Hilton, Emme honored by BAL Presidents Conference

Boys basketball

BAL AWARDS » The Bicentennial Athletic League announced its all-league teams on Sunday night. In the Independent Conference, Dock’s Mike Fergus was named coach of the year, while junior Nathan Lapp was a firstteam honoree. Also making the first team were Collegium’s Dhero Washington and Duce Jackson, Church Farm’s Matthew Sullivan and Bristol’s Elijah Alexander. Over in the Presidents Conference, Jenkintown’s Wes Emme was awarded coach of the year, while Drakes senior Jake Hilton was a first-team selection. Also on the first team were VFMA’s Will Anozie, Delco Christian’s Josh Parks, Renaissance’s Lanier Bird and Calvary’s Jayden Steenbakker. Anozie was also named player of the year. In the Constitution Conference, Phil-Mont’s Glenn Dolton was named coach of the year and pupil David Olinger was player of the year. Also on the first team were Faith Christian senior Chris Evans, Morrisville’s Jaden Fogg and Plumstead’s duo of Nicholas Phillips and Jack Swider.

ABINGTON 36, CONESTOGA 32 » Derrius Lucas scored 20 points a as the 23rd-seeded Ghosts pulled off a double overtime thriller on Friday night. Jeremiah Lee also scored 9 points for Abington, which only allowed 5 total points in the two overtime periods.

CHURCH FARM 61, JENKINTOWN 42 » Jake Hilton led Jenkintown with 20 points but the No. 6 Drakes could not overcome No. 3 Church Farm School’s strong start and fell in the BAL quarterfinals.

Cooper Shivers hit five 3-pointers to score a gamehigh 25 points for Church Farm (14-8, which led 23-9 after a quarter. Matt Sullivan had 14 points while Brandon Hernandez totaled 13 points for the Griffins, who visit No. 2 Collegium

Charter in the semifinals 6 p.m. Thursday.

Tommy Walsh added 11 points for Jenkintown (816).

Boys basketball

BENSALEM 62, UPPER DUBLIN 54 » The Cards fell behind 29-18 at the half and couldn’t rally in the SOL semifinals on Monday night. Colin O’Sullivan did his part leading Upper Dublin with 16 points, while Griffin Pensabene added 10. Upper Dublin is back in action Friday when it hosts Garnet Valley in the District 1-6A playoffs. JENKINTOWN 46, MAST 32 » The Drakes outscored MaST in every quarter and picked up a win in the BAL first round on Monday night. Jake Hilton continued to lead the wa for the Drakes with 19 points. ALL-CATHOLIC TEAM ANNOUNCED » The Philadelphia Catholic League unveiled its all-league squad and both Archbishop Wood’s Justin Moore and La Salle’s Sam Brown were first-team selections. Also for La Salle, Horace Simmons and Nix Varano were second-team selections. Carson Howard of Wood was a second-team selection, while Bahsil Laster and Jalil Bethea were honorable mention honorees. Daniel Skillings of Roman Catolic was named MVP, while West Catholic’s Miguel Bocachica was named Coach of the Year. ARCHBISHOP WOOD 77, LC 58 » Jalil Bethea fired in 23 points, including seven 3-pointers as the Vikings won going away against the Crusaders on Sunday. Wood jumped out to a 22-9 lead after one quarter and was never threatened. Michael Knouse added 19 points for the Vikings, while Brandon Thompson scored 14 for LC.

Ice hockey

GA WINS TITL4E » Germanotwn Academy’s 3-2 win against ANC marked the fourth Independence Hockey League Championship for the Patriots in five years.

After winning the IHL title for the 2017-20 seasons, the Patriots’ quest for a fourth title in as many years was put on hold as the league did not have a championship for 2020-21. Now 729 days after their last trophy, Germantown Academy got its hardware.

“In the past couple of days, you start to reflect and think,” Head Coach Matt Rominger said. “It’s been a long three months, but it’s been an incredibly special three months watching the team come together in the ways that they have. There’s so many great moments and stories along the way, but I’m so incredibly proud of the kids and the team and how they came together.”

During the championship, it took until the second period for things to come together for the Patriots. Despite outshooting ANC 22-4 in the first period, Germantown Academy found themselves trailing, 2-0.

The Patriots went down a player at the 11:41 mark in the first, an opportunity that the Lions pounced at. Just 36 seconds after the penalty, ANC scored the game’s first goal. For a moment around the 7:42 mark, it appeared as if GA had leveled the score, only for the officials to wave off the goal for a high stick. Three minutes later, the Lions scored again.

“It was a slower start than we would’ve like, but resilience has been one of the things that’s held with our team this year,” Jake Disaid. “Going down 2-0, we weren’t really worried, just stuck with it and ultimately got that win.”

Germantown Academy had a few chances with under a minute left in the first but were unable to find the back of the net. That all changed in the second, and quickly.

