LEWISTOWN, Pa. (EYT/D9) – Up by 12 in the third quarter, the Karns City boys basketball team had its eyes set on advancing to the PIAA Class 2A quarterfinals.
Old Forge had other ideas.
The Blue Devils began to slice into that lead, trimming it in half by the end of the third.
Entering the final minute of the game, the comeback was complete and Old Forge had a six-point lead on the way to a 51-46 win over the Gremlins Sunday afternoon.
Old Forge outscored Karns City 28-10 over the final 13 minutes of the contest.
“They just kind of upped the intensity and we didn’t respond,” said Karns City coach Zach Kepple.
Ayden Davitt keyed the rally for Old Forge.
Davitt scored 10 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter.
Kepple said his team was able to see two of Old Forge’s games to scout. In both games it was Joe Macciocco and Maria Sarmony who did the bulk of the damage for the Blue Devils.
Macciocco and Sarmony were each held to 11.
“One guy we were concerned with was (Sarmony),” Kepple said. “I thought Cole (Sherwin) did a really good job defending him. (Davitt) kind of surprised me. When you don’t know a whole lot about a team and can’t find stats anywhere, you’re not 100% sure who’s gonna be the best guys. But the two films, we thought (Sarmony) and (Macciocco) were their guys. It was (Davitt) who ended up hurting us.”
Karns City and Old Forge played close to the vest in the first quarter with the Gremlins taking a 14-13 lead after one.
The Gremlins entered the half up by six and then shot out to that 12-point lead in the first three minutes of the second half.
Luke Cramer had nine points and Sherwin eight in the first half.
Then, things tightened up for Karns City.
Cramer finished with 18 and Sherwin 14 for the Gremlins.
Even down six with less than a minute remaining, Karns City felt it had a chance. After all, the Gremlins had won a game just a few days before against Penns Manor when down by seven in the same situation.
It was not to be Sunday.
“I said, ‘We were here last game. It doesn’t mean we’re out,'” Kepple said. “And they all bought in and went out hard and finished the game strong.
“I told them after the game that we have nothing to hang our heads about,” Kepple added. “We had a lot of games this year that were close games that we came back and won. That sort of says a lot about the character of your team and the players you have. The character of this team is remarkable.”
In Kepple’s first season after taking over for longtime coach Chris Bellis, Karns City finished 20-8.
“As a first-year coach, all the credit goes to the kids,” Kepple said. “They hung in with me because I’m sure I’ve made mistakes throughout the year, but they never hung their heads. They never quit. They never second guessed anything. They just went out and did what we preached in practice.”
Karns City should have a strong team back next year in Kepple’s second season.
The core of sophomores Taite Beighley and Luke Cramer and junior Micah Rupp is back.
The Gremlins will have to replace seniors Luke Garing and Sherwin, who played major roles.
“We obviously have some people we have to replace, but we do have a lot of young guys coming back,” Kepple said. “Micah is huge and Taite and Cramer. We have guys who we think can fill those roles and we’ll be ready next year.”
D9 SURVIVORS – Thanks to 29 points from Dan Park Saturday night, Ridgway downed Greensburg Central Catholic, 59-53, to move on in the PIAA Class 2A boys playoffs.
Ridgway (22-5), the District 9 champ, will take on undefeated OLSH (25-0) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Oil City High School.
The Otto-Eldred girls also advanced Saturday night in Class A with a come-from-behind 56-51 win over Bishop Canevin and will play District 10 champion Kennedy Catholic at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Clarion University.
The Elk County Catholic boys, winners Friday night, will square off against Union-New Castle (24-3) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Clarion University.
