Haverford stays the course to snap 50-year drought

LOWER MERION — It was just 28 days ago that Haverford retreated to its locker room to face what it hoped would be rock bottom.

The Fords had just been beaten by three points at home by Harriton, a sixth straight setback and eighth loss in 10 outings to overshadow a 4-0 start. More devastating still, those six losses were by a combined 16 points, comprising five overtime sessions, two in a two-point defeat to Penncrest Jan. 9.

Those woes seemed remote as Sean Reynolds and his fellow Fords climbed the ladder at Harriton Tuesday night to snip down the nets. From 2-7 in the league in early January, the Fords are Central League champions for the first time since 1970.

And the resilience it took to traverse that distance, more than anything else about these Fords, is undoubtedly championship caliber.

Tuesday’s was a rare game in which the Fords didn’t have to sweat to the last second, clearing the bench in the final moments of a 49-40 win over No. 3 seed Penncrest.

That makes 10 straight wins for the Fords (16-8), including a clean sweep of the last rotation of 6A teams in the league and a pair of wins over top-seeded Garnet Valley. Beating Penncrest was the final statement of faith in the bond that kept the Fords together when the going got brutally tough.

“We had our coaches on us every day, telling us that we need to stay together, we’ll get through this and we’re going to be a great team,” Reynolds said. “ … We just knew we had to pull through. We knew it was a rough patch in our season. But I think that made us who we were.”

The fourth-seeded Fords are, it turns out, an immensely special group. And if that needed any elucidation, then Tuesday’s boxscore provides it, in which leading scorer John Seidman was limited to 1-for-8 shooting and four points. It mattered not one bit, thanks to the peculiar gravitational force the junior seems to exert, drawing defenders and leaving his teammates unguarded. The bargain of a team-first mentality that dragged Haverford from its depths says that when presented with chances, the Fords have no qualms about taking them.

That was Hunter Kraiza’s role Tuesday. The junior canned three 3-pointers in the second quarter, fashioning a 22-18 edge at the break. He added three makes in the fourth, including consecutive possessions to provide the decisive 8-0 run, turning a 33-30 game into an insurmountable 42-30 bump.

“After I hit my first two 3s, I knew it was going to be one of those nights,” Kraiza said. “I was just feeling my shot and everything.”

In what has become typical Fords fashion, Kraiza was quick to deflect credit. And the recipient was Seidman, who posted team-highs in rebounds (nine) and assists (three).

“It’s amazing having John on the court because everyone’s focused on him,” said Kraiza, who scored 20 points. “He could go off for 25 points and we could win, or he can drop 10 assists and we’ll still win. Everyone’s just attracted to him and he’s a great player to play with.”

Click HERE to read the full article.

Haverford players celebrate winning their first Central League title in 50 years with a 49-40 win over Penncrest Monday night in the championship game. (Pete Bannan/MediaNews Group)