Posted on 29 February 2016 by ldevlin.
Limerick Twp. >> When you win as often as Upper Darby’s Colin Cronin, the 100-win mark is a somewhat foregone conclusion.
Still, when that 100th victory comes in a championship bout, the occasion is worth celebrating. At Saturday’s District One AAA West meet, Cronin (138) defeated Boyertown’s JT Cooley by injury default in the 138-pound final to secure win number 100. Cronin led 14-0 after two periods when the Bear bowed out.
His fans had planned for the moment. The Royals contingent at Spring-Ford Area High School stood up and cheered with “100” signs waving. Cronin shot them a smile and gave a few hugs.
With the victory, the Drexel Hill native pushed his season record to 37-0. He also became the first junior in Upper Darby’s storied history to reach the century mark.
And yet all Cronin could say in the aftermath was, “That’s pretty cool.”
It’s not that Cronin didn’t grasp his achievement. It’s just that he has more pressing goals right in front of him.
“I’m kind of happy about it,” Cronin said of the first-place finish, “but I want to win regionals and do my best at states. That’s what I’m really training for now.”
No matter how he twists it, it was a banner day for both Cronin and the Royals, who finished third in the team standings. Upper Darby had four district finalists, while the rest of the Delco representatives were relegated to the consolation bracket, and will send five wrestlers in total to the Southeast AAA Regional at Souderton High School next weekend. The top four finishers in each weight class qualified.
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Upper Darby’s Colin Cronin collects his 100th win in the District One AAA West meet.
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Posted on 23 February 2016 by ldevlin.
WHITEMARSH >> The Plymouth Whitemarsh and Lower Merion boys basketball teams are proof that two different journeys can lead to the same destination. In this case, that destination is the District One-AAAA semifinals Tuesday night at 6 p.m. at Temple University. The second-seeded Suburban One League American Conference champion Colonials will take the floor of the Liacourus Center playing full court defense and looking to make plays quickly with the ball on offense, while the No. 11 Aces will take their time and try to shorten the game.
The teams know each other very well. They play against each other in the summer and faced in the quarterfinals in the district playoffs last year at Colonial Elementary School, a game PW won, 47-36.
“(Lower Merion) Coach (Greg) Downer is one of the best around and they are always going to get the most out of their abilities and hurt themselves very little,” Donofrio said. “He gets them to their strengths while minimizing their weaknesses. They’ve evolved all year long and it doesn’t surprise me that he’s gotten them where they are.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh comes into this game after a wild win over No. 7 Central Bucks West, 43-41. Colonials senior guard Oakley Spencer banked home the game-winner with 0.7 seconds left on the clock. Lower Merion earned a trip to Temple with a 68-45 win over Central League rival No. 14 Conestoga. The Aces jumped out to a 16-0 lead in that game and were led by Noah Fennell (18 points) and Jeremy Horn (17). Horn could prove to be a matchup nightmare for PW. The senior stands 6-foot-8, two inches taller than Colonials center Mike Lotito, and weighs 235 pounds. He averaged 10.5 points per game this season.
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The Lower Merion bench reacts to their 68-45 victory over Conestoga to progress to the District semifinals. PETE BANNAN PHOTO -DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA
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Posted on 23 February 2016 by ldevlin.
Every February, the District One seeding committee receives its fair share of criticism for the placement of teams in its most prestigious event. Occasionally lost in those narratives is the meritocracy of the Class AAAA Tournament, how it weeds out teams by degrees, 32 minutes at a time. As Tuesday night’s semifinals at Temple University winnow the field of four to one pair of combatants for Friday’s final, it’s hard to argue with what has transpired in the bracket’s top half. Since Jan. 1, No. 4 seed Ridley and No. 9 Chester have two combined losses. They’ve played 35 games. Making the case that those two shouldn’t be tipping off at Temple at 7:30 would be a fool’s errand.
On the one hand, you’ve got Ridley, which just flat out wins games, 25 of the 26 they’ve contested in a historic season. The Central League champs may have been fortunate to shrug off a sluggish start and withstand No. 29 North Penn’s upset bid in a 51-49 first-round survival. But since, a 14-point banishment of Perkiomen Valley and four-point downing of Spring-Ford, both anchored by late-game resolve, proves the Green Raiders’ credentials.
