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Catholic League's defending state champs score W's on opening weekend

12/05/2015, 11:00pm EST
By Jeff Griffith

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
Thomas Primosch (@ThomasPrimosch)
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Roman newcomer shines in dominant opening win
Now nine months removed from their PIAA Class AAAA state championship, the Roman Catholic Cahillites have finally begun their title defense. And they started off the only way this team seems to know how, with a victory, smacking the Parkland Trojans, 70-38.

All major expectations aside for the Cahillites, a season-opening win was the major point of emphasis entering this highly anticipated season.

“To get win number one is just so good because we’ve been playing against each other for months,” Roman head coach Chris McNesby said. “And now you just want to battle against someone else and kind of see what it looks like, gives you a chance to go back and review and see what you can do better, so to come away with a win in your first game, it just gives you a good feeling, you can look at it, improve and move on.”

Their opponent, Parkland, is no slouch either. Parkland made the second round of the PIAA AAAA state playoffs a year ago. That said, without two of their leading seniors, Kenny Yeboah and Devonte Cross, who were playing in Parkland’s football playoff game, the Trojans quickly fell into a big hole against the state champs, trailing by 19 at the half.  

While Roman’s many talented players like Tony Carr, Nazeer Bostick, Paul Newman and D’Andre Vilmar have all been together for a while, this was the purple and gold debut for Haverford transfer Lamar Stevens. He ended up having the perfect start to what will be his lone season at Roman before heading to Penn State next year.

Stevens dropped a game-high 23 points, while snatching four rebounds and tacking on one emphatic block, on the way to player of the game honors.

“It meant a lot to me, because coach Chris has just been so selfless to the team and to me, and I just want to go out everyday and play my hardest for my team and for my coaches,” Stevens said. “I was happy about the win.”

Stevens was one of seven different scorers for Roman, with Carr adding seven points and seven rebounds, Bostick with nine points, and Vilmar with eight points. Newman rounded out the starting lineup with five points, while grabbing six boards.

“That’s going to be our thing all year ... Tonight, Lamar had 22, tomorrow someone else could have 22,” said McNesby. “Nobody’s really concerned about that, which makes us fun to be around with this type of kids. That’s the balance, with guys with eight, nine, 10, so it’s nice to have, and every given night someone else could step up. Hopefully it makes us harder to play against.”

If things go as expected, Roman’s “thing all year” going forward won’t just be depth, it’ll be wins.

And a lot of them. --Jeff Griffith

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Quade Green (above) had 20 points as Neumann-Goretti scored a win over Dover in the third game of the day. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Neumann-Goretti still yet to reach potential in rout of Dover
After losing in last year's Catholic League championship game, Neumann-Goretti gave no doubt that they plan on heading right back to the that same game in February.

The Saints showed why they're considered one of the best teams in the Pennsylvania as they won 71-47 against Dover.

Despite their easy victory, Neumann coach Carl Arrigale still wasn't pleased with his team's efforts.

"I didn't like the way we played, you know we were able to score in the 70s and win rather easily but we're a much better team than that," Arrigale said.

The Saints didn't look like their normal selves but they were able to move the ball well enough and generate good quality shots for the most part. They also showed well on defense, giving up only 23 points in the first half.

The anchor of the Saints defense was Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, a 6-8 junior who controlled the paint, altering the shots of any Dover guards who drove to the rim.

Senior Zane Martin and junior Quade Green led Neumann on offense scoring 20 points apiece. The duo shot a combined 13-22 from the field.

Neumann junior Rasheed Browne got his first varsity start and made the most of it, delivering 15 points on 5-8 shooting. For Browne it was a chance to show he belonged and he certainly made the most of it. He got to the basket with relative ease throughout the game and threw down an emphatic dunk towards the end of third quarter.

"You know, he was the 6th man last year and this was his first start and he played well," said Arrigale.

Overall, Arrigale's critique of his team wasn't too bright but he has confidence that his players will figure things out and the offense will start running more smoothly eventually.

"We'll get better. The same thing happened last year. We played super in our scrimmages. We were limping a little bit coming into this one but we still should have played better."

If the Saints can put up 71 points without playing anywhere close to what Arrigale thinks is their best, it's scary to imagine how good this team could be once everything clicks for them. --Thomas Primosch


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