St Joseph's Prep Hawks

Franklin Regional 2 Moon 1 CORAOPOLIS – Moon (13-5-1) and Franklin Regional (13-6-1) are two teams in the Class AA landscape that have had pretty good seasons. If you take into account that the Panthers started the season 1-4 in their return to Class AA, FR is now 12-2-1 since the end of November with losses to division foes Greensburg CC and Indiana, this is a team that has done so under the radar which is probably how Head Coach Jim Daugherty would like to keep it but a victory over the Tigers will open a few eyes as Franklin will have their season finale Monday with # 1 ranked and defending State Class AA Champions Pine Richland. Meanwhile, the Tigers have only lost in the 2nd half of the season to Pine Richland and Thomas Jefferson and have really been a consistent club throughout the regular season playing a disciplined style of hockey to put together one of the better seasons in Moon history. This game will have significance in the final bye in Class AA after the Tigers face # 2 Latrobe next week and the regular season winds up. The winner of this contest will assume the inside track on the 4th and final bye and home ice advantage should both teams be unable or unable to knock off higher ranked opponents. Franklin came out in the opening 15 minutes and carried the play to Moon outshooting the Tigers 15-5, but Tiger goaltender Matt Wynn held FR off the board in a scoreless first period. The game remained scoreless deep into the second until with 6:01 remaining, Joe DeNardo lit the lamp to give Moon a 1-0 lead. Franklin Regional ties the score later in the period as freshman Steven Shirk was set up by Eugene Mack and gave the Panthers a 1-1 tie with 2:36 to play in the period. FR held a 19-10 shot advantage, but the score was tied after two periods. FR started the final period on the power play and was unable to capitalize. With 10:40 to go in regulation, Carl Richter fired a long lead pass through center ice that Ryan Kramer plucked out of the air and beat the Moon defense and was in on the breakaway and beat Matt Wynn on the forehand to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead. Moon went on the power play with 8:49 to go but FR effectively killed it off and held a slim lead. Moon’s Matt Reese took a long shot that hit the crossbar with 4:30 to go and the Panthers clung to their lead. FR got a power play with 2:42 to go and was unable to score the insurance goal and gave the Tigers a chance to pull their goaltender, which they did, but were unable to score as Anthony Livecchi closed the door and Franklin Regional scored a huge win on the road keeping their hopes alive for a bye and home playoff berth.