Though the role of presumptive favorites rests with No. 2 seed Plymouth Whitemarsh — which meets No. 11 Lower Merion in the first semi at 6 — Chester is the only team with three double-digit postseason victories. The Clippers nearly doubled-up No. 24 Council Rock North, winning by 26 points, then trounced No. 25 Hatboro-Horsham by 22 and No. 17 Central Bucks East by 16. The seeds indicate that No. 4 Ridley should present the sternest test yet, but the same is true in the opposite direction.
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Ridley’s Julian Wing, left, will offer Chester’s fine defensive players a challenge under the basket and in the paint when the teams meeting Tuesday night in the District One Class AAAA semifinals at Temple University. (Digital First Media/Anne Neborak)
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Posted on 22 February 2016 by ldevlin.
Rick O’Brien, Staff Writer
Posted: Saturday, February 20, 2016, 1:07 AM
Jeremy Horn didn’t even consider the possibility of Lower Merion dropping a third straight game to bitter Central League basketball rival Conestoga.
“What happened during the regular season was really frustrating,” the 6-foot-8, 235-pound senior center said. “We had to turn that around. And we wanted to beat them when it counted the most.”
With Horn turning in one of his best efforts of the season, the Aces stormed to a 16-0 lead in a PIAA District 1 Class 4A quarterfinal Friday night and emphatically gained payback with a 68-45 romp in Ardmore. Horn registered 17 points, including six in the second quarter and nine in the fourth, eight rebounds, with three on the offensive end, and a blocked shot in front of a packed Kobe Bryant Gymnasium. Last year, in part to consistent foul trouble, Horn did not make much of an impact with the varsity squad.
“One time, I came in and picked up three fouls in two minutes,” Horn said. “I’ve since focused on staying straight up and improving my footwork.”
Next for the 11th-seeded Aces (18-7) is a semifinal meeting against No. 2 Plymouth Whitemarsh (23-2) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Temple. The Colonials nipped No. 7 Central Bucks West, 43-41, to advance Friday. Against No. 14 Conestoga (19-8), Horn shot 8 for 13 from the field and 1 for 2 from the line. His inside bucket, courtesy of a dish from K.J. Helton, gave the hosts a 32-21 advantage late in the second.
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Lower Merion defeats Conestoga to advance to District semifinals.
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Posted on 22 February 2016 by ldevlin.
RIDLEY TWP. >> Ryan Bollinger exudes a quiet confidence when he’s on the basketball court. The Ridley senior doesn’t need to say much, he just lets his play do the talking. Bollinger’s quick wrist was a destructive force in the fourth quarter of Ridley’s 54-50 victory over No. 12 Spring-Ford in the quarterfinal round of the District One Class AAAA tournament Friday night.
The fourth-seeded Green Raiders advance to the district semifinals for the second consecutive year. A showdown Tuesday night with No. 9 Chester at Temple’s Liacouras Center awaits.
If it wasn’t for Bollinger’s cool delivery from beyond the arc, who knows if the Green Raiders survive the Rams, who returned from the dead after a woeful start. The visitors stormed back from a 17-2, second-quarter deficit, eventually grabbing a pair of short-lived, one-point leads in the final stanza. And the only reason they couldn’t build on their advantage was because of guys like Bollinger, who came through in the clutch. Bollinger’s first 3-pointer of the fourth quarter gave Ridley (25-1) the lead to stay. Liam Thompson swished one from long distance moments later, and Bollinger’s second trey with 2:20 to go was the dagger.
“It’s huge,” Bollinger said. “None of us can be nervous when we’re taking shots, but we have to be confident. Every time we hit them, it’s a huge momentum swing because the crowd goes wild and we get ourselves pumped up.”
The long ball was the Green Raiders’ ticket to the district final four. Never mind that All-Delco Brett Foster was magnificent, particularly in the first quarter, when he scored 10 of his game-high 20 points. In the first half, Foster accounted for five of his team’s nine field goals. The low point for Ridley was an anemic second quarter that turned what could have a been a blowout into something far more exciting and nerve-wracking for the Ridley faithful. Spring-Ford didn’t go away, Foster cooled off a bit and there was some doubt that Ridley could hold off a furious comeback by the Rams, who trailed by three points going into the fourth quarter. And the primary reason Ridley was in front to start the final period was because of Julian Wing, who ignited the barrage of 3-pointers with two of his own in the third quarter.
