by Alex Schwartz

Yesterday afternoon, I went to Council Rock South (PA) for one of the most intriguing PIAA first round playoff games, a Class AAAA matchup between the Pennsbury (PA) Falcons and the North Catholic (PA) Falcons. Pennsbury is led by West Virginia-signee Dalton Pepper '09 and North Catholic boasts Rakeem Christmas '11, a top 10 sophomore in American according to some. Both squads have fantastic coaches and entered with a great record. In my Pennsylvania state playoff predictions, I went with Pennsbury, though it was a game I felt could go either way.

The first quarter was solid back-and-forth, just as one would expect of these two teams. Pennsbury, which got five points from both Goran Dulac '09 and Jesse Krasna '10, took an 11-9 lead into the second quarter. A dunk by Rakeem Christmas—his second of the game, the first of which was off an alley-oop—evened it up at 11, and from there, the affair took on a whole new look. The team playing close to home, Pennsbury, went on an impressive 17-0 run that included five points from Philadelphia U-commit Eddie DiRugeris '09 and four from Dalton Pepper, to grab a 28-11 advantage. Mike Terry '10 hit a trey for North Catholic with about 40 seconds left in the half to stop the run, and that was the final bucket of the half, so Pennsbury led 28-14 entering the intermission, despite only four points from Pepper, all of which came in the second quarter.

North Catholic tried to fight its way back into the game in the third quarter, but Pennsbury then went on a 12-2 and that all but sealed the deal. The score was 41-22 entering the fourth quarter, as Dante Devine '10 and Jesse Krasna teamed to fill the scoring void left by Dalton Pepper, who had just a half dozen through 24 minutes. At the other end, Jack O'Neill '10 did his best to make up for Rakeem Christmas' lack of offensive output—just four points through three quarters, all in the first nine minutes—but could not do it alone. Pennsbury outscored North Catholic 10-4 in the final period, and left with an impressive, dominant victory, 51-26. The team showed that it could win—and win big—even one a day in which Pepper (8 points) struggled to score (Pepper was actually the only player who scored not to hit a three). Pennsbury scored double-digits in each quarter, while North Catholic couldn't muster 10+ points in even one quarter. It was Pennsbury's defense, led by Dante Devine, that was the story on Saturday. The Falcons will face Central Dauphin East (PA) Wednesday at 7:30pm at the Geigle Complex at Reading High School in the Class AAAA Sweet 16.

BOX SCORE (stats are unofficial)

Team                         1           2           H           3           4           F  
Pennsbury                11         17        28        13         10        51
North Catholic           9           5         14         8           4         26

Pennsbury
Jesse Krasna- 10 points, one 3P, 3/4 FT
Dante Devine- 9 points, one 3P, 2/4 FT
Dalton Pepper- 8 points
Eddie DiRugeris- 7 points, one 3P, 2/2 FT
Goran Dulac- 7 points, one 3P
Tom Marcinkowski- 5 points, one 3P
Marcus Healey- 5 points, one 3P

North Catholic
Jack O'Neill- 10 points
Rakeem Christmas- 4 points
Jaleel Mack- 4 points
Mike Terry- 3 points, one 3P
Woody Redding- 3 points, one 3P
Bob Makor- 2 points