Archbishop Carroll’s Alexis Eberz drives against Cedar Cliff in a PIAA Class 6A girls basketball final Friday night at the Giant Center in Hershey. (Bill Uhrich – Reading Eagle)
By Jack McCaffery
Were they to stand alone, without context and without a sense of history, the two numbers would have been staggering before the PIAA Class 6A girls basketball championship game Friday night.
One was zero. The other was 13.
The first was the number of times Cedar Cliff High had lost this season. The second was the loss total for Archbishop Carroll.
Technically, it was an enormous gap, but for one reality: Carroll played in the Catholic League. There is a difference, and it is real, and it is measurable, and it was the leading reason for the Patriots’ 43-37 victory and the five-pound Hershey bar they received as a parting snack.
“Absolutely,” Carroll coach Renie Shields said. “Even in our last game, we played O’Hara, our rival, and we physically just beat one another up. We were fortunate to come out a winner in that game. But we also had to play Lansdale (Catholic) and (Archbishop) Wood. We play some really good teams in the Catholic League. And I personally think it’s the best league in the Pennsylvania area.”