Late Surge By Easton Ends

DV's Unbeaten Season

By Wayne Witkowski

WESTFALL — Easton High School not only ended Delaware Valley High School's dream run of sweeping every match during the regular season en route to its first Wyoming Valley Conference championship but pulled out a gritty, five-set victory in their Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association District 2/11 subregional game at the Warriors' gym on Thursday.
At stake was a trip to the state tournament and, with the fifth set required to end at 15 points, Easton scored the last three points to seal a 11-25, 25-22, 25-22, 18-25, 15-11 victory. Both teams were locked in a 9-9 standoff in the final game before Easton's formidable power game at the net figured in three straight points and a 12-9 advantage. Delaware Valley pulled to 12-11 before Easton tucked away the victory.
"We didn't make the plays we needed to make," said coach Adam Holdredge. "We got away from our game a little bit.
"We scored more points than them (105-93) but it's just a matter of when we scored them. We played well enough, but we didn't score when we needed to score them."
Outside hitters Jackson Shafer and Blake Gearhart continued their powerful production at the net with 27 and 24 kills, respectively. Gearhart, who is headed to Clarkson University where he expects to continue his basketball career playing at point guard, also had 14 service points and 13 digs in the match. Shafer recorded 11 digs. Senior libero Oran Dowd notched 15 digs and 10 service points and setter Tom Raniero capped off his record-setting career with 45 assists, along with a dozen digs.
Raniero finished with school records 467 assists for the season and 1,013 for his career as a three-year starter, far surpassing the previous career record of 830 held by Liam Naturale.
"We definitely all played our hearts out," said Gearhart. "We really got so tightly woven as a team. We had each other's back."
"We wanted to play as hard as we could but going out this way just doesn't feel right," said Shafer. "I'm proud. We never stopped fighting."
Despite being in uncharted territory after allowing no more than 16 points in any set this season, the Warriors repeatedly battled back.
They easily won their first set and then dropped two sets before regaining their dominant style in easily leading the fourth set from start to finish to force the do-or-die finale.
Easton's defense made some mistakes and then Shafer picked up points at the net on a tip and then a kill to stretch the Warriors' lead to 12-3 in that fourth set. Two more kills by Shafer and a block at the net by middle hitter Aidan U'Glay led to a 14-5 advantage that got as high as 10 points, 20-10. Easton hung tough before a block by Zane Papula produced a 24-17 lead and a mishandled return by Easton ended the match.
"Our team mentality is to just play and do our own thing but there are times we let that slip away," Shafer said. "That might have been the deciding factor."
"This was definitely an amazing season and this was a hard fought game," said Gearhart. "Sometimes we just lost focus a little bit but sometimes that just happens, little mental lapses. But they (Easton) kept their composure after that first set we won, winning the next two.
They did the little things and sometimes we forgot the little stuff."
Four key starters graduate next month from the team, which beat Holy Redeemer High School for the first time – and in convincing fashion – in the conference championship showdown of unbeatens at the end of the season. Sorely missed next season will be Raniero, opposite hitter Matt Seger, Dowd and Gearhart, who came back to the team after sitting out last season.
"We've definitely tried to set it up enough for the younger guys for next year," said Gearhart as Shafer, the lone junior on the team, and sophomore middle hitters U'glay and Papula return.
Steve Shermerhorn, a sophomore, will look to step into the starting role after playing as a backup setter this year and sophomore Yoshi Sumitomo has been groomed to replace Dowd at libero next season. Sophomores Zach Matthews and Dan Zhivokvich will be playing for starting spots at outside hitter.

Top Lacrosse Scorer Leads DV Into Championships

By Wayne Witkowski

WESTFALL — Bailey Fedun became the first player at Delaware Valley High School's lacrosse team to score career 200 goals and finished with five as the Warriors rolled by James M. Coughlin High School, 18-3, at Warrior Stadium on Thursday to advance to the PIAA District 2/6 AA subregional championship.
Fedun, who has 76 goals this season, 206 for her career, leads the Warriors into the title game on Tuesday at State College High School. The winner advances into the state tournament.
Just like when she set the career scoring record a few weeks ago, Fedun was assisted by her sophomore sister, Madison.
"That made the moment extra special," coach Bernadine Salak said of Fedun, who will continue her lacrosse career at Alderon Broaddus University this fall. "This was a solid team win. It was nice to give some younger players the experience of playing in a district playoff game."
Delaware Valley had beaten Coughlin, 19-3, a week earlier.
Coming off a 10-9 overtime victory over Scranton Prep, surging Delaware Valley (13-6) has won four straight and eight of its last nine games. The Warriors have outscored opponents, 67-19, in the last four games.
Skyler Padgett had the hat trick and Mia VanWie had two goals and two assists as Delaware Valley rolled out to a 12-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Shannon Croll and Miranda Murray each scored twice and Lauren Matarazzo had a goal and six assists. Casey Kidd, Daisey Carney and Julia Weinreb completed the scoring and Victoria Blaut had an assist.
Emily Ocasio made nine saves in goal.
Boys Lacrosse
Delaware Valley's boys, seeded No. 2 in the PIAA District 2/11 AAA subregion, played the winner of Emmaus/Freedom on Tuesday at Northampton High School. Emmaus (12-6) beat Freedom, 14-5, earlier in the season. Delaware Valley (16-2) has won four straight since a 17-12 loss to Crestwood that decided the Wyoming Valley Conference championship. With three career 100-goal scorers in Jackson Melnick, Shane Roche and Josh Balcarcel, the Warriors have outscored opponents, 239-102. They scored in single digits in the first four games and have been in double-figures in every game since.
Baseball And Softball
Both Delaware Valley teams were scheduled to play in the PIAA District 2/11 subregionals at Williamsport High School on Tuesday. James Conza is batting .370 with 8 RBI and Ryan Wingerter is hitting .360 with 12 RBI for the baseball team. Darryn Fahnestock has a 3-1 pitching record with a 2.85 ERA and R.J. Kruse is 4-1 as a pitcher with 3.65 and has batted in a dozen runs.