Rams advance to semi’s
JOHNSONBURG – The Rams advanced to the District 9 Class A semifinals and punched their ticket to the PIAA playoffs with a 66-34 win over Northern Potter (8-15) on Wednesday.
The two-seeded, 19-6 Paper City boys will play three-seed Clarion (16-6), which beat visiting six-seed DuBois Central Catholic (1112). Four-seed Cameron County (20-3) defeated visiting Union (12-11) and will play top-seeded Elk County Catholic (22-2) in the semis being played on Feb. 28 at neutral sites. Johnsonburg beat ECC last Saturday to win the AML championship.
With five D9 teams moving on to the PIAA championships, the Rams, who can finish no lower than fourth, are assured a spot.
“Clearly, our motto is one game at a time, and I've been preaching it all season,” said Paper City head coach Cole Peterson. “I told them, fellas, you just punched your ticket to states. Our goal at the start of the season was to get to the D9 finals, but I always said it's one game at a time. We're going to have a tough one coming up. We'll look to take care of business and move on, but whether we're in the finals or not, we got a state game, which is awesome for these kids.”
With Johnsonburg up 44-14 at the half, the running clock was used in the second 16 minutes. Eleven Rams scored in the game. Isaiah Jackson had 12 points, and Luke Zimmerman had 11. Others hitting the score sheet were Eli Perez (8), Aiden Demay (7), Cade Peterson (6), Noah Stauffer (5), Nickey Myers (4), Jude Schreiber (2), Parker Calla (2), and Garrett Lehman (1).
More on the game and the playoffs will appear in Friday's edition.