14 • TRIB TOTAL MEDIA
Coach: Ryan Linn
2019 record: 9-3, 6-1 in Class
5A Allegheny Eight Conference
All-time record: 337-451-19
SCHEDULE
Date Opponent Time
9.11 West Allegheny* 7
9.18 at North Hills 7
9.25 Fox Chapel 7
10.2 at South Fayette* 7
10.9 Peters Township* 7
10.16 at Upper St. Clair* 7:30
10.23 at Bethel Park* 7
*CONFERENCE GAME
STATISTICAL LEADERS
Passing Ty McGowan
58-108, 879 yards, 7 TDs
Receiving Dawson Snyder
51-711 yards, 4 TDs
Rushing Dante Clay
101-676 yards, 8 TDs
FAST FACTS
• The Tigers will look to
replace a strong offensive line
from last year but will return
three linemen who started
games last season.
• Last season was Ryan
Linn’s first playoff appearance
as a coach at Moon.
• After an injury last season,
the Tigers will return running
back and linebacker Skylar
Russo.
• Among eight returning
starters on the defensive side,
Moon’s Dawson Snyder picked
off five passes last season
and junior Ben Bladel recorded
221⁄2 sacks. STREAKY MOON LOOKING
DYLAN SLEVA
BRADY PANUCCI (LEFT) AND JEREMIAH DEAN
TO MAINTAIN MOMENTUM
Moon produced one of its best
football seasons in recent memory
last year, when the Tigers posted
a record of 9-3, earned a share of
the Allegheny Eight championship
and made a run to the WPIAL Class
5A quarterfinals.
While it was the best season of
coach Ryan Linn’s tenure at Moon,
it also was a building block for the
future of the program. Over the
past three years, the Tigers have
developed a strong culture, built
a family atmosphere and developed
a trust between players and
coaches that has manifested into
something special.
“Coach Linn emphasizes family
over everything else, and it’s like
nothing we’ve ever experienced
before in our lives,” senior Dalton
Dobyns said. “So, this is like our
family, and it doesn’t matter what’s
going on around us.
“It’s nice that you can come
to football and everything goes
away. We kind of adopted that family
like atmosphere, and we trusted
each other no matter what, and I
think that showed with our record
last year.”
The Tigers had three separate
winning streaks last year, including
a four-game stretch to end the
regular season with victories over
Peters Township, Upper St. Clair,
Woodland Hills and West Allegheny.
Then they defeated Franklin
Regional in the first round of the
WPIAL playoffs to capture their
first playoff win since 2006.
The seniors could feel the team’s
culture starting to turn.
“It used to be, ‘Maybe we’ll win
tonight,’” senior Brady Panucci
said. “Now, it’s, ‘We expect to win
every night.’”
So, heading into this season,
the Tigers are looking to keep
building, and they have a special
foundation in place.
Junior Ty McGowan is back
under center after passing for
879 yards and seven touchdowns
last season, and he’s taken a big
step forward already. Linn said
McGowan has put on at least 15
pounds since students went home
in March because of the coronavirus
pandemic, and the third-year
coach can see the relationship he’s
developing with his teammates.
“He has been throwing with
Dawson (Snyder), Brady (Panucci),
Jeremiah (Dean) and those
guys since March and you can just
see the relationships building,”
Linn said. “His arm looks to be
in midseason form already, so the
anticipation for him is to have a
really good junior year.”
The Tigers have plenty of
athletes surrounding their second
year quarterback as well. Snyder
is back after catching 51 passes
for 711 yards and four touchdowns
last season, and he returns alongside
junior Dean and Panucci.
Dobyns and Dante Docchio provide
the offense with two big tight ends.
While Moon’s offense will be
strong, Linn believes the defense
will be even stronger. The Tigers
return starters at every level of
the defense, including three on the
line, two at linebacker and three in
the secondary.
But in order to have success,
Linn believes the Tigers just have
to limit their mistakes on both
sides of the ball.
“Whether it’s turnovers or penalties,
we did that well last year,”
Linn said. “So just forcing turnovers,
short fields, I think that will
provide good things for us. If we
can limit controllable mistakes,
things that we talk about daily, I
think we’ll be OK.”
by GREG MACAFEE
ALLEGHENY 6 • MOON