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Ridley’s Ryan Bollinger, right, here defending against Spring-Ford’s Nigel Cooke, hit a pair of 3-point shots in the fourth quarter to help the Green Raiders get up and pull away down the stretch en route to a victory Friday night. (ANNE NEBORAK – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA)
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Posted on 22 February 2016 by ldevlin.
Going into the final round of the Central League wrestling tournament Saturday night, Upper Darby had some work to do if it was going to add the tournament team title to the championship it won during the league’s dual-meet season.
The Royals trailed Garnet Valley by 8½ points and if the Jaguars held on, they would win the Central League crown.
Upper Darby dug deep and won five individual titles, one third place, two fourths and four fifth-place finishes to edge Garnet Valley, 210.5-205.5 for the team title.
The turning point was Colin Cronin’s pin of Garnet Valley’s Dave Wood in the 138-pound final. It was his third straight win by fall in less than two minutes and earned Cronin the Outstanding Wrestler award.
Cronin was one of five Royals to win an individual title and is one of 12 Upper Darby wrestlers who advanced to next week’s District One Class AAA West championships at Spring-Ford High School.
The top six wrestlers in each weight class advance to the district tournament.
Jacob Mejias (113), Max Livingston (152), Brian Kennerly (195) and Peter Augustin (285) all won their respective weight classes. The Royals had five wrestlers reach the championship finals and none finished second.
Joseph Brabant (106) took third for Upper Darby, while Nickolas Venuti (126) and Karl Kamanousa (160) both placed fourth. Thomas Reif (120), Joshua Dweh (132), Simranjeet Singh (145) and Dante Daniels 220) all placed fifth for the Royals.
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Upper Darby’s Max Livingston and his team win the Central League team championship.
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Posted on 18 February 2016 by ldevlin.
TREDYFFRIN >> From the early going of Wednesday night’s District 1-AAAA second round matchup between defending champion Central Bucks West and Conestoga, it was clear the game was going to come down to which team could make a play at the end.
Conestoga was able to make that equation real simple as it put the ball in the hands of its playmakers — senior forward Ellie Mack and sophomore guard Maria Koblish — as the two combined for 23 of the Pioneers’ second-half points en route to a 51-43 win. “I subscribe to the method of coaching of putting your players in a position to win and let them go,” said Conestoga coach Chris Jefferies. “The more I get involved the worse it gets. That’s what practice is for.”
In addition to Mack and Koblish, the Pioneers also got great play from junior forward Liz Scott. Scott finished with only eight points but played tenacious defense and helped lead the Conestoga break out of its defensive zone. “Eight is her role,” Jefferies said. “We’re a big believer in everyone having a role. Liz is a defensive monster and she’s an absolute beast in transition.”
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Posted on 18 February 2016 by ldevlin.
CONCORD >> Garnet Valley played a numbers game with Spring-Ford in the second round of the District One Class AAAA tournament Wednesday night.
Despite the fact that the numbers didn’t always turn out the way the third-seeded Jaguars (23-3) wanted, GV ended up with more positive numbers than the No. 14 Rams (15-9), and that translated into a 66-57 victory. With the win, GV earned its place among the top eight teams in the district and qualified for the state tournament. Garnet Valley will host Upper Dublin at 7 p.m. Saturday in a district quarterfinal contest while Spring-Ford drops into the playback round as it attempts to earn a chance to compete in states.
“A four-point play at the start, some missed layups and we’re down 7-0 before we knew it,” Jaguars head coach Joe Woods said. “And that’s a good team we were playing. We kept our composure, and our senior leadership and our foul shooting (18-for-20) helped pull us through.”
As has been the case in their Central League championship season as well as their success in the playoffs, GV’s seniors got plenty of help from the team’s talented underclassmen in Wednesday’s contest. Senior Maddie Ireland filled up the stat sheet with 21 points, nine steals and four assists. She made her first seven foul shots before missing one in the fourth period.
Even though Sam Tomasetti, the other senior starter, didn’t make a shot, her coach wasn’t complaining. “She really had a big game,” Woods said of Tomasetti, who pulled down 12 missed shots, dished off three assists, blocked three Spring-Ford field goal attempts and added a pair of steals.
