Pequea Valley Rides Momentum From Opening Weekend Into New Week As Braves Lock Down Biglerville, Surge Back To Level Ground Following Win Over Canners On Monday Night

Written by: Andy Herr on December 10, 2024

At this time a year ago, things couldn’t have been going much better for the Pequea Valley boys’ basketball program. After just the first full weekend of the season last year, the Braves wasted next to no time asserting themselves and injecting themselves into the conversation of feel-good stories by going to Tulpehocken in back-to-back days and coming away with that tip-off tournament crown right off the bat twelve months ago. To be sure, not a bad way for the new guy in charge, Ehren Graybill, to start off his tenure leading the program he once played for.

Yet while winning that Tulpy Tip-Off Tournament championship may have arguably been the high-water mark for the Braves throughout all of last season, don’t let what became a 10-12 overall record fool you. For a program that is arguably the hardest of all jobs found within the entire Lancaster-Lebanon League boys’ basketball scene just in terms of using sheer history as your flightpath alone, seeing the Braves come within a relative whisker of finishing at or slightly above a .500 record was certainly a sight for sore eyes. And that’s before we even mention how PV somehow narrowly lost out on a postseason berth mathematically, even after winning a head-to-head game on the road late in the season against the same team that essentially stole their spot by the end of it all, Annville-Cleona.  Nevertheless, Graybill rightfully came away with Honorable Mention Coach of the Year honors in Section Four last year as awarded by LLHoops.com for a job well done for his first year at the helm in Kinzers.

For that reason, albeit while playing in an absolutely loaded for bear division yet again this season where two potential District 3 champions may be found residing, there’s reason to believe that the Pequea Valley program is finally back up on the upswing and channeling some of that positive inward momentum.

So far, while maybe the Braves haven’t had the same dizzying level of success to start this 2024-25 campaign off as the year previous, there’s more that’s hidden in between the lines in telling their story.

Yes, there’s the 0-2 start to things off that is a direct opposite as compared to last season, but the layout of the schedule was remarkably different. First off, when you welcome in arguably one of the foremost favorites to contend for the Section Two title this season, Garden Spot, before fighting them tooth and nail to what would end up a slim 46-42 victory in favor of the visitors from New Holland, that’s an entirely different ballgame right there in lining up against a strong 5A foe. From there, add in a quick turnaround just a few days later with a trip to Tulpehocken to defend your championship. Unfortunately for PV however, there would be no repeat this time around as the Braves would fall in the opening round to West Perry in 45-30 final decision. Yet to their credit, Pequea Valley responded in kind the very next day by finding their first win of the year, against the hosts no less, as PV staved off Tulpehocken for a 41-39 comeback bid in settling for bronze this past weekend.

That said, still not without much practice time under their belt thus far considering how the games for Pequea Valley have piled up on top of one another here out of the chute, the key would be keeping that potential momentum alive and well heading into the new week against a team fresh off a game against that aforementioned Annville-Cleona program in their own right this past weekend, the Biglerville Canners, for a Monday night affair at Pequea Valley before finally getting that much sought-after floor time that comes with practice for most of the remainder of this week in Braves’ camp.

Yet whether it was indeed that intangible thing called momentum that helped push them over the finish line on Monday night, or just being the better team over the span of 32 minutes more simply put, Pequea Valley would indeed make it a winning streak as the Braves found themselves as winners of two in a row following a rather decisive victory at the hands of the Canners.

If there was one prevailing theme that seemed to encapsulate the initial stages of this intersectional L-L and YAIAA affair, it was undoubtedly turnovers. Yet while most of those giveaways primarily besmirched Biglerville in the early going, Pequea Valley just couldn’t quite find the knockout punch to make the Canners pay for their ill-fated generosity. In fact, following a 5-0 salvo exclusively authored by Biglerville 5’8 senior guard, Caleb Woolson, the visitors from Adams County found themselves as owners of the 9-8 lead with 3:20 left to play in the opening frame.

But for as often as the two teams essentially took their turns at trading the lead back and forth with one another in the first quarter –particularly in the latter stages most of all – that would remain the flavor of the early going as Pequea Valley was able to carry the 14-12 advantage with them on into the second quarter on Monday night.

Finally, and likely not a moment sooner from the Braves’ collective perspective, a bit of separation was about to ensue that was generated by their side.

Chief among those sharing in the responsibilities, Owen Fisher and Carrson Hollinger respectively, as the Pequea Valley junior wings scored back-to-back buckets inside consecutively, making it an 18-12 PV cushion with 5:30 then remaining the in the opening half.

