Game photos provided courtesy of Karla Donohoe. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f716903222
SOL Liberty/Freedom crossover
QUAKERTOWN 61, NEW HOPE-SOLEBURY 24
Sam Wilkin and Kyle Rosenberger combined for 33 points to lead the visiting Panthers to a convincing win that also happened be win number 200 of Quakertown coach Tony DaCosta’s career.
“Truth be told, I wasn’t even aware of anything until my assistant coach – Colin McIntyre – said at the beginning of the season, ‘Coach, what’s your record? How many wins have you got?’” DaCosta said. “So, I had to go back to 2005 when I took over halfway through the season at Christopher Dock, which is really a long time ago.
“I never really kept track. To me, it’s always just a matter of getting to the district playoffs. It’s been a long time coming. I couldn’t even tell you when I got my hundredth win because I don’t know when that took place. We went from not even recognizing my 100th all the way to 200, so here I am.”
It turns out DaCosta was at 192 to open the season, a number he accumulated during stints at Dock Mennonite Academy and Faith Christian before taking over the helm at Quakertown where he is in his fourth season. On Wednesday night, his team notched its eighth win – and the 200th of his career.
So what’s kept DaCosta on the sidelines?
“Just the drive to take programs that weren’t really doing very well and have them come up and be competitive and have their program looked at differently,” said DaCosta, who inherited a Quakertown program that was 2-19 the preceding year. “All three stops I had been at previously, I took over programs that at the time were not in a good position. To be able to take each school to district championships and state playoffs and final fours and elite eights –made the Quakertown job intriguing to me, knowing they were in a really tough Liberty Division with the likes of Abington, Plymouth Whitemarsh, Upper Dublin.
“It’s easy to shy away from that, but I’ve always felt if you can get kids to play hard and really get them to improve and want to do well that we can be competitive. I thought we would be able to win some games (we didn’t win), but I guess that just means there’s more work we have to put in.”
In Thursday’s road game, the Panthers took care of business in a hurry, opening up an 18-8 lead after one quarter and extending that to 29-14 by halftime.
Wilkin led the Panthers with 19 points – 13 of those in the first half, and Rosenberger added 14 – 10 in the first half. Matt Thomas had eight points, and Ethan Tomlinson had six.
For the Lions, senior Liam Ross led the way with 13 points.
Quakertown (8-12, 4-10 SOL) will travel to Hatboro-Horsham on Friday, and New Hope