Octorara’s ‘Fighters’ Stand Tall, Overcome Numerous Deficits To Finish Strong As Braves Begin Season With Gutsy Road Triumph At Downingtown East
Written by: Andy Herr on November 30, 2024
As cliche as it may be, everyone is obviously giddy this time of year in the high school basketball world. And how could they not be considering hope springs eternal for everyone on the very first weekend of the season? Even still, there might be a few teams who eagerly await the start of a new ride more than some others perhaps. The Octorara Braves might be one such club that could fit that description.
Granted, it’s hard to say you want to effectively “turn the page” on a season that saw the Braves hit for the cycle in terms of making to the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs, the District 3 playoffs, before making it to the ultimate of brackets, the PIAA state tournament last season. That said, you could also argue that for as solid a season that the boys from Octorara put together last winter –one that a sizable chunk of others competing in the L-L League might as soon crawl over broken glass to try and get to – there was plenty of meat left on the bone when describing the Braves’ finish down the stretch of the 2023-24 campaign.
For much of the year, it seemed as nothing would get in the way of deterring the Braves off the path towards an eventual section title. In fact, heading into the latter days of January, Octorara had all of two losses, all to local and state power brokers, found in the likes of Berks Catholic and Constitution respectively. However, starting with a 20-point loss at the hands of Cocalico on the night of January 30th, Octorara proceeded to go on a seven-game losing skid at the absolute worst of times, a streak that eventually bled into both the league and district playoffs that came with quick exits and a pair of games in which Octorara was outscored by an average margin of 35 points courtesy of Cedar Crest and then Eastern York.
Yet to their credit, in a do-or-die District 3 playback game at home, the Braves were able to cure whatever ailment had found them of late, vanquishing a tough Middletown team before taking care of Littlestown on the road to follow suit, a feat that saw Octorara successfully claim a bid into the state playoffs once the dust had finally settled. And while Danville would end up getting the better of the Braves in the opening round of states, making it to the state tourney isn’t an achievement that is something not worthy of neither praise nor recognition. And yes, while Octorara will have gaps to plug this year –namely trying to find someone who can fill it up with the ease of recently-graduated and 1,000+-point scorer, Zach Kirk—it’s hard not to be enamored with the number of toys that long-time Octorara head man, Gene Lambert, still has at his disposal heading into this 2024-25 journey.
Yet before similar dreams of postseason play can be berthed into existence again this winter, there must first be a game one, yes? For Octorara, that meant that the curtain on their season would be raised at a familiar spot they know all too well from so many years gone by while competing in the Chest-Mont League, Downingtown East, against a Cougars’ squad coming off a win in their own right just one day ago against Haverford to start their season off the right foot.
And while you never want to get overly hyperbolic and romanticize too much about the first leg of a three-month trudge, if there was one thing that became evident in terms of the Braves’ game against Downingtown East on Saturday afternoon and how might translate to the season at large, it’s most certainly that one needs to slam the door the door on Octorara and not let them hang around. For the Cougars, that’s a lesson they ended up learning first-hand at the end of 32 minutes on Saturday on their home floor.
As is typically the case with an early season game –much less one played under the relative slumber of an early Saturday afternoon tip – both teams found their own fits and starts throughout the opening frame. Case in point, while the visitors would claim ownership of the 8-4 lead following a curl cut to the hoop finished off by 5’9 junior guard, Chase Fetrow, the hosts would retaliate back in grand fashion, eventually taking command of the scoreboard a short time later at a 9-8 count following a 5-0 salvo authored exclusively by Cougars’ sophomore guard, Holland Neff.
All told, for an eight-minute opening round bout that saw both teams take turns playing with the benefit of their own four-point lead at times, East would head into the second frame by the slimmest of margins, 14-13, following a triple knocked down just before the buzzer by way of the aforementioned Fetrow, who continued his sizzling start to pace the Octorara charge.
In the second quarter, someone was finally able to get a bit of separation. And their nickname is the Cougars.
Granted, while Fetrow picked up right where he had left at the end of the first quarter –by burying a 3-ball – to begin the second frame, East went on a bit of a run to push Octorara out to sea somewhat. Chief among those in ushering the Braves away came via a pair of triples sunk by Neff and Chase Krupansky respectively, with the latter’s marksmanship pushing the home team’s lead up to double figures while also knocking the opposition back on their heels while having to stem the tide.
Yet from this moment right here did a similar narrative develop and take shape that would encapsulate the rest of the afternoon still yet to unfold.
Undeterred, Octorara methodically kept clawing their way back. In fact, following a pair of bunnies inside chipped in by 6’0 junior forward, Vincent Thaler, not only did the Braves erase a sizable early hole in the totality of a 10-0 run to roar right back, but they would end up back on level ground altogether in the form of a 28-28 stalemate with exactly 1:00 on the nose left on the first half clock.
And even while it would’ve been easy for the Braves’ contingent to get flustered in heading into the halftime break while down by a 30-28 difference following a smooth pullup jumper knocked down by Holland Neff on the Cougars’ final possession of the first half, the Braves had undoubtedly successfully survived the first volley that Downingtown East had lobbed in their direction.