From there, the hosts took the show outside as a 3-ball sunk by Fisher –who would go on to share in team-high scoring honors by the end of the night – upped the difference to near double digits, 23-15, with PV potentially being able to run away and hide.

Or so they thought.

Almost right from the aftermath of Pequea Valley playing with the benefit of their largest lead of the evening at the time, Biglerville promptly responded in kind.

For that, following a pair of bunnies scored inside courtesy of the Canners’ frontline of Allen Roberts and Bearsun Zullinger respectively, the black and gold of Biglerville had trimmed the PV lead back down to size somewhat, 23-19, with the first half now rapidly winding down.

And once it did, for a half in which they consistently struggled to hold onto the pill, from Biglerville’s perspective, heading into the locker room for the intermission albeit down by a 29-23 difference certainly had to be viewed as a positive as PV had continued to let the door open for them to perhaps come barging in.

But that would never take place as it turned out.

Speaking of Owen Fisher, he continued to maintain the hot hand for the Pequea Valley side once the second half got underway in earnest. And as he demonstrated earlier back in the first half of play, the Braves’ 6’2 stretch forward was more than capable of rising and firing from bonus distance, such as he would do here just shy of the halfway point of the third quarter by splashing in a trifecta to give PV a 10-point bulge at 39-29. And while Biglerville’s Gavin Althoff would counter back in the final stages of the third stanza by sinking a smooth jumper of his own while en route to what would be his evening of tossing in 12 points to aid in the Canners’ collective efforts behind Bearsun Zullinger’s 19-point outing to then make it a 41-33 contest, that same difference would remain set in stone over the final 1:15 of the third as Pequea Valley continued to push their guests out to an arm’s length.

All that aside, if there was another theme that had predominantly helped to propel Pequea Valley over top of Biglerville in this one, it was assuredly their overall contributions from most everyone who happened to step onto the floor against the Canners.

As mentioned, while Owen Fisher and Carrson Hollinger were instrumental in their exploits, so too was another of the Braves’ long and lengthy wings, Cole Stoltzfus, as the Pequea Valley returning senior quietly went about his business while en route to what would end up being sharing in team-high scoring honors alongside Fisher with each chipping in a 19-point effort to the cause against Biglerville.

And here, with the game winding down, Stoltzfus ended things in a flurry to help reach that plateau, demonstrated as such with his steal and subsequent finish down on the other end –through second effort no less – near the six-minute mark of the final act before he would compile an old-fashioned three-point play not long afterwards to then make it a 55-36 lead in favor of PV before things would eventual crescendo into a final 62-43 decision in favor of Pequea Valley over Biglerville for a triumph that saw Braves get back on level ground with a 2-2 overall record by the end of the evening as a result.

But before you can get to two, you must first get the first. Rest assured, that was not something lost on their coach either.

“That was massive. That was massive that win,” Pequea Valley head coach Ehren Graybill said following his team’s win on Monday when reflecting on Saturday afternoon’s W against Tulpy, his team’s first of the campaign. “We needed that. For a lot of these kids, it’s their first year playing varsity,” Graybill explained. “I just feel like we were at this hump, and (his players) just needed to get that first win under their belt. I only really return Cole (Stoltzfus) and Carrson (Hollinger), so for that junior class to come up and get that first win was a big deal. Especially the way that it happened too. Being down ten (points) at halftime, using our defense to guide us, and then winning by two. That was all huge. Then, to come back and follow that up with win tonight, it reinforced hard work anyway,” Graybill said coyly with a grin. “They busted their butts on defense.”

As previously stated though, if there’s one thing that certainly helped PV here on this night in particular, it was sheer wealth spread amongst a litany of folks in terms of scoring distribution to help lead the charge. For Graybill, that’s not something he sees changing. Well, sort of in a way.

“I think it’ll be a case of where it can be anyone on any night,” the Braves’ second-year man said of who he expects might step forward consistently enough to clearly demarcate themselves as #1 on the opposing team’s scouting report. “I’m not looking at one guy in particular and saying, ‘I need you to go out and get me 25 to 30 (points) every night.’ I’m looking at it more where we just have to play good team basketball. Just in terms me thinking of our starters here for a second, I think any of them, even our sixth man, could lead us in scoring in any given game.”

“It’s kind of obvious, but we have an offensive flow and rhythm that we need to work out and we need to find,” he went on to remark. “That’ll take time, but we’ll get there. I know we will…We’ve been getting deflections and things like that all year so far, but we’ve just struggled at translating that into points. That’s my job to figure all that out.”

And if his first year is to serve as any indicator of sorts, it certainly appears that the Pequea Valley Braves are in more than competent hands.

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