!