City of Basketball Love

Ty Daubert (@TyDaubert)
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BENSALEM — For Faith Christian’s Izabella Forker and Emily Brownell, the seniors’ rivalry with Jenkintown goes back further than high school.

Starting in middle school, the two would watch their older sisters — Ashley Forker and Autumn Brownell, who graduated from FCA in 2017 and 2018, respectively — battle against the Drakes in key PIAA District 1 Class A girls’ matchups, including in Jenkintown’s victory over the Lions in the 2017 district title game. 

“Before we were even playing, we were rivals with them,” Forker said.

From 2017-2021, Jenkintown was the team to beat in the district, ripping off five straight D1 Class A championships and defeating FCA in the final again last season. Matched up with the Drakes once again on Saturday afternoon, Forker and Brownell were ready for one last crack at downing their biggest competition.

The senior guards guided the Lions through a low-scoring and sloppy game to hold on for a 35-18 win in the 2022 District 1-A championship game at Bensalem Township High School.

“We were watching our sisters play, and they kept on beating us,” Brownell said. “... Today it was such a relief to give it back to our sisters and back to the players that came before us.”

Faith Christian head coach Dave Forker, father of Izabella, expressed the same sense of relief in finally taking the leap to a district title.

“It is actually a huge relief,” he said. “I’m extremely excited. We’ve been close to this precipice for a long time, and Jenkintown has been an incredible rival for us and has been the frontrunner in our district and rightfully so. To be able to win and beat them — just because they’re so good, there’s a good rivalry — and to get it done is a relief.”

In a low-scoring game, Brownell led all players with 13 points, while Izabella Forker had seven, sparking the offense early and helping facilitate down the stretch. 

“I think we do really well with keeping composure on our team with ball handling,” Forker said. “I think it just relaxes everyone else when we can handle the pressure.”

FCA jumped out to a 13-5 lead in the first quarter as Forker drove her way into the lane to score five points. Both sides were stagnant in the second quarter as the Lions took a 16-7 advantage into the half.

The second half was more of the same story, with each team struggling to get much going offensively. FCA went ahead by 13 in the third, but Jenkintown brought things back to a single-digit deficit in the fourth behind a 10-point performance from Molly Stephenson.

From there, Brownell buried a 3-pointer and Forker worked to eat time, while Joy Hissner, who added 10 points, converted a late layup as Faith Christian sealed the game. It was far from smooth, but it got the job done.

“We didn’t play pretty, to be honest,” Dave Forker said. “We didn’t shoot well and we could’ve executed better, but that makes it even more special, that we learned how to win like that.”

After winning District 1, Faith Christian (23-4) will take on District 12 champion Sankofa Freedom on Wednesday to determine the top seed in their region for Class A state playoffs. Even after a huge victory, Dave Forker is hoping his Lions can earn another win to put themselves in the best position to make a run in the tournament.

“They’re not done,” he said. “They have a lot more to give.”

By Quarter
Jenk:   5   |   2   |   7   |   4   ||  18
FCA:  13  |   3   |  10  |   9   ||  35

Scorers
Jenkintown: Molly Stephenson 10, Katie McGrath 5, Julia Walsh 2, Sarah Cummings 1

Faith Christian: Emily Brownell 13, Joy Hissner 10, Izabella Forker 7, Mikayla Hissner 2, Kendall Garber 2, Autumn Landis 1