North Penn Recap
The opening round of the District One AAAA playoffs produced some thrilling games and some upset victories. On paper the bracket will show the No. 4 seeded Ridley advanced over the No. 29 seeded North Penn as expected.
What the record probably won’t show is just how close the Knights came to pulling the upset of the tournament. I don’t use the phrase ‘upset of the tournament’ lightly either with the likes of No. 25 Hatboro-Horsham defeating No.8 seeded Strath Heaven and No.27 Upper Dublin taking down the No.6 seed and defending district champion Abington.
One could make the argument that North Penn had little business being the playoffs. After all the Knights managed to finish just 6-8 in the Suburban One Continental Conference and finished with a .500, 11-11, record. To North Penn’s credit and advantage it did enter the game playing its best ball of the season winning five of its last six games including a win over one of the better teams in Suburban One in CB West.
“They gave us effort but we didn’t expect anything less, it’s a great group of guys and they fought like heck all year,” North Penn coach John Conrad said after Friday’s heartbreaking loss.
North Penn was certainly looking a more than formidable opponent in the face last Friday night as Ridley came in on a winning streak, 11 games, that featured as many wins as the Knights entire season. Going through the Central League undefeated, making it back-to-back league champions, with its only blemish on its record a 54-33 loss to the No. 3 seeded Downingtown West more than month before last Friday’s game.
For a team that probably shouldn’t have been in the tournament gave one of the tournament favorites one heck of a run for its money. The Knights didn’t get the memo they weren’t supposed to get into the dance and certainly had no plans of letting Ridley’s great season to continue as demonstrated by an excellent defensive start.
“I’m so proud of my kids. (Ridley) has one loss and that’s because they’re well coached and they’ve got gamers,” Conrad said.
Were it not for a couple of great, some might go as far to say lucky plays, for Ridley the narrative to this would-be Cinderella story might be different. While the pain of the upset bid might linger for a bit the Knights will have a couple of key contributor back next season including forward Ricky Johns and guard Reece Udinski.
