Among the five area teams left in the boys basketball PIAA state playoffs, it would be easy to categorize them into three groups.
Elk Catholic, the 2006 Class A state champions, is a perennial player at the state-level. Then there are Johnsonburg, Ridgway and Coudersport, two programs that have seen success getting out of district play, but not on the consistent basis as the Crusaders have under their coach, Aaron Straub.
Otto-Eldred, by all accounts, is the newcomer. The Terrors (15-10) haven’t played in the state playoffs since losing to Homer-Center in 1997.
That’s all set to change Friday when coach Dan Dalton’s team travels west to Sharon High School to take on Kennedy Catholic (21-2), the defending Class A state champions and is PennLive’s top-ranked team in the state.
That shouldn’t deter Dalton and his players, who already have played three thrilling, one-point games so far this postseason. When the Terrors enter the gym Friday night, they’ll be heavy underdogs, but have come quite a way since an 0-22 campaign in 2012-13.
Elk Catholic, all things considered, is in a familiar position, and not just because the Crusaders seem to make a habit of advancing to the state tournament. Last year, Elk Catholic rolled through an undefeated season, won a D-9 Class A title and played Eden Christian Academy in the PIAA first round.
This year, it’s the same script for the Crusaders – which won back-to-back D-9 titles for the first time since 2010 –– drawing Eden Christian (12-10), this year the fifth-place team from District 7. Elk Catholic, ranked No. 2 this week by PennLive, ended the Warriors’ season last March, 52-44, and are looking for a repeat performance in the nightcap of a tripleheader Friday night at Clarion University.
The Crusaders, after outclassing most of its schedule this year, earned a bye to the district semifinals and state playoff berth. A 10-day layoff between the league playoffs and the D-9 playoffs allowed Straub and his staff to see some of the potential teams the Crusaders would be playing in states.
“We’ve really done a lot of work to get out and see our potential teams that we could possibly play,” Straub said Saturday after the D-9 title game, a 62-44 win over Johnsonburg. “We’re going to have a really handle on the team’s that we have coming up. We know that each night out now is going to be a real battle.”
The Crusaders may have the best chance of any D-9 team to advance the farthest in the tournament. Elk Catholic is one of just two remaining undefeated teams in Class A with District 4 champion St. John Neuman (25-0) being the other.
The wildcard of this weekend’s first round is Johnsonburg (12-13). The Rams, under the guidance of head coach Bill Shuey, the 2012-13 Pa. sports writers’ coach of the year, are no stranger to the state playoffs, having made three straight trips to states from 2012-2014, including an appearance in the 2013 state championship game.
What is possibly remarkable is that the young Rams, which barnstormed to the D-9 final as the seventh seed, are possibly a year or two ahead of schedule. Despite that, Johnsonburg may have the best draw of any team Class A, matching up with District 10 runner-up Jamestown (8-16), a school making its first-ever appearance on the state stage.
The matchup is the only in Class A where two sub-.500 teams meet.
In Class AA, Coudersport takes its 24-0 record to Bradford High for a Saturday afternoon showcase against United (14-12), District 6’s fourth-place team.
The Falcons are primed to build off of last year’s run to the Class A second round and just might have the balance to do it. North Tier League Player of the Year Jared Green along with all-conference guard Owen Chambers provide a bulk of the scoring, while the guard Zach Layag and Derek Keglovits provided vital scoring and intangibles in Coudersport’s two playoff wins.
The team also welcomes back Aaron Wolfinger, who missed Saturday’s D-9 championship game vs. Brockway while on suspension for brushing against an official in the semifinals. His return to the lineup gives head coach Brian Furman’s squad important depth it lacked against Brockway, when Chambers, Layag and Keglovits logged big minutes.
Also in Class AA, Ridgway (21-5) is back in the state playoffs for the second straight year and sixth time in the last seven seasons. This year, as the third-place team in D-9, the Elkers are sent to the eastern side of the bracket and open play against D-4 champion North Penn Mansfield on Saturday at Mansfield University.
