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District 1-6A: Goldstein ignites No. 9 Methacton's win over No. 24 Conestoga

02/18/2023, 2:30am EST
By Owen McCue

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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FAIRVIEW VILLAGE — As Methacton’s players exited the locker room on Friday night, they headed toward center court with their phones pulled out.

Teammate Owen Goldstein was being interviewed by the Warriors News, and while the rest of the school will find out about the senior’s big game during Monday morning's announcements, they couldn’t wait to share the news of Goldstein’s performance in a 48-38 District 1-6A first round win over Conestoga right away.

“We’re really excited for him,” Methacton senior Matt Christian said.

Junior Alex Hermann had 15 points and Christian added 11 — no surprise as they average double figures. Goldstein added a career-high eight points and an impact that stretched far wider, for the seldom used bench player.

Goldstein had a pair of clutch buckets in the second half, added four rebounds in the fourth quarter and multiple hustle plays throughout his time on the court that got the crowd and his teammates going in a game that looked like a toss-up for quite a while. The 9th-seeded Warriors move past 24th-seeded Conestoga into Tuesday's second round against Garnet Valley.

“The mindset is to just bring energy, get a couple rebounds, win some 50-50 balls," Goldstein said. “That’s my role on the team, and I thought I needed to come through for the team and do that.”


Methacton senior Owen Goldstein was key off the bench in a win over Conestoga. (Photo Credit: @nicholaswillen)

“It’s awesome to see,” coach Pat Lockard said. “He’s put in the work. He’s been in there. He’s always asking questions. You can just see he wants to pull for the team to win. To have him be the key reason that we won, the locker room was excited for him, they almost tackled him after that one interview he had there, spreading water on him too. It was really cool to see how infectious that was on the team.”

Goldstein was on the freshman team his first season at Methacton then played JV as a sophomore, getting injured near the end of the season. He didn’t play at all as a junior as the injury bug struck again.

“It was kind of a lull there,” Goldstein said. “I kind of just came to practice, watched, learned everything. This year is where I was really hoping to get on the court and play.”

He barely touched the floor to start the season, but around the midway point the 6-foot guard started to earn a few minutes here and there to provide some energy off the bench. 

Methacton led 13-9 after the first quarter, and Goldstein came into the game briefly in the second and scored a bucket. 

However, Conestoga junior guard Brendan Styer (20 points) had 16 first-half points and scored or assisted on all 14 of the Pioneers’ points in the second quarter, including a buzzer beater three, to give his team 23-22 at halftime lead. Lockard thought his team looked stale and knew who he needed to turn to fix that.

Christian hit a three to start the second half to put the Warriors ahead. Senior forward Abe Dembele put the Pioneers back ahead with an and-one. A three by Hermann gave the Warriors a 28-26 lead a few minutes into the third. Goldstein made a steal not long after and sprinted down the court for a bucket plus the foul that drew a roar from the Methacton student section and the bench and spotted the Warriors a 31-26 lead before they went into the fourth up 37-27.

“That’s something that we always know that he’s going to bring that energy,” Lockard said. “And I thought we were very flat in that first half and I knew if he’s gonna be out there, the thing I can definitely count on is energy. Other stuff is gonna be a bonus out there.

"He had that awesome and-one take, rebounds, fighting for those jump balls and stuff. Then it becomes contagious. You saw Cam (Chilson) diving on the floor, other guys ripping for rebounds, him being out there was just absolutely essential for us to having that second half we had.”

Styer and junior Westin Fryberger (10 points) helped Conestoga, which was able to sneak into the district playoffs as the last seed under first-year coach Sean Forcine, trim the double-digit deficit to 40-36 with 3:36 remaining in the game.

A Hermann free throw pushed the Warriors’ advantage to five before Goldstein slipped for a backdoor layup off the feed from Sal Iemello to put his team up 43-36 with 1:52 to play.

“All the energy,” Christian said of what Goldstein brought Friday night. “As soon as he came in the game, you just saw an immediate difference from the layups, everything, the steals, rebounding. He just came off the bench and did what we really needed because we started off really slow.”

Goldstein was key on the glass in the fourth quarter. He also stepped to the free throw line with 32 seconds left and made 1-of-2 to push Methacton’s lead back up to double digits — something he noted he never would have thought happened pregame.

“I’m going in there to do the most to maximize my time and we’ll see how it goes from there,” Goldstein said. “Then all the sudden, I’m back in the game, and it’s like, ‘Wow. Let’s keep going.’”

“Assistant coach (Owen) Kropp said, ‘Go in there, hit some bodies and get some rebounds.’ That was it. Hopefully I did that good enough.”

The Warriors travel to eighth-seeded Garnet Valley on Tuesday night with a chance to lock up a state playoff spot. Methacton, the top seed in last season’s tournament, held off the then-24th-seed Jags in OT in a district quarterfinal last season.

Goldstein is one of five Warriors seniors along with Christian, Chilson, Jason Lagana and Evan Spang. They entered the program three seasons ago when Methacton hoisted its first District 1 championship. Goldstein was down at Temple to watch that one along with most of his teammates.

In the seasons since, Methacton advanced to the second round of districts and made the semifinals and another state playoff appearance last season. Goldstein is hoping to have a role in another deep Warriors run — no matter how big or small.

“I finally wanted to be a part of it,” Goldstein said. “We got that disappointing loss to PV in the PACs, so just to go as far as we can in districts and hopefully get a win over Garnet Valley and make states. It should be exciting. I’m gonna throw it all on the court.”

By Quarter
Conestoga: 9 | 14 | 4 | 11 || 38
Methacton: 13 | 9 | 15 | 11 || 48

Scoring
Conestoga: Brendan Styer 20, Westin Fryberger 10, Abe Dembele 5, Brian Schubert 3.

Methacton: Alex Hermann 15, Matt Christian 11, Owen Goldstein 8, Sal Iemmello 7, Cam Chilson 4, Evan Spang 3

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District 1 6A First Round (Boys)
20) Abington 45, 13) Pennsbury 42 (OT)
18) Neshaminy 62, 15) Boyertown 48
17) West Chester Henderson 66, 16) Pennridge 52
9) Methacton 48, 24) Conestoga 38
11) Coatesville 56, 22) Harriton 38
21) Haverford 60, 12) William Tennent 46
14) Penn Wood 78, 19) Norristown 48
Upper Darby vs. Cheltenham (3 PM 2/18) 

District 1 6A Second Round (Boys) — Tues., Feb. 21
1) Spring Ford vs. 17) West Chester Henderson
8) Garnet Valley vs. 9) Methacton
4) Central Bucks East vs. 20) Abington
5) Downingtown West vs. 21) Haverford High
2) Lower Merion vs. 18) Neshaminy
7) Perkiomen Valley vs. TBD
3) Plymouth Whitemarsh vs. 14) North Penn
6) North Penn vs. 11) Coatesville


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