Tigers outlast Panthers, remain unbeaten
When Fleetwood’s Jake Karnish stepped to the foul late in the third quarter Tuesday, his team up by just a point at Schuylkill Valley, he heard it from the student section.
“Over-rated. . . over-rated.”
That’s to be expected when you come in with a reputation, your shots aren’t falling and your undefeated team isn’t overwheming anyone.
Karnish, an All-Berks pick as a junior who’s quickly closing in on 1,000 career points, smiled when he heard the chants. Then he casually dropped a pair of free throws.
“I never expected to get those (chants),” Karnish said, “but it made me laugh a little bit. I just worked a little bit harder after that.”
Karnish didn’t need the help of Panthers fans to get him going; he’s a multi-talented and driven student-athlete. Cheer or jeer, he’s going to perform. He was only just getting started with those free throws.
Despite some strong defensive work by Dominic Giuffre the 6-3 guard went on to score 11 of his team-high 22 points over the final 10 minutes as the Tigers pulled away for a 59-44 Berks III victory over the short-handed Panthers.
Schuylkill Valley (1-1, 5-2), off to a surprisingly good start this season, was without a pair of injured starters, Elijah Houser, who averages 10 points per game, and Kelton Faulk.
Senior scoring leader Mark Rajnath and his teammates were able to cover that up for a while — the Panthers still led by six a couple minutes into the third quarter — but it caught up with them eventually.
Other than Rajnath, who scored a game-high 23 points, they just didn’t have the scoring punch, or depth, to keep up with the Tigers (1-0, 5-0).
“We ran out of gas,” said Schuylkill Valley coach Taylor Grim, whose team led throughout most of the first and second quarters.
The game, while not artistically played, was fiercely competed. Two teams used to going after their opponents went full bore for most of the 32 minutes, pushing the ball up and down the court and banging on the boards.
“We were both pretty worn down,” Karnish said, “but we dug deeper than them. We were working hard on the defensive end, crashing the boards, pushing the ball, doing everything we planned to do. We just came together in the third and fourth quarter.”
Karnish scored six points in a 10-0 finishing run that pushed Fleetwood’s lead to 38-33 at the end of the third quarter. Karnish opened the fourth quarter with a steal, then turned a rebound into a three-point play for a 10-point lead that continued to expand.
Karnish finished with a game-high 15 rebounds, had a game-high four assists and knocked down 10-of-12 from the foul line — nothing to jeer about.
He got help from junior captain Aiden Soumas, who scored a career-high 18 points, and senior captain Braden Williams, who scored 14 points, including seven in the final quarter.
Rajnath, easily one of the league’s most improved players, started fast, scoring Schuylkill Valley’s first 10 points and 12 in the first quarter. Like the rest of his teammates, he faded after that: The Panthers shot 22.5 percent from the field over the final three quarters and were 1-for-16 from 3-point range; a lot of their shots were falling short, a sign of fatigue.
Schuylkill Valley went over 10 minutes in the second half without scoring; Dominic Giuffre’s two free throws with 4:02 left snapped a 19-0 Fleetwood run. By that point it was pretty much over.
The Tigers played sloppily and were bothered by the Panthers’ pressure in the first half; they turned it over a whopping 17 times. Once they settled down in the second half they began to ease ahead.
“We just focused more,” Karnish said. “We were all a little excited out there. It’s a tough place to play, I’m not gonna lie. It gets loud. We might’ve been a little nervous but after halftime we came out calm.”
The Tigers played hard the whole way — a little too hard at times. Karnish, Soumas, Nate Herb and Hunter Svoboda each picked up their fourth person foul in the fourth quarter. Lucky for Tigers coach Terry Sitler none of them fouled out; he didn’t have many other options.
Just eight players were entered in the official book and only six were utilized. Depth, it’s safe to say, is not one of the Tigers’ strengths. At this point, Sitler said, none of the younger players on the JV squad have shown signs they’re able to help.
“I’m very concerned,” Sitler said. “We’re rolling the dice right now.”
The Tigers have talent. They’re the defending Berks III champs and are expected to repeat. They’re ranked No. 2 in the District 3 Class 4A power ratings, behind only Berks Catholic. They have a chance to reach the PIAA Tournament for the first time in over 30 years — if they can survive until March.
“It’s rough,” said Soumas. “You’ve gotta keep your energy up somehow. Playing defense the whole game, high-tempo defense like that, it’s not easy to stay on the court all the time.
“We know when we only have (a few) guys on the bench (so) you’ve gotta come to play. If we’re tired, we’ve gotta fight through it.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Fleetwood | 15 | 12 | 11 | 21 | 59 |
| Schuylkill Valley | 15 | 12 | 6 | 11 | 44 |
| Tigers (5-0) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Soumas | 6-14 | 6-8 | 0-1 | 2 | 6 | 18 |
| Williams | 6-11 | 0-0 | 2-7 | 0 | 6 | 14 |
| Herb | 1-4 | 0-2 | 1-1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Karnish | 6-15 | 10-12 | 0-2 | 4 | 15 | 22 |
| Svoboda | 1-2 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 9 | 2 |
| Hilburt | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0–0 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Totals | 20-47 | 16-24 | 3-11 | 9 | 40-47 | 59 |
| Panthers (5-2) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Giuffre | 2-7 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Zimmerman | 1-4 | 2-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Rajnath | 7-19 | 7-8 | 2-10 | 2 | 4 | 23 |
| Hohenadel | 4-16 | 1-4 | 2-11 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| Spotts | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Gerner | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Miley | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 14-52 | 12-17 | 4-23 | 4 | 21-27 | 44 |
Turnovers: Fleetwood 25, Schuylkill Valley 19.
