Pequea Valley Caps Off Impressive Start To New Era, Opening Weekend, As Braves Hold Off West Perry To Claim Tulpehocken Tip-Off Title
Written by: Andy Herr on December 3, 2023
If the saying goes that “Winning cures all ills,” certainly that theme would figure to be prevalent during the initial phases of a program rebuild. Case in point, this year’s Pequea Valley boys’ basketball team.
It’s no secret. Over the last decade plus most specifically, the wins during the wintertime down in Kinzers have relatively been few and far between. In fact, one could argue that the Braves had not seen a foremost level of success since the days of Jim Shipper, now the current head man in charge at Conestoga Valley, when he and his cast that included Gabe Allgyer, Chad Mullen, and Juriel Gray to name just a select few were seen completing rare season sweeps against the likes of Lancaster Catholic, the prohibitive divisional favorite during nearly all of that time. However, after having been unable to find that same level of success and traction over the last few administrations most specifically, the job once again opened up this past spring with one of their own, Ehren Graybill, jumping head-first at the opportunity to pilot his alma mater.
In short, for someone who has had an intimate part and a front row seat to some of the program’s highest levels of achievement in recent memory, something not the least includes the very convenient and glossed over factoid that Pequea Valley is on the fairly short list of Lancaster-Lebanon League schools that have been able to take part in playoff contests under the palatial roof of the Giant Center, no one washes the car quite like the owner you may say. Now sure, while the new era is still well in its infancy being only just a few months old at this juncture, getting off to a fast start during those first few contests is always the preferred method of attack when starting off. And after an opening night triumph that saw PV top the hosts of the event on Friday night, Tulpehocken, the Braves had the unique opportunity at securing a championship just two days into the new season. That said, it didn’t figure to be easy seeing as how they would draw a similar foe in a West Perry outfit, winners against the eventual third-place finisher in the event, Upper Perkiomen, during their opening round matchup as well.
But if Saturday evening at Tulpehocken High School is to serve as any indication as to what the future may bode for Pequea Valley both in this season and well beyond, it certainly appears, at least through the first weekend of course, that their trajectory arrow is certainly pointing upward.
In the early going of Saturday’s title fight, West Perry was seen sporting an initial 2-0 lead following an early pullup jumper. However, while probably next to impossible to determine at the time, that would be the last occurrence of the Mustangs playing from in front for the rest of the contest.
In fact, no sooner than the Braves found themselves down did they not just claw back onto level footing, but well beyond that in fact. Specifically, the bulk of the PV damage was inflicted by way of returning all-conference senior guard, Joerick Irizarry, as the Braves’ floor general promptly rattled off a 6-0 salvo all by his lonesome, upping PV’s early lead out to a 9-2 count with West Perry forced to burn an early timeout with 4:46 still left to play in the opening quarter. From there though, the difference only continued to increase once another senior in the Pequea Valley rotation, Mike Patterson, came through with a steal and finish at the cup to make it a commanding 11-2 Braves’ lead roughly two minutes later.
Finally, and certainly not a moment too soon as far as the contingent from Elliotsburg fresh off their hour and a half one-way journey had to be concerned, a timely 3-ball sunk by freshman guard, Casey Sutch, helped stop the bleeding for West Perry to help cut into the PV cushion their ensuing trip down the floor.
But yet again, Pequea Valley continued to force West Perry’s collective hand.
For that, it’d be easy to point to eventual tournament MVP, Jackson Neff, as the catalyst for such a rebuttal as the Pequea Valley senior rose up and fired in a trifecta of his own not long thereafter to push his side’s lead back over double figures, 16-5, which nearly held true to form over the final minute and change of the first period as PV carried the 16-7 lead with them into the second frame.
However, as would later become the prevailing theme of the day at large, even once West Perry was able to somewhat dig into the Pequea Valley lead, the Braves took offense to such a notion both literally and figuratively.
Case in point, while Sutch was able to dial up another of his trademark 3-balls which in turn helped him scoop up team-high scoring honors with a 16-point performance on the day which got West Perry back within nine at 19-10, a Neff triple on the ensuing Pequea Valley offensive possession pushed the deficit back over ten which is largely where things remained over the final five minutes and change of the first half as Pequea Valley went into the break while even despite surrendering a bit of a late West Perry charge, owning the 22-14 advantage.
Once inside the second half on Saturday, Pequea Valley keeping the green-clad opposition at arm’s length continued to be the soup of the day by and large.
Sure enough, while PV would start fast with a steal and layup in transition courtesy of yet another 12th grader residing in the Braves’ lineup, Cam Bergman, West Perry was able to counter back with a triple knocked down by way of Casey Sutch yet again, cutting it back down to a 27-19 PV lead just two minutes into the third.
Then, even in the face of this slight bit of adversity, Pequea Valley promptly rose right up to the challenge at hand.
In terms of its specifics, it would become an immediate 5-0 rebuke directed by PV as a triple hit by one of the lone juniors seen receiving minutes on Saturday, Cole Stoltzfus, was preceded by a kiss off the glass by Joerick Irizarry with Irizarry going on to accept all-tourney honors in his own right, undoubtedly boosted by his team-high 16-point burst on Saturday in particular.
Even still, West Perry tried their best to summit the hill they still found themselves located at the bottom of.
In that regard, hang a star next to Micah Weaver’s name as the Mustangs’ combo guard knocked home a triple of his own in the waning stages of the third quarter that not only stole momentum away from Pequea Valley at the time, but it also more tangibly helped to get the Mustangs back within that magic number of 10 at 36-27 with the final quarter then getting set to commence.
Suffice to say, time was of essence if West Perry was going to make one final go of trying to chase down Pequea Valley in this early season championship tilt. And to their credit, they certainly seemed up for it if Casey Sutch had anything to say about it as the West Perry young gun sunk another corner trey in front of his bench to get the Mustangs back inside of eight, 38-30, with not even one minute having yet ticked off the fourth quarter clock.
But that would be the end of any possible West Perry come-from-behind bid as fate would have it.
For the eventual tempering of West Perry flames would largely come with a bit of basketball-induced volume behind it seeing as how back-to-back takes to the cup by Irizarry seemed to help put it out of reach once and for all as Pequea Valley encountered their largest lead of the day following the last of those buckets, 44-30, with just three minute and change left to go.
Then, for the proverbial cherry on top of a most impressive opening weekend of play, Mike Patterson’s steal and finish in the latter stages seemed to cap everything off just perfectly from Pequea Valley’s perspective given how the Braves went to rightfully claim a title all to themselves during the 2023-24 season, regardless of what happens from here on out, as Pequea Valley was able to take home some hardware following their eventual 52-33 Tuplehocken Tip-Off championship victory over West Perry on this day.
Needless to say, while the road ahead for the Braves features nothing if not stiff challenges found in the rough and tumble landscape of L-L Section Four play this season seeing as how it contains arguably the foremost District 3-1A, 2A, and 3A favorites within it the likes of Lancaster Country Day, Lancaster Mennonite and Columbia specifically, Pequea Valley surely figures to get better and learn a lot about itself and the state of its program as this year rounds into form and steadily takes shape. And if this initial weekend to perhaps serve as any sort of indication as to how things may go over the next few months, Pequea Valley figures to enjoy some more of those highly sought-after victories this winter. Then, when you add in aspect of it where new blood has taken command at the very top of the ladder, Braves’ basketball games may just yet turn out to be the place to be down in Kinzers sooner rather than later.
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