Vikings fall to Jaguars in quarters
CONCORD TWP. » Carl Schaller and his Garnet Valley teammates were sick of early postseason exits.
Whether in the Central League playoffs or the District 1 tournament, a quick boot had become routine for the Jaguars.
Schaller helped lead Garnet Valley to two wins in the Central League playoffs earlier this season to earn the school’s first league title since 1998 and erased memories of last year’s upset district loss to Downingtown East with a win over 20th-seeded Upper Dublin in their opener.
On Friday night, the No. 4 Jags continued on their path of redemption, storming past No. 5 Perkiomen Valley, 63-38, to advance to the District 1 Class 6A semifinal for the first time since winning the district’s Class 2A crown in 1997. Garnet Valley will face a familiar foe in the district semis after No. 9 Lower Merion defeated top-seeded Cheltenham, 59-50.
“The first three years I’ve been here, we’ve had some pretty bad losses where we should have won in the playoffs,” Schaller said. “Going into senior year it was important to win the Central League, finally get through the semifinals. To be at this point, it’s just a huge step from last year. I’m just proud of the team.”
Schaller poured in 26 points, torching the Vikings from the opening tip, and senior Justin Langan got hot in the second half to finish with 16 points as the Jaguars’ only other double-figure scorer. Senior Tyler Lapetina scored 19 for Perkiomen Valley.
Friday night was the Schaller Show as the senior scored seven of his team’s first nine points, helping the
Jags out to an early lead. After a run by PV closed the gap to 14-13 at the end of the first quarter, Schaller rolled off six straight to start the second period and the Jaguars never looked back.
A 23-15 halftime turned to double digits after Schaller opened the second half with back-to-back buckets. As Langan, who finished with 10 in the third, started to heat up, the Jaguars extended the advantage to 40-26 heading to the fourth and never let PV back in the contest.
“He’s a really dynamic player,” PV coach Mike Poysden said of Schaller. “He’s the engine behind a lot of their success but then their other guys step up and make plays too. I thought they were just a handful to guard.”
When PV did have some success in slowing Garnet Valley’s offense down like holding the Jags to a point in the final four minutes of the second quarter, the Vikings couldn’t take advantage on the offensive end.
Lapetina, the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s leading scorer who put up 28 in PV’s district opener, fought for his 19 points, getting nine of them at the free throw line.
Fellow senior Kameron Parks didn’t find much room to operate, finishing with six and after a hot first quarter, in which he knocked down a three to tie the game 11-11, senior Dom Miceli couldn’t get anything to fall the rest of the contest.
“I thought we did play a couple of good quarters of defense,” Poysden said. “And then a couple of soft turnovers, a couple of walks, a couple of things that didn’t go our way, but I think we struggled to score. That’s a credit to them. They pushed us into some uncomfortable spots.”
After last season posting the team’s first sub .500 record since 2014-15 as a number of new faces got accustomed to the varsity level, the 2021 Perkiomen Valley group wasted no time in restoring the Vikings to the heights they’ve become accustomed to.
Perk Valley won its first PAC Liberty Division title since 2016-17 and first outright division crown in the last decade. The Vikings — who missed out on the district postseason in 2019-20 — returned to the District 1 quarterfinals for the third time in five seasons, an accomplishment that brings with it a spot in the state playoffs in a normal winter.
“It just stinks this year with not having the second round when you win not going on to states,” Lapetina said. “But it is what it is.”