Fleetwood beats Middletown to record milestone win, advance in districts
Relentless.
That’s the word Fleetwood coach Terry Sitler used to describe the Tigers’ defense Thursday in a 50-34 win over visiting Middletown in a District 3 Class 4A quarterfinal.
The 10th-seeded Blue Raiders (13-11) scored just three points in the first quarter, made only three field goals in the first half and were held to their lowest scoring total of the season.
The win, the first for the Tigers (21-3) in three weeks, was a milestone for the program: It was the first district playoff win since 1990 and clinched a berth in the PIAA Tournament for the first time in 33 years.
“Everybody’s just so proud of the kids,” said Sitler, in his 11th season as Tigers head coach. “Seeing what we did last year, knowing what we needed to do, and our goal was to make the state tournament, which we did.”
The top six teams in Class 4A advance to the PIAA Tournament.
The Tigers will play in a district semifinal for the first since 1990 when they meet third-seeded Littlestown, an 81-59 winner Thursday over sixth-seeded Bishop McDevitt. Fleetwood, the No. 2 seed, gets another home game – its third of the postseason. It hosted Wilson in a Berks Conference quarterfinal.
Jake Karnish, Fleetwood’s all-time scoring leader, led the way with 19 points. He had 10 in the first half to help the Tigers to an 18-11 lead. Soumas scored 14 points and hit three 3-pointers.
Fleetwood led 31-20 after three quarters and pushed its lead to 20 at one point in the fourth quarter.
Fleetwood led just 6-3 after one quarter. Middletown’s only points came on a 3-pointer by Tyson Leach in the opening minute of the game, giving the Blue Raiders a 3-2 lead. They didn’t score again in the opening quarter.
“We were relentless on ’em defensively,” said Sitler, who focused the defensive effort on leading scorer Mason Blazer.
The 6-3 junior was averaging better than 19 points per game; he had one field in the first half and finished with seven points.
“Aiden (Soumas) started out on him, but the way we run our defense he doesn’t stay on him,” Sitler said. “We switch on everything, so everybody had to do their job, and they did. It was a team effort on defense.”
The Tigers came in ranked No. 1 in the Berks Conference in team defense, allowing a league-low 42.0 points per game.
Middletown became the 10th team Fleetwood has held below 40 points; it has held three below 30.
Leach finished with a team-high 15 points for Middletown, which heads to the playback round to face Bishop McDevitt to play for a state berth.
Fleetwood was in that position last year after an opening-round loss to Hershey in the Class 5A Tournament. It was eliminated in the playback round by Palmyra.
Fleetwood entered districts on a two-game losing streak. It dropped its regular season finale to Wyomissing and its Berks playoff opener to Wilson, each by one point.
Fleetwood’s 21 wins are tied for third-most in program history, and the most since it went 24-6 in 1983-84.
