Amiri Stewart (above, in January) had 19 points as Carroll snapped a three-game PCL losing skid. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)
By Carter Filman
The Philadelphia Catholic League can be a brutal beast. It can be a quick turn around from playing a local power like Archbishop Ryan to a national powerhouse like Neumann Goretti or Roman Catholic.
With Archbishop Carroll in a spiral after dropping three straight, all it took was a text from a senior captain to coach Francis Bowe to get things back on track.
“[Amiri Stewart] texted me,” Bowe said. “It was refreshing and it was awesome, because you know I’ve been doing this now for about 13-14 years, how mature he was about it. A lot of seniors can say ‘screw this, I’m ready to go to college’… But he said, ‘coach we’re going to do something special, it’s not over yet.’”
And when Carroll needed something special, the senior captain delivered, scoring eight points in the final frame as the Patriots battled with and knocked off visiting Cardinal O’Hara 60-57. It was a much-needed victory for a team coming off a difficult loss to Archbishop Ryan.