LORDSTOWN —
Four years ago, Ryan Fitch took over the Pymatuning Valley Lakers’ program and had the enormous task of following the highly successful six-year run of Jeremy Huber.
If Friday night was any indication of how’s he done, then well, he’s been quite successful guiding his squad to their second Northeastern Athletic Conference title during his tenure as a suffocating Laker defense did enough in their 41-23 victory over the Lordstown Red Devils.
“Our defense has been our strength all year,” Fitch said. “We’re only giving up an average of 43 points a game. That has definitely been one of our strengths this season. I give it all up to the kids.
“They bought into what we were trying to do four years ago when I took over. We’re reaping the benefits of that now.”
The Lakers’ defense was all the more impressive considering they ran a seven-man rotation for the night in limiting the Red Devils (9-12, 8-5 NAC) to zero points in the opening quarter and just two points in the pivotal third quarter coming out of a tied game at 14.
The first half could easily be described as an up and down affair with the Lakers (16-4, 11-2 NAC) coming out strong for the most part in the opening quarter, clinging to a 10-0 advantage.
Then matters got ugly as Fitch saw a quarter that he described as one where his team got too casual with the ball and lost any type of intensity getting outscored, 12-2.
“In both quarters, we had our opportunities to score and we knew we weren’t going to have a large volume of points to keep this at the pace we wanted,” Lordstown coach Brent Villella said. “We really weren’t too disappointed how we played in the first (quarter). Our kids, though, responded really well in the second (quarter) outscoring them.”
Coming off a back-to-back against Badger, it was disheartening for Fitch after a strong opening quarter, but while his team was able to turn it on in the second half, Villella believed the complexion of the game changed drastically in a 90-second span as his team struggled getting any type of offensive consistency.
“Really it was that segment in the third quarter where we weren’t good with situational basketball and (PV) is extremely good and extremely well coached,” Villella said. “Once we got down, it became their pace which they are really good at playing.”
That change was the play of Tim Cross and Quintin Ratliff. A steal by Cross and ensuing assist to Ratliff opened up a tight game and in turn made it a double-digit affair at 24-14 heading into the final quarter.
Ratliff was big on the defensive end as well with three steals turning to coast-to-coast fast breaks.
“He’s just a tremendous athlete and a great player,” Fitch said. “When he plays like that, there aren’t many people who can stop him.”
Ratliff led the Lakers with 13 points, but the story coming into the game was that of Tim Cross sitting at 981 points for his Lakers’ career.
In the opening quarter, it looked like he was on pace to get the 19 points needed to eclipse 1,000 points scoring five of the Lakers’ first 10 points. He would only score one point for the rest of the game but his five assists and five steals were much needed in the second half to get the Lakers’ a tough hard-fought victory.
“He, obviously, knows he’s close,” Fitch said. “I don’t think we was pressing too hard to get it. I just think we came out with a lack of intensity and that carried our through the whole game.
“Teams are, obviously, going to key on him and put their best defenders on him... double-team him and run and trap him. He’ll get it in the next two games here. It’ll be a great accomplishment for a great young man.”
Fortune is a freelance writer from McDonald.
Sports
Lakers have NAC for another title
Fitch’s troops prey on Lordstown to clinch
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Geneva, Edgewood win in J-Town
The Geneva boys and Edgewood girls managed to amass just enough points to claim the team titles at the Falcon Night Relays on Friday at Falcon Pride Stadium.
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Johnson: Browns will be better
Football fans of every age gathered Friday evening to converse with Cleveland Browns linebacker James-Michael Johnson.
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Skleres finds good fit
There are two very different sides to Michealia Skleres and the Pymatuning Valley senior wasn’t ready to go one direction or the other just yet. She may never be ready to separate those two halves.
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Lakers ousted by LaBrae
Though the LaBrae softball team fell short of one goal this season, another was achieved on Friday.
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Scholastic Statistics:
BASEBALL
DIVISION I
SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Fitch 10, Lakeside 1
at Fitch -
Scholastic Schedule:
SATURDAY, MAY 18
Baseball
n No events scheduled -
Top to bottom
For a team to score a number of runs in a softball game, the bottom portion of a lineup has to string a couple of hits together at least once.
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Falcons fly to sectional title
Lake Catholic softball coach Dale Colagross had the option of a potential battle with rival Notre-Dame Cathedral Latin, the top-seeded team in the Division II district tournament, or a potential matchup with third-seeded Jefferson in a sectional championship game in the other half of the bracket.
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Area High School Baseball Statistical Leaders:
INDIVIDUAL BATTING (minimum 45 at-bats)
PLAYER SCHOOL AVG OB% SLG% AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB
Chase Thurber PV .548 .642 .790 62 24 34 10 1 1 25 13
Tim Cross PV .492 .528 .667 63 24 31 9 1 0 25 12
Louie Wisnyai Edgewood .492 .559 .763 59 17 29 8 1 2 26 8
Tony Magda Edgewood .483 .552 .603 58 14 28 5 1 0 19 6
Joey Piscsalko Jefferson .471 .548 .571 70 23 33 7 0 0 19 14
Scott Davidson Jefferson .464 .519 .623 69 20 32 7 2 0 10 8 -
Lakeside rolls past East
One of the great lessons in sports competitions is to play with the maximum effort in utilizing your own skills and talents. It’s a lot easier said than done, but the Lakeside Dragons got a full dose of it Thursday afternoon as they tangled with a youthful and inexperienced group of Panthers from Youngstown East in a Division I sectional semifinal ballgame. The Dragons came out on top, 12-0.
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Geneva, Edgewood win in J-Town
