Trojans’ ‘hopes and dreams’ realized with district win over Lancaster Catholic
A snow day may have helped the Tulpehocken Trojans reach the PIAA basketball tournament.
Classes were canceled at Tulpehocken because of weather the day after a tough three-point semifinal loss to York Catholic last week.
A day off from practice, said Trojans coach J.D. Ricapito, helped his players refocus and prepare for Monday’s potential season-ending game.
“We were ready to play today,” he said after the third-seeded Trojans scored a resounding 72-51 win over No. 5 Lancaster Catholic Monday in a District 3 Class 3A state-qualifier at New Schaefferstown.
The win sends the Trojans (19-6) to the state tournament for the first time in 15 years; the Crusaders (8-15) saw their season end. Only the top three teams in Class 3A advance to the state tournament from District 3.
David Bednarczyk scored a game-high 26 points and Bryce Mellen, saddled with early foul trouble, scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half to help the Trojans pull away.
They led just 31-29 at the half but allowed only seven third-quarter points to build a 13-point lead heading into the final quarter.
The Crusaders, who nearly took out top-seeded Columbia in the semifinals before losing 43-41, were hurt by foul troubles of their own. Leading scorer Jack Engle, who averages 14.3 points per game, got three early fouls, then fouled out in the third quarter. He picked up a technical foul immediately after his fourth personal and was done. He finished with five points and didn’t score in the second half.
“He sat the majority of the game, which really helped us,” Ricapito said. “His game is to drive to the basket and finish. For the most part we contained him pretty well and didn’t allow that drive to happen.”
The Trojans have thrived on the one-two scoring punch of Bednarczyk and Mellen but had balanced scoring Monday as Nolan Sweitzer contributed 12 points and Bradyn Erb 10.
“That’s huge,” Ricapito said. “It’s always tough (to defend) when you see a team have multiple guys in double digits. It’s just great to see the sharing of the ball and knowing that anybody can score on any given night. Obviously we have David and Bryce putting up the most points but when you have a supporting cast behind them its nice to see and tough to defend.”
The Trojans now prepare for their first trip to the PIAA Tournament since 2007, when they won 25 games and reached the district title game. They were 7-15 a year ago.
“It’s something we’ve hoped and dreamed about,” Ricapito said. “From the beginning (this season), we thought we had a good team this year.”
