Council Rock North took an early lead and never looked back, rolling to a win over neighboring Council Rock South. To view game photos, please visit the Photo Gallery.
NEWTOWN - When archrivals Council Rock North and Council Rock South meet, it's always a battle to behold. That's true whether they teams are competing on the soccer pitch, the swimming pool or the gridiron.
But there's something truly special when the matchup takes place on the hardwood, in the close confines of a gymnasium packed with rowdy fans.
The teams' records are irrelevant, standings mean nothing, what happened the last time is forgotten.
It's all about what happens between the opening tip-off and the final buzzer.
And when the neighborhood foes met in the nightcap of a girls/boys doubleheader Tuesday night, all that mattered to the host Indians was getting off to a strong start and setting the pace early.
"We were up for this game, we talked about it all through the week," said junior Alex Jordan. "They're our rival school. It’s a pretty cool rivalry. We take it a game at a time, but this was definitely a game we were looking forward to."
"It's like a backyard brawl when we play them, and we wanted to hit them first," said Indians' senior Aaron Morgan, who led a balanced North offense with 13 points. "We wanted to come out strong and we jumped on them. From there we had control of the game. We wanted to get them out of their offense so we just tried to pressure the ball as much as we could and keep it on one side of the floor so they couldn't swing it."
Defensively, the Indians' game plan worked to perfection. They held the Golden Hawks without a field goal for the first five minutes of the game, allowed just four points in the first quarter and led 37-10 at halftime as the Indians cruised to a 55-38 victory in the first of two meetings between the two squads this season.
"That's how we have to play to be successful," said North coach Derek Wright. "We need to pressure defensively and force them into quick shots and get up and run a little bit, which we did, and once we were able to get ahead, we can keep that pressure.
“It all starts with our guards defensively, Matt (McCloskey) and Aaron and Alex (Jordan) and Rip (Engel) did a nice job making the guards uncomfortable for South, I thought. They rushed them into some shots that they might not be used to, and our bigs cleaned up on the glass."
Morgan scored five points in the first quarter, which saw the Indians put together a seven-point run early and a six-point streak to end the stanza. He also helped put the exclamation point on the first quar
ter when he took a Matt McCloskey steal in full stride, then gently laid the ball back to Arron Goodman for a one-handed slam dunk that brought the home faithful to their feet.
The Indians opened the second quarter on an 11-1 run, highlighted by Morgan's four-point play on a trey plus a foul shot. North also received a huge boost from Jordan, who scored eight of his 12 points in the first half.
"Alex is an offensive threat any time he touches the ball," Wright said of the 6-3 guard. "He's athletic and strong enough that he can rebound for us in the defensive end, which to me is the difference between being good and great. And Alex can be another guy that adds that presence for us in the paint and rebounds on both ends of the floor and can shoot and score for us."
"Alex has a great midrange game and he works his (butt) off," Morgan said. "He's great on the boards, and when he shoots, I always think it's going in."
Jordan added four more points on four-for-four shooting from the foul line in the third quarter.
"Coach always tells us that we all have to look to be aggressive," Jordan said. "Teams are going to look to Morgan and Goodman because they're more well-known, so coach is always telling us we all have to look to step up where we can. It's a lot easier to stop two players than to stop the whole team, so we all have to do our parts."
The Indians led by as much as 34 points in the third quarter thanks to a 12-point run. Kyle McCloskey finished with 11 points and Goodman was the fourth Indian player in double-digits with 10. Matt McCloskey chipped in with eight points.
"We're a much more difficult team to play when there are multiple guys that can hurt you," Wright said. "Every night it could be somebody different, but that's what makes a team great."
The Golden Hawks made a run in the fourth quarter against the Indians' bench to make the score a little more respectable. They outscored North 16-5 in the fourth, holding the hosts without a field goal for the final six minutes of the game and closed the contest on a 13-point run. Nick Cocco scored all nine of his points on three three-pointers in the final frame. Christian Crane and Zach Fitzgerald each added six as 10 different Golden Hawks contributed to the scoring.
The loss drops South to 1-4 in the National Conference, 5-6 overall. North improves to 4-1 and moves to the top of the conference while moving to 7-3 overall. South will visit Pennsbury at 7 p.m. Friday, while the Indians will play their first league road game since Dec. 20 when they visit Bensalem at 7 p.m. Friday.
"We're happy with where we are, but not satisfied, hungry but still humble," Wright said. "We've made a lot of progress from earlier in the year. I think we learned a lot from our losses, we've just got to keep working.
"We've got a real tough road game Friday night. We haven't been on the road since before Christmas, so we've got to get that road attitude back for Friday."
Council Rock South 4 6 12 16 - 38
Council Rock North 17 19 14 5 - 55
Council Rock South: Nick Cocco 3 0-0 9; Christian Crane 2 1-3 6; Zach Fitzgerald 2 1-3 6; PJ Gallo 1 2-4 4; Will Faccenda 1 1-3 3; Tom McGovern 1 0-0 3; Brian Donnelly 1 0-0 2; Eric Gallo 1 0-2 2; Mike Colajezzi 1 0-0 2; Dan Kockott 0 1-2 1; Tyler Cohen 0 0-3 0; Mike Bright
cliffe 0 0-2 0; Jake Groff 0 0-0 0; Austin Devinney 0 0-0 0; Tom Townsend 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 8-23 38.
Council Rock North: Aaron Morgan 3 4-5 13; Alex Jordan 4 4-4 12; Kyle McCloskey 4 2-2 11; Arron Goodman 4 1-3 10; Matt McCloskey 3 0-0 8; Josh McWilliams 0 0-0 0; Alex Corry 0 0-0 0; Ross Wilson 0 0-0 0; Chris Rowland 0 0-0 0; Owen Rice 0 0-0 0; Jason Cavell 0 0-0 0; Rip Engel 0 0-0 0; Ryan Baker 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 11-14 55.
Three-point field goals:
Council Rock South: Crane, Fitzgerald, Cocco 3, McGovern.
Council Rock North: Morgan 3, K. McCloskey, Goodman, M. McCloskey 2.
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