Sure enough, even with the start of a brand-new half of basketball having commenced, here too in regards to Octorara standing tall amongst the body blows landed by Downingtown East remained an underlying theme that was nothing if not prevalent throughout the game’s entirety.
In this instance, even after having gone by down a half dozen at 36-30 not even two minutes into the third quarter in the aftermath of another Chase Krupansky 3-ball dialed up for East, here came Octorara just chipping away ever so slightly. And never did that seem more apparent than with the second of what could only be described as “parking lot” 3-ball’s sunk by Braves’ 6’3 sophomore forward, Karter Lambert, given their sheer depth and range, with this latest example trimming the Cougars’ lead down to a penny at 38-37 with 3:20 left to play in the third. From there, the Braves would end up taking the lead altogether following a sweet reverse finish at the cup tallied by the eventual team-high scorer on the afternoon, Vito Vespe, who chipped in 16 to pace the Braves’ collective effort, making it a 39-38 Octorara cushion just one minute later.
But even after having climbed this latest hill they were forced to summit, Downingtown East continued to be a riddle the Braves just couldn’t quite solve seeing as how the Cougars found themselves owners of the lead for what would be the third straight period, this time in the form of a 45-39 buffer, following a timely 7-0 spurt to finish down the stretch that was buoyed in large part by a Sergio Hunt trifecta in the waning stages to serve as the jet fuel.
The question now for East upon entering these final eight minutes—Could they finally extinguish the Octorara flame once and for all? Instead, to put it mildly, it would be Octorara who would fight fire with fire.
In fact, after just two offensive trips down the floor alone, the Braves find themselves having all but erased that earlier deficit following a pair of buckets by Jason Johnson and Mehkai Lambert following suit, trimming the East lead down to 45-43. From there, Octorara would go on a bit of a run considering they would later find themselves the benefactors of being up by four, 57-53, following two enormous buckets contributed by way of Vincent Thaler with inside of three minutes left to go. Ironically though, the momentum-shift and the door being left ajar would find itself on the other foot shortly thereafter considering how Sergio Hunt proceeded to nail an enormous triple off the touch pass while standing in the corner to trim the Braves’ lead down to one, 57-56, with 1:39 yet to tick away.
To their credit, especially given how nothing can truly prepare a club for the rigors and jitters that come with a season-opening contest where the result counts for real and everything is magnified ten-fold, Octorara could not have bettered mastered the Dean Smith “four corners” offense in playing keep away inside the final stretch had they been wearing Tar Heels uniforms themselves. In fact, had it not been for an East foul with 32 seconds to go that sent Vito Vespe to the foul line, it wouldn’t have been out of the realm of possibility that Octorara could’ve bled the game clock away entirely. Speaking of Vespe, he too seemed cool for the moment considering how he, another in the Braves’ pantry full of junior class riches, sunk the offering which then made it a 59-56 Octorara lead with remaining possessions left to go around all but nonexistent.
Suffice to say, it became paramount that the Cougars score here in order to prolong the contest. Fortunately for them, the game-high scorer on the afternoon, Brayden Phillips, lived up to his team captaincy honor with a strong take to the rack which whittled the Octorara lead back down to one, 59-58, with inside of 20 seconds left to go. From there, after having inbounded the ball against the East pressure, Chase Fetrow was able to split the pair after getting fouled, making it a 60-58 Octorara lead with all of 13.7 remaining.
Now, with this maybe being their last gasp, Downingtown East needed to come up with their best half court set to either try and extend the game by sending it into an extra session or winning it outright with a buzzer-beating triple. Unfortunately for their side, we’ll never truly know what the play was destined and how successfully it may have been as an ill-timed turnover shortly following the ensuing inbounds led to Fetrow toeing the charity stripe once again for Octorara once the ball ended up in his hands with Fetrow once again splitting the difference on foul shots, making it a 61-58 Octorara margin with just 3.5 seconds remaining and the Cougars having to travel the length of the floor.
And while East would get up one final heave to try and beat the horn, the game-tying shot went begging, allowing Octorara to not just breathe an early season sigh of relief, but to also perhaps add to their mental moxie and store away for future reference considering the litany of deficits in which they had overcome in order to nab this first victory.
Rest assured, for a coach with a resume the likes of Gene Lambert, he too was more than cognizant of that feat.
“I looked at our last couple of games (from last year) on video recently and there were times when I had five sophomores out on the floor,” Lambert remarked in the postmortem on Saturday afternoon in Exton. “That experience right there in getting to districts and states helps us come in here and win a game like this today. That Downingtown East team over there is a really good team.”
“The other thing is, we’re young, and you gotta fight through that adversity,” he continued of his roster. “There was never a time today out there where it looked like we were just going to give up and not fight. We went down by double digits, but then we brought (the score) back down to two points real quick.”
Fittingly, in perhaps the most apropos way possible, Octorara’s head man could not have summed it up any better than he did in closing.
“The one thing I can say about this group is that they’re fighters,” he stated proudly. “This group has played a lot of basketball. Like, a lot of basketball. And all of that working together is what’s going to get us over the top.”
The rest of the season yet to go, yes, but a strong opening statement put forth by Octorara out of the chute to say the least on this their opening day.
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