St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Thomas Jefferson 7 Moon 5 CORAOPOLIS – Moon is 8-3-1, ranked # 4 and sits atop the West Division of Class AA and arguably off to the best start in their 25 years, but maybe the most impressive stat for the Tigers is only 28 goals against in 12 games. The Tigers are blessed with a solid lineup and a hard working club. If you want to point to why Moon is doing so well, you may want to go back to this time a year ago when Craig Bioni took over the Tigers and their improvement increased significantly through hard work and discipline. Thomas Jefferson is off to a 6-4-2 start under the Dean of AA Don Powell, whose club is also in first place in the South Division. The Jaguars, by their standards, are not having a terrific season, but given the parity in Class AA, TJ is in the thick of the playoff picture, amongst a pack of teams from Moon with three losses to teams fighting to stay above the .500 mark such as West Allegheny, Kittanning, and Greensburg CC, who over the past few seasons, like the Jaguars, were fighting for top positions in the seeding. The whole makeup of Class AA is very intriguing and will make for a very interesting final month and a half of the season. The matchup with Moon & TJ could have home ice implications come March. The Tigers struck first as Peter Lyle buried a rebound at 12:55 on the power play to give Moon a 1-0 lead. Thomas Jefferson came back to tie the game at 7:38, as Joe Sabol scored on the power play to the glove side of Matt Wynn. The Tigers regained the lead at 2:56 of the 1st as Pete Lyle’s centering pass to the front of the net deflected off Spencer Neel and behind him to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Coach Powell called his team over to bench to give them some words of wisdom and Neel stopped Lyle moments later on a partial break with 48 seconds to go in the opening period. The Jaguars tied the game in the opening minute of the second period on a pretty re-group and passing play as Dan Nath buried a snap shot low to the stick side of Matt Wynn to deadlock the score at two apiece. The game was close checking through the 2nd period as the Jaguars and Tigers settled into a close checking affair. On a delayed penalty with 2:02 to go in the period Joe Sabol found Brock Heinauer high in the slot, who one-timed a bullet past Wynn to give TJ their first lead 3-2. The referees still gave the Jaguars the power play and with 1:10 to go Dan Nath trickled a wrist shot past Wynn and all of the sudden Thomas Jefferson had a 4-2 lead. TJ added to the lead early in the third period as Brock Heinauer unloaded a slapshot from the top of the right face-off circle at 12:32 that beat Wynn to the stick side to make it 5-2 and Danny Joseph added another goal on a rebound with 12:02 remaining to make it a 6-2 count in favor of Thomas Jefferson. Brock Heinauer made it 7-2 with 10:16 to go and gave the Jaguars a commanding lead. Brandon Pompeo scored for Moon with 9:51 remaining to bring the Tigers to within 7-3. With 8:29 remaining, Matt Reese scored on a blistering slapshot from the right point on the power play and all of the sudden it was now 7-4. The Tigers went back on the power play with 8:18 to go and a chance to cut into the TJ advantage even more, but the Jaguars held strong. Spencer Neel robbed Joe DeNardo with 5:34 to go with two sprawling saves on the doorstep. Matt Reese would be denied with 2:53 to go as he pounced on a rebound for another power play goal and the Jaguar lead was now 7-5. Moments Later, Brandon Pompeo had an opportunity on a partial breakaway, but Neel made a very good save to keep his team in front by two. TJ got defensive and was holding down the fort over the final three minutes b moving the puck into the Moon end and forcing faceoffs. A big win for the Jaguars and for Moon a loss to start a very important stretch against some stiff Class AA team upcoming on their schedule.