Category: Latest News

By Joseph Santoliquito

At first, no one took it seriously. The strobe lights were flashing and the fire alarms sounded Tuesday night during halftime at Penn Wood, which was hosting Chester in a Del-Val League game.

Allegedly, someone was vaping in a bathroom, triggering the major inconvenience, and everyone had to be evacuated out of the gym into the chilly night while waiting for the fire department to arrive and turn off the alarm.

None of that seemed to deter Chester freshman Ramee Davis Jr. The Clippers and Penn Wood had to wait on the football field in the back of the school before the all clear was given to repopulate the building.

Davis needed a quarter to regain his touch, but once it came, the Clippers’ 6-foot-2 freshman guard scored eight of his game-high 15 points in the fourth quarter to spell the difference in a Chester 54-46 victory.

The Clippers are now 15-7 overall and remain undefeated in the Del-Val with a perfect 8-0 mark, while Penn Wood hangs perilously close to not making the PIAA District 1 Class 6A playoffs for a second-straight year, falling to 8-11 and 4-3 in the league.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

The 2024-25 season will go down as the seventh Del Val League championship in eight seasons for coach Keith Taylor at Chester.

But the margin in that banner addition to Chester High will have come down to, by and large, two quarters of dominant basketball from the Clippers.

In a game tied after three quarters Tuesday, Chester’s defense set the tone in pulling away from Penn Wood for a 54-46 victory, sealing an 8-0 run through the Del Val. The result also goes a long way toward helping Chester (15-7) seal a first-round home game in the District 1 Class 6A tournament.

While the direction of the league title owed to plenty of factors – among them Chester’s steadiness in six other games and a Penn Wood loss to Interboro – head-to-head, it came down to 16 minutes of basketball. In two fourth quarters, Chester outscored Penn Wood, 43-16, this year. That included recouping a six-point deficit Jan. 16 for a 65-52 win at the Fred Pickett Gymnasium.

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A hot start to the fourth quarter propelled Sacred Heart Academy past Delaware County Christian School, 52-48, in a battle between the top teams in the District 1 Class A standings Monday.

Trailing by two heading into the final period, the Lions came out firing, opening the fourth with an 8-0 run to seize control.

Junior guard Megan Donahoe led the charge with a game-high 21 points, sinking four shots from beyond the arc. Senior power forward Keara McCaffrey dominated the paint, posting a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while sophomore guard Dani Jeffries pitched in with eight points and six assists.

Mary O’Donnell paced Delco Christian with 13 points. Ella Stringer and Addy Smith each netted 11 points, while Hallie Kees chipped in eight.

In the Ches-Mont League:

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By Josh Verlin

Kaiden Robinson sat on the Sun Valley bench with more than six minutes to go in the regular-season finale against West Chester Rustin, his work done for the evening. 

All the 6-foot-1 senior guard had to do was listen to the 150-or-so Sun Valley students who’d been loud all night long, but saved their best for last: “Ches-Mont champs,” they said, over and over. 

What was going through his mind as he soaked it all in?

“We did it,” he said afterwards, then louder. “We did it.”

Surrounded by his Vanguards teammates in the hallway outside their home locker room, Robinson’s voice rose once more — WE DID IT — and they responded with a roar. 

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By Josh Verlin

The time of the season where losses become more than temporary setbacks has all but arrived. 

Haverford High’s girls had what they hope was their final such complication for a good while on Thursday, a disappointing loss at Garnet Valley that should keep them from the top seed in the Central League playoffs. But a veteran group in hand led by St. Joe’s commit Rian Dotsey knows how to bounce back, and that’s what they did on Saturday with a lockdown defensive effort at Lower Merion. 

With Dotsey leading the way offensively, the Fords held the Aces to their second-lowest point total of the season in a 43-25 win.

“We’ve gone into every game with the same idea, just trying to come out strong and not putting any team above any other team,” Dotsey said. “We have four seniors who’ve been able to lead our team, so that’s been super-helpful, especially with team morale and stuff like that.”

