Shaler Titans

SOUTHPOINTE - Two of Class AA top programs met on Monday night at Southpointe with identical 5-0 records. For TJ and Peters, who have ownership of four of the last five Class AA State Championships, an intimate gathering for the big matchup of around 100 people turned out for a 9:50 PM contest which was to be the feature game of the early season. On the first shift of the game, Mike Papciak, sporting a new uniform number of 70, blasted a slap shot over the left shoulder of Danny Hartman at 14:12 to give the defending Class AA champions a 1-0 lead. Coach Don Powell's troops settled down and began to carry the play which resulted in an excellent chance for Eric Holzer at 13:46 but Kyle Kittleberger stopped him from point blank range. The Indians held on to the 1-0 lead in an evenly played first period. With Peters Township on the power play to start the second, Matt Schwartz scored on the back door as the puck fluttered off Hartman's stick at 13:53 to make it 2-0. Then at 12:13, TJ's Daryl Nath took a beautiful feed from Brandon School for a power play goal and cut the lead to 2-1. Just 13 seconds later, Jaguars Andrew Olmstead found himself in front of Kittleberger but could not beat the Indian netminder. TJ was now outworking Peters Twp and pressing for the equalizer, which resulted in a Jaguar power play at 9:43. Now for the dramatics and as we know games can turn on a dime with a fortunate bounce and for Matt Schwartz, who just returned to Peters lineup, he will tell his grandchildren or maybe his younger brother about the folklore goal and how he took it coast to coast and beat five TJ defensemen. Matt was just doing his job icing the puck, when the showdown of unbeatens took a twisted turn. At 8:25 of the 2nd, Danny Hartman came out to play the icing and tried to clear the puck around the boards ....the puck carroomed to the front of the net where Daryl Nath was covering and it bounced harmlessly off the Jaguar deenseman's stick into an open net and resulted in a 3-1 Peter Twp lead in a big turning point. This goal seemed to deflate Thomas Jefferson and Mark Cooper's Indians smelled a wounded duck and were poised to take advantage. Chris Clackson scored on the shorthanded breakaway at 5:42 to extend the lead to 4-1. Christian Minella added another at 1:12 for a 5-1 Indian advantage after two periods. Minella and Papciak closed out the scoring in the third to give Peters an impressive 7-1 victory as Kittleberger slammed the door with several great stops late in the third. The victory proved costly as Matt Clackson received a game misconduct lat in the third period, which will result in him missing the next Peters test with # 2 and undefeated Greensburg Central Catholic next Monday at Iceoplex.