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Posted on 17 February 2016 by ldevlin.
DOWNINGTOWN >> For a furious 32 minutes, Tuesday night’s District 1 Class AAAA second round game between Downingtown West and Conestoga was an old fashioned slugfest. Every rebound and every loose ball was like a piece of raw meat in front of some hungry pit bulls. But in the end, the smaller and quicker Conestoga squad, led by point guard Daryl Caldwell, shattered Downingtown West’s dream of a district title as the Pioneers led start to finish and came away with a hard-fought 57-51 triumph.
The win puts Conestoga (19-7) into the PIAA Class AAAA Tournament for the third year in a row and into Friday night’s quarterfinal round at Lower Merion. Downingtown West now enters the playback round, where it will host Upper Dublin, and must win two games to get a spot in the state tournament.
“We got out early rhythm and built a seven-point lead at halftime,” Caldwell said. “And we needed that because we played the game at our pace and not theirs. All week the coaches talked about playing at our pace and getting a body on them under the boards because they were bigger than us and we did that tonight.”
Andrew Larkin also had 14 points for the Pioneers, including four long 3-pointers. The Pioneers shot 18 for 36 on the night and limited the taller Whippets (22-4) to just one shot at the basket. Jack Baker and Angus Mayock were the big men on the boards for Conestoga and the pair assigned to Downingtown West big man Josh Warren, who was held to just seven points, all in the second half.
“Angus and Jack did a great job on Warren,” Conestoga coach Mike troy said. “They are two of the unsung heroes for us and tonight I thought their defense and rebounding was outstanding against a a very big and talented team in Downingtown West.” Then, Scott Shapiro came off the Conestoga bench to score seven of his nine points in the second period to propel the Pioneers to a 27-20 halftime edge. The Whippets kept making runs at the Pioneers but could never tie the game. With Conestoga holding a 47-39 lead late in the fourth quarter, the Whippets made one last charge at the Conestoga lead. Warren scored in tight to make it a 47-41 game. Then, two straight times down the floor the Pioneers turned the ball over. Pat Kennedy drained a 3-pointer from the right side to make it a 47-44 game and Troy called for a timeout.
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Conestoga’s Darryl Caldwell dishes in the lane. (Nate Heckenberger – Digital First Media)
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Posted on 17 February 2016 by ldevlin.
RIDLEY >> Two consecutive slow starts, two consecutive blazing finishes. Not quite what Ridley may have drawn up, but hey, it’s working. Julian Wing and Ryan Bollinger sparked another fourth quarter surge while Ridley’s defensive pressure turned it up in the waning moments as the Green Raiders overcame a pedestrian first three quarters to pull away from visiting Perkiomen Valley with a 45-31 victory in the District 1-AAAA second round Tuesday night.
Wing finished with a game-high 21 points, 15 in a tide-turning fourth quarter while Bollinger added 14, including two critical 3-pointers that sparked an 18-3 run to close out the game that earns the Green Raiders a PIAA berth. Ridley, which topped North Penn by a narrow 51-49 margin in the opening round, will host Spring-Ford Friday night, a win securing the team’s second consecutive district semifinal appearance.
“We seem to play in runs, we go in a little bit of a slump and then we have a run and then another little slump and then another run,” Ridley head coach Mike Snyder said. “It’s been like that the whole year. I was just hoping that we had another run in us and that we could get some stops.”
Perkiomen Valley’s Justin Jaworski finished with a team-high 12 points in the loss, which pits the Vikings against Pennridge in the district 9-10 playback round Friday night at Pennridge. The 12 points is the least for the Viking junior since he scored 13 in a 39-36 loss to Methacton nearly a month ago. That was due in large part to a swarming man-to-man defense executed by Ridley that left Brett Foster (eight points) in the shooter’s face the majority of the night.
“Our goal was to keep him (Jaworski) under 15, that was our goal for the game, which we did,” Snyder said. “We knew he could score from all over the place.” “Last game against North Penn we didn’t play good team defense,” Bollinger said. “This game we wanted to focus on team defense, key in on their shooters and not let them get open looks.”
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Foster and Ridley clinch a spot in the PIAA tournament.
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