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Springfield entered Saturday against Radnor in a must-win situation to keep its Central League playoff hopes alive, and the Cougars delivered.

Megan Zane scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds as Springfield pulled off a 32-21 upset.

The win keeps the Cougars (11-10, 7-8) in the hunt for the sixth and final playoff spot with one regular-season game left at Harriton Tuesday night.

Springfield outscored Radnor (14-7, 10-5) by a 24-11 margin in the second half. Alyssa Estep (five rebounds) and Molly Clifford tallied eight points apiece, while Luke Ditrolio added six.

Nyah Yao led the Raptors with 13 points.

In other Central League results:

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By Andrew Robinson

As Haylie Adamski pointed out, it doesn’t matter which team calls the timeout, both sides get the same opportunity to stop and talk things over.

With the pace of their highly important Central League clash against Garnet Valley getting a little frantic in the third quarter, visiting Conestoga took a timeout to settle down. The Pioneers led at the time but it was going to be Jaguars ball out of the break and Adamski was starting to feel her shot a little bit.

Out of the stoppage, Adamski nailed a step-back three, the Jags got a stop, Kylie Mulholland found Adamski on an outlet and just like that, GV was back in front.

Adamski and Mulholland led the way as Garnet Valley edged Conestoga and secured the top seed for the Central League playoffs with a 50-43 win Saturday afternoon.

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By Matt Smith

Coming into the season, the storyline was clear: Garnet Valley had struggled to get past Conestoga.

The history backed it up. Last year, the Pioneers took three of four girls basketball meetings against the Jaguars, once in the regular season, once in the Central League semifinals and again in the District 1 Class 6A tournament. Garnet Valley eventually got the last laugh, making a run to the state semifinals.

Still, senior standout Haylie Adamski and the Jaguars carried the Conestoga chip on their shoulders into the 2024-25 campaign. After grinding out a defensive slugfest in December, the Jags completed the regular-season sweep of the Pioneers Saturday with a 50-43 victory.

Adamski, a Lafayette commit, led the way with a game-high 18 points, adding seven rebounds, three assists and three steals to power the Jaguars (20-1, 14-1) in a clash for first place in the Central League. Barring a loss at Ridley Tuesday night, the Jags will earn the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in next week’s league tournament, which gets under way Thursday.

“It’s so nice,” Adamski said. “Usually that never happens. To be able to beat them (twice) is great.”

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By Josh Verlin

Olivia Voshell could all-too-easily put herself in Kenzie and Maddie Fanning’s shoes. 

The Strath Haven senior and four-year starter remembered what it was like being a freshman starting on the Panthers varsity roster. She recalled how helpful it was to have a senior, in her case Rose Henry, showing her the ropes, sending her ‘good game’ texts, giving her confidence.

“It’s so intimidating,” Voshell said. “(Being in that position) helped me see that it is intimidating to approach an upperclassman and ask questions. (I’m) putting myself out there in a position and explaining things when I see a look of confusion here or there or make it known that I’m someone they can come to to ask a question if they don’t want to ask a coach, or they don’t want to repeat something.”

It’s an important mindset to be in, because Voshell — along with fellow senior starters and four-year varsity members Kate Fox and Maryella Gill — are directly responsible for setting the tone for the next three years of Strath Haven basketball and beyond. 

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By Matthew DeGeorge

The wins kept coming, but something was off the last couple of weeks for Penncrest boys basketball.

Despite staying near the top of the District 1 Class 5A rankings, they had hit an offensive rough patch. A game won in the 40s, a pair of games in the low 30s, even one where they couldn’t escape 29 – it didn’t seem like them, as can happen in a long season.

Saturday night, with Marple Newtown in the building, the Lions found their stride, thanks to a star playing a complementary role.

Will Stanton scored nine of his 16 points in overtime, and Penncrest got eight points and 17 rebounds from Mikey Mita in a 68-65 double-overtime win over Marple Newtown.

“This is more like us,” Stanton said. “Tonight was more like us than the past week has been. We kind of hit a rough stretch, but we’ve bounced back, and we’re over it.”

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