Berks Catholic holds off Exeter, heads to championship

(This story will be updated later tonight with details and postgame reaction.)

Josiah Jordan’s drive and basket with 7.8 seconds left lifted Berks Catholic to a 41-40 victory over Exeter Wednesday in a Berks Conference quarterfinal at Santander Arena.

The sixth-seeded Eagles (11-12) had two shots in the last three seconds, a drive by Alex Kelsey and a rushed put-back by Reece Garvin, but both missed.

The second-seeded Saints (20-3) advance to meet either top-seeded Reading High or fourth-seeded Muhlenberg Friday at 8 at Santander Arena.

Jordan, who missed five free throws in the third quarter, spent the first 5 1/2 minutes of the final quarter on the bench before entering with 2:11 left and the score tied 36-36. Jack Miller gave the Saints the lead with a 3-pointer but the Eagles went back on top 40-39 on Colin Payne’s jumper with 48 seconds left.

On the decisive posession Jordan drove hard to the basket, then pulled up and hit from about four feet.

“That’s my game,” Jordan said of his offensive move.

Payne finished with a game-high 14 points; Anthony Caccese had 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Eagles.

Aidan Sands had 12 points and 15 rebounds for the Saints. Christian Cacchione played a key defensive role off the bench for the Saints and scored six second-half points.

Berks Catholic trailed most of the first half, down as many as five points in both the first and second quarters. It struggled from the outside, missing its first six 3-pointers before Sands connected two minutes into the second quarter. Aron Reinhart followed with a 3 and Sands hit another to give the Saints their first lead at 21-20 with 1:55 to go in the half. That was the score at intermission.

The Eagles had early leads of 5-0 and 13-8, the second on a nice spin move in the post by Caccese. The 6-6 junior, who had a monster game against Wilson, hit his first three shots and had six points at the half.

The Saints are back in the title game for the first time since 2019, when they lost to Reading High 33-31. They have won three three titles since the program debuted in 2011-12. They beat Schuylkill Valley in their inaugural season, Reading High the next year and the Red Knights again in 2018.

They reached the title game in each of their first eight seasons, with losses to Reading High in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019, and to Wilson in 2014.

Saints coach Snip Esterly set a Berks record by taking a team to the title game in nine straight seasons; he also did it in 2011, in Central Catholic’s final season.

The Saints didn’t make the playoffs last season for the first time in their history.

“It was so disappointing,” said Sands. “We all felt down on ourselves; we had no confidence. It was just a bad year.”

Sands said the team was confident it was headed for a good season when it beat Wilson in the championship game of the West Reading Summer League.

“In the summer, we all worked hard on ourselves,” he said. “We took our summer league serious, like it was a preview of the season, basically. When we won the summer league championship, that’s when I got real excited, knowing we were a good team.

“After our first win (this season) vs. Mifflin (72-70 at Wolf Gymnasium) — that was our first game with a full gym — I knew we could do what we want to do and make it as far as we can.”

Exeter hasn’t made the championship game since 1974, when it beat Muhlenberg 72-55 for the title.

Just making it to Santander was a surprise. The Eagles were pretty much counted out after they ended the season with seven losses in eight games and without 6-6 junior Joey Schlaffer, their second-leading scorer and a Penn State tight end recruit. He hasn’t played since Feb. 3 when he injured his wrist in a 60-40 lost to Berks Catholic and appears to be done for the season.

Exeter pulled off a quarterfinal stunner, knocking off Wilson 55-51. Colin Payne, one of the league’s top scorers, had 21 points and Caccese had a huge game, with a career-high 19 points and a dozen boards.