Moon Tigers

ROSTRAVER - Archbishop Carroll coach Bill Hammond has been there before, three years to be exact, and each time he has been confident about his Patriots chances to get that elusive State Championship that a group of Patriots accomplished 21 years ago in Class AAA in 1981. Peters coach Mark Cooper had some sleepless night this past week on what to do with his two superstar players Christian Hanson and Matt Schwartz, who missed the Penguins Cup. And I heard it 'hey Jeff you're killin me', but maybe coach Cooper's decision was already made because these two kids had learned their lesson and they wanted what all of their 18 Indians wanted .....the Pennsylvania Cup Class AA crown. The game started slowly as Tim and Max may have put 16:40 on the clock instead of 14:60, because the bystanders in Murph's were getting restless as the game was a minute in and the clock hadn't started, but the adjustment made and 'no harm... no foul' ! Mike Papciak had Peters first chance in alone and Ken DiOrio stopped him at 12:44. Then the Patriots got tha power play and Ta Ung slipped a backhander which handcuffed Kyle Kittlebeger and gave Carroll a 1-0 lead. Now coach Hammond had to like this as his team now had the lead and seemed to be matching Peters Township. This is when the Indians are dangerous, as they lull teams into false insecurity and strike quickly and quickly they did as Matt Schwartz beat DiOrio to tie the game with 1:32 left. Then just 34 seconds later, it was Christian Hanson blasting a slapshot stickside on a great feed from Schwartz....so now coach 'Coop' is liking this decision and its 2-1. And then Mike Papciak added the salt to the wound as he scored with :01 left on the clock and Peters Township had a 3-1 at the end of one period. In the second period, Stefano Teece scored early for Carroll to cut the lead to 3-2 at 13:15, but Hanson scored again at 12:53 with a shot upstairs on the glove side to give Peters the two goal cushion with a huge goal. Matt Schwartz got his second just ten seconds later at 12:43 to extend the lead to 5-2 as Peters Township enjoyed a 29-14 shot advantage through two periods. At 13:05 of the third period, Dom DiSanto brought Archbishop Carroll within two again on a shorthanded goal. It only took less than a minute for Papciak to score again at 12:09 and the Indians were on there way to a State Championship at 6-3. Hanson, Papciak, Chris Clackson, and Jeremy Simmons added goals in the games final 7 1/2 minutes to make the outcome a convincing 10-3 victory over Archbishop Carroll.