Walker Schwartz scored an unassisted goal just one minute into the period to get the Patriots back into the game. Less than 40 seconds later, Shane Tronoski tied the game. It would be 10 minutes until Schwartz would score the game-winning goal. GA outscored ANC 3-0 in the period.

Schwartz said that he believed the team knew they were better, and that they just had to keep playing to pull out the win. Rominger noted how important and timely Schwartz’s goal truly was.

“It was huge,” Rominger said. “It was in the first intermission where the message was ‘stick with the game plan and good things are going to happen.’ Trust in yourself, trust in the game, trust in the system, and that’s what they do. They stick with it and credit to their character trust that it will eventually go our way.”

The Patriots had chances to extend their lead, but were denied by the ANC goaltender. The Lions had three chances at the end of the second to possibly even the score, but goaltender Dom Saputelli ’23 stood tall and kept them off the board.

While no goals were scored in the third, that did not mean there was a lack of action. ANC went down a player at the 7:54 mark and the game seemingly turned into target practice for the Patriots, who whipped pucks toward the net constantly, but to no avail. Later in the period when Germantown Academy was outnumbered, Saputelli made another crucial save to kill the penalty.

Schwartz said that he knew Saputelli could hold his own, but he still had some nerves.

“Every time they got a shot in, I would tense up a bit, but overall, I felt confident,” Schwartz. “I thought that we had it in the end. Everybody worked hard, everybody took the extra hit to make the play, so it was really awesome.”

When the final buzzer rang out, the Patriots rushed the ice and surrounded Saputelli. Then they skated over to the fan section to celebrate with their classmates that made it to the rink. Dierks was presented the IHL Championship Trophy before being mobbed by his teammates.

The senior said it was tough not playing a full season last year because the team thought they were good enough to win it then. However, he said he was happy that the ultimate goal had been reached. After taking home the title as a freshman and sophomore, the idea of another league title might not have the same pop as it used to, but not to Dierks. Following the game, the senior still had the trophy tight in his grasp.

“I think this is going right on the bedstand tonight, we’ll see what we do with it tomorrow,” Dierks said. “But definitely going to cherish this and take it wherever I go the rest of the day.”

Wrestling

SPRINGFIELD 1ST AT SOL FREEDOM CHAMPIONSHIPS » Springfield-Montco’s Roderick Porter and Stojan Gradistanac won gold at 132 and 215 pounds, respectively, as the Spartans earned first place at the SOL Freedom Division Championships Tuesday at William Tennent.

Springfield finished with 103.5 points in the team standings. Upper Moreland was second with 99 points with Lower Moreland third with 74 points.

Upper Moreland had five wrestlers claim first — Mark Delzingaro (106), Michael Muncer (113), Collin Evanson (120), Charles Hogan (126) and Owen Dunleavy (189).

Lower Moreland had a trio of winners — Alex Kebuz at 138, Derek Mironenko at 152 and Brian Hegedus at 285.

William Tennent got first-place finishes by Angelo Guzman (145) and Nolan Cataldi (172) while Cheltenham’s Mike Slowe earned first at 160.

SOL LIBERTY CHAMPIONSHIPS » Upper Dublin’s Gus Platt earned first place at 152 pounds while Nathanael Chez led Wissahickon

by taking second at 172 at the SOL Liberty Division Championships Tuesday at Quakertown.

For The Trojans, Grayson Ruffner at 113 and Tyler Prince at 215 both took third For UD, Elias Abebe and Connor Devitt both earned second-place finishes with Dan Gorman, Caden Cerminaro, Zach Gallagher and Gavin Rockey all coming in third.

Girls swimming

WISS AT SOL LIBERTY » The Trojans took third place, behind Hatboro-Horsham and Upper Dublin. Ava Walters led the Trojans with a third-place finish in the 100 fly and won the 500 free. Walters also hooked up with Maddie Johnson, Sarah Pickel and Bernice Fu to take thired in the 200 free relay. Johnson added a third-place finish in the 100 breast. Walters and Johnson also combined with Fu and Pickel to take third in the 400 free relay. The Hatters were sparked by Sarah Parker and Kathy Jia. Parker took first in the 50 free (24.14) and 100 free (53.13), while also hooking up with Jia, Emmy Erickson and Vivi Vergara to win the 200 free relay. Kathy Jia won the 200 IM (2:06.02) and 100 breast (1:04.14). Vergara also won the 200 free, while Annia Jia won the 100 fly (55.34).

Girls basketball GARNET VALLEY 55, HATBORO-HORSHAM 21 »

The 19th-seeded Hatters fell behind 23-8 after one quarter and never recovered on Friday night. HatboroHorsham only managed 13 points over the final quarters with Emily Thomas leading the way with 8 points. Hatboro-Horsham finishes the year with a record of 12-9. GERMANTOWN ACADEMY 55, AGNES IRWIN 15 » The Patriots finished the game with a 31-4 run in picking up the win on Monday. Jessica Apotnik led the way with 20 points, while Isabella Casey chipped in with 15 and Kendall Bennett scored 11.