La Salle forces pre-playoff
game with Judge

Bob Verrelle has had plenty of great moments this year.
Verrelle, a senior forward on the Father Judge High School basketball team, made the transition from the first guy off the bench during his junior year to one of the top scorers on the team this year.
This year, he fondly recalls when the Crusaders traveled to Trenton Catholic Academy during the Christmas break tournament. Though the Crusaders failed to win the tournament, they did knock off Camden High School, the nationally renowned basketball program in South Jersey.
That win was nice.
But the team’s win over North Catholic earlier this season was much better.
On Jan. 14, on the strength of a half-court shot by forward Bob Zanneo, the Crusaders walked out of North’s "Pit" with a 56-53 upset victory.
Great memory No. 3, though, will have to wait.
On Feb. 18, the Crusaders played La Salle in a Catholic League Northern Division game. If the Crusaders had won the game, it would have been the second year in a row — and just the second time ever — that the four Northeast-area high schools would have occupied the four playoff spots in the Northern Division.
There’s still a chance the Crusaders could clinch that spot, but it would have required them to win Wednesday night’s game with the Explorers (the Times went to press before then), a rematch of last week’s meeting.
When the teams met in their Northern Division finale on Feb. 18, La Salle won, 57-45, a game that gave the Explorers and Crusaders identical 7-7 records.
The winner of Wednesday’s pre-playoff game will square off with Cardinal Dougherty in the second half of a Catholic League Northern Division doubleheader at Archbishop Ryan on Saturday.
Ryan was chosen to host the first-round games because it has the largest gym in the Northern Division. Game 1 of the doubleheader will feature Ryan’s Raiders against North Catholic. Tip-off for that game is noon.
If the Crusaders hope to make the first round of the playoffs, they’ll have to perform better than they did in the opening minutes of the third quarter in their season finale.
La Salle, which held a 27-26 lead at intermission, scored the first 11 points of the second half to grab a commanding 38-26 edge.
Judge went on a modest 5-0 run to cut the lead to 38-31, but La Salle scored six of the final nine points in the quarter to lead by 10 after three quarters.
Verrelle scored seven points and pulled down six rebounds for the Crusaders.
Judge’s top scorers were junior center Andrew Vose, who scored 13, and senior swingman Ryan Walker, who netted 12. Zanneo added nine.
"It’s tough, but it’s nice to know that we have another chance at these guys," Verrelle said. "They’re a good team, but so are we.
"This year has been great," said Verrelle, whose team started 0-3 in Northern Division play but rebounded to win seven of its final 11 games. "I think the only people who expected us to be around at this time were us. Nobody thought we’d be contending for a playoff spot, but we all believed in each other and we all listened to (head coach Frank Cahill)."
Going into Wednesday’s game with the Explorers, Cahill was optimistic that his Judge team could keep the season alive.
"This isn’t what we wanted, but it was absolutely nice to have that safety net," Cahill said of the do-or-die showdown. "Now we have to take advantage of that. It won’t be easy, but we knew we’d have to battle for that last playoff spot. Now we just have a little more fighting left to do."
IN OTHER GAMES
Cardinal Dougherty, 55, Archbishop Ryan, 48: It took overtime, 17 points from Kahlil Mumford and 10 points from Justin Minter, but the Cardinals completed their perfect season in the Catholic League Northern Division on Feb. 18. The game was tied, 48-48, but Dougherty won the extra session, 7-0, to take the game.
This is the third time in the past five years that Dougherty went undefeated in divisional play, and the fourth time in five seasons that the team won the Northern Division crown.
In fact, since the 2002 season, the Cardinals have gone 78-6 in Catholic League Northern Division play, reaching the Catholic League semifinals every year. The only other team to achieve that feat over the same period is Saints Neumann-Goretti.
While the Cardinals enjoyed another perfect season this year, they did better than most expected.
Ryan lost every player in its regular rotation except for point guard Andrew Rogers.
In the loss to Dougherty, Ryan was led by Keith Czarney, who scored 16 points, and Rogers, who added 15.
Ryan finished divisional play at 9-5, clinching third place.
North Catholic, 64, Bishop McDevitt, 37: The second-place Falcons got 17 points from Andrew Pomager and 12 more from Chris Edwards in the Feb. 18 win. North finished its Northern Division schedule with 10 wins, the most since 1998.
WRESTLING
The Pioneers reminded everyone why they are the best team in the league this year at the Public League individual championships on Feb. 17.
Tom Brogan, a 135-pounder who was named the most outstanding wrestler at the meet, joined fellow Frankford wrestlers Chris Mullins (112), Jon Bracero (119), Luis Castillo (152) and Austin White (189) in recording victories that propelled the Pioneers to the team title.
Frankford scored 230 points. Washington took second with 212.5, while Olney was third with 188. Northeast finished with 152 points, just behind fifth-place Central, and Lincoln scored 100 points, good enough for seventh.
Northeast’s 171-pounder, George Mecas, was the only other local wrestler to capture a championship.
The wrestling competition was the only athletic event scheduled for Public League schools. Schools were closed on Feb. 14 because of inclement weather, and district officials decided to cancel games scheduled for Feb. 15 and 16 when the weather woes created transportation problems. ••