In New Season Bursting With Possibilities, Octorara Relies On Old Tricks As Braves Use 16-2 Final Salvo To Rally Past Downingtown East In ‘Winning Time’
Written by: Andy Herr on November 29, 2025
It’s one of the worst kept secrets this year when it comes to the landscape of Lancaster-Lebanon League boys’ basketball action. That of course being that the Octorara Braves come into their 2025-26 campaign with a boatload full of optimism and sky-high hopes.
And frankly, how could they not?
If the name of the game at level is roster retention – high school in particular –, then the Braves have that assignment accomplished and sealed under lock and key. Like, bringing back the entire starting cast for a team that hit the trifecta last season – making the postseason in leagues, districts, and states – type returning production. But if that wasn’t enough, how about not even losing a single senior off last season’s whole roster that again, played in the 5A state tournament one year ago.
Suffice to say, the time to strike while the iron is hot is right here, right now for the Octorara contingent. And what better litmus test than by measuring the progress made from Game 1 a year ago to Game 1 this season. A matchup that featured the exact same opponent, on the exact same day, with the only difference being the flip-flop in the game’s actual location.
For Octorara, that meant sizing themselves up against Downingtown East — a Cougars outfit that required the Braves to hold off a final Dtown East shot at the final gun last November in Exton to prevail by a final 61-58 verdict.
And while the result here this afternoon inside the Braves’ more familiar and comfortable confines found in Atglen wouldn’t quite be so dramatic in terms of the final margin of victory in this year’s edition, rest assured that Saturday’s lid-lifter on a season opener was anything but a casual stroll through the proverbial park for Octorara.
In fact, let the record show that Octorara would begin this season while thrown inside a quick 5-0 hole, thanks in no small part to the handiwork of Downingtown East junior big man, Jojo Smuda, as Smuda’s old-fashioned three-point play early on help set the stage for the problem that Smuda would prove himself to be for the Braves inside all afternoon long.
That said, even despite some choppy waters in the early going, Octorara didn’t seem too worse for the wear.
In fact, the home team retaliated in kind by authoring a 6-0 rebuttal, capped off with banked-in triple courtesy of Karter Lambert, as the Octorara junior wing gave his squad their first lead of the game – and season – with 5:20 left showing on the first quarter clock.
From there, the baton of playing with the lead would change hands over the final few minutes and change.
For instance, while the Cougars would reclaim control of the scoreboard following a goaltend call that resulted in East’s Holland Neff being awarded a field goal for his troubles that made it a 9-8 lead in favor of the visitors, a timely trey knocked down in the waning stages of the initial eight minutes by Chase Fetrow, who would go on the lead all scorers at the intermission by tossing in a dozen, set sail for the Braves to head into the second frame with the slim 16-14 cushion to their benefit following the senior guard’s key bucket.
Yet in the second quarter, a familiar theme would start to develop. That being for just when it seemed as if Octorara might be able to garner some breathing room to at least exhale, Downingtown East simply wasn’t having anything of it by refusing to let their hosts run away and hide.
Case in point, while the Octorara lead might have ballooned up to a half dozen at 20-14 following a strong take to the tin by way of the aforementioned Fetrow, a legitimate steal and subsequent finish tallied by East sophomore guard, Peyton Vinson, saw the Cougars reel themselves back into a pair at 20-18 not long afterwards.
In reality, that six-point buffer was largely the extent of any tangible separation Octorara would be able to generate for the remainder of the second period considering that the Braves jogged into the locker room with ownership of the 28-25 lead in a game that felt as if it was being played between two extremely evenly matched squads through the first 16 minutes of action.
In the next act, while it is technically referred to as the game’s third quarter, it might have as well been best described as “Jojo Smuda’s Coming Out Party.”
While Octorara this season won’t ever be confused for being the largest and tallest basketball team ever assembled in the sport’s long history, it’s not as if the Braves’ length and athleticism won’t pose a bevy of headaches for the opposition on the other side of them. Well, maybe not in Smuda’s case perhaps. At least not on this occasion.
In this sport, having the “hot hand” might lead one to believe that the topic of discussion is centered around a guard who knocks down something uncanny like three 3’s right in a row. Bang, bang, bang. Other times, like in Saturday’s case for instance, finding and feeding the hot hand can just as easily be found right inside the painted area.
Then and there in the third frame, Smuda proceeded to conduct the bulk of his game-long damage, all while en route to finishing the game’s high-scorer by tossing in a 20-point day at the office, but most notably by tallying points to score on four consecutive trips down the floor to aid the Cougars’ cause, the final of which made it a 39-37 East lead with inside of three minutes remaining in the period.
Now, with the shoe being on the other foot in terms of Downingtown East perhaps being able to kick their machine into top gear and be the ones to push Octorara off to the shoulder on the highway, Lazo Christou had other ideas to that idea.
Not a moment too soon either considering the muscle and might that Smuda was currently offering on the opposing side as the Braves’ 5’8 senior guard rose up and knocked down a gut-check triple to stem the tide, making it a 40-39 Octorara lead, a one-point lead which the Braves later carried with them into the final period by virtue of the 45-44 count at the end of the third.
In the early portion of the game’s last act, it seemed – and felt – as if the Cougars would be able to reverse their fortunes of a year ago and be the ones to enjoy a road triumph to get this season started off on the right foot as compared to their fate lived 364 days ago.
Hard to argue considering that East’s Peyton Vinson would proceed to start the quarter by rattling off five straight points to his name on back-to-back possession for the Cougars, the latter of which came inside with a tough bucket inside, making it a 53-51 East lead with roughly five minutes remaining.
From there, East would see their lead swell up to a sizable four-point gap all things considered as a knock-down trey splashed home by way of junior guard, Sergio Hunt, made it a 56-52 contest with 4:20 remaining, as Hunt would score all seven of his points in the contest inside the second half to provide a spark.
But from that point on, if Downingtown East might have felt themselves to be feeling an adjective akin to comfortable, rest assured that their final few minutes on Saturday would quickly become the antithesis of that.
And while it would be appropriate to indicate that no one on the Braves’ side was able to muster up this team-wide charge all by their lonesome, if would also be nothing if not naïve to overlook the contributions made by 6’1 senior forward, Vincent Thaler, most of all.
Here, while his hoop inside trimmed the existing East lead down to a penny, 58-57, there would plenty more from Thaler in the ensuing, immediate moments.
For instance, his go-ahead bucket following a fearless offensive rebound to make it a 59-58 Braves’ lead, one which they would not relinquish, before promptly following that up by selflessly taking a charge defensively on the ensuing defensive possession back down the floor to really make things precarious for Downingtown East with time now suddenly running thin on the guests.
Needless to say, when Octorara can ratchet up the defensive pressure inside their cauldron of a home gym, it feels at times as if the Braves are playing with about three extra defenders. In actuality, while they weren’t, it’s incredibly easy to fall victim to playing into this frantic brand of ball which Octorara is not only known for, but truly thrives upon.
So, with Downingtown East suddenly pushed back against the ropes, the dagger was then ultimately inserted by way of Chase Fetrow, the Braves’ game-high scorer on the day in tossing in a 17-point effort, as Fetrow’s back-breaking trey in front of his team’s bench not only made it a gargantuan 62-58 Braves’ lead with inside of a minute left to go, but it also helped to lay the groundwork for the game’s exclamation mark the next time down the floor defensively for Octorara as an emphatic rejection of a would-be East shot was turned away by Thaler, helping to put the punctuation mark on what would crystalize into a 68-58 Octorara victory against Downingtown East on Saturday afternoon. A victory for the Braves in which they leaned on a game-saving, critical 16-2 salvo down the stretch of the final 4:20 to turn away a very game Downingtown East effort for the second consecutive season.
“Last year, we kind of had to come back like we did this year. Same kinda thing,” Octorara head man, Gene Lambert, said following the first win of his silver anniversary season in manning the Braves’ bench for what is now his 25th year in charge.
“They’re a good team,” Lambert then quickly added of Downingtown East. “What’s interesting is that Smuda, Hunt, and Holland Neff, they’re all in the same AAU organization that I’m in, so I know them very, very well,” he added of some of the Cougars’ key pieces. “They’re all good kids with real solid parents, so it’s always fun playing them. Especially these last two years where we’ve been able to win,” Lambert quipped with a light-hearted smile. “That certainly doesn’t hurt.”
Then again, while it’s rather obvious that Downingtown East will prove themselves be a supremely hard-out for most everyone else left staring at the Cougars for the remainder of this season, don’t find fault with Lambert and crew if they would prefer that their own games moving forward needn’t be so tense and white-knuckle’ish as Saturday had demonstrated itself to be.
“I guess you’d call it, ‘Winning time,’” Octorara’s coach said when asked about his group’s turnabout with the game hanging in the balance on this Saturday. “For us, with this group right here, I would say that even if we’re down and there’s like four minutes left to go in the fourth quarter and it’s not by (many points), I think we got a good shot of pulling it out,” Lambert said of his team’s ability to eventually snatch victory. “Here, it just gets louder, teams get sped up faster, we start pressuring you, and things just start speeding up a little bit,” the Octorara alum turned coach said of his home gym’s intimate confines that undeniably helps bolster his team’s cause.
And aside from the outside factors such as the crowd that the Braves were able to lean on, make no mistake about it. This is an incredibly well-rounded outfit that has a bevy of heads when it comes to deciding which one to attack on this snake.
The numbers bear that out. Lazo Christou finishing with 16. Karter Lambert tossing in eight. Vito Vespe contributing 14. Vinny Thaler chipping in with a baker’s dozen. Chase Fetrow lastly leading the way with a 17-point showing.
Now, if there is perhaps one cavity to be had there, it’s that all those names come by way of the Braves’ starting lineup, meaning that the bench couldn’t crack the scorebook this afternoon. Nevertheless, a veteran at this craft, Gene Lambert knows the buttons to push here. And when.
“I think we can get five guys into double figures every game,” Lambert said looking long-term of this season’s point production. “At the end of the day, I think that’s how I think we can be the most successful. Counting on a guy to do too much, then I’d say we’re in trouble.”
On this day, against this team, for now the second straight year, it took that entire Braves’ collective effort to finally push away Downingtown East at the end. Last year, their triumph against the Cougars was the opposite bookend to that of an opening round loss inside the PIAA-5A state playoffs. Time will tell what this season’s ride has to eventually offer. For now though, there’s reason to believe that this ride can be just as fruitful as last year’s. If not perhaps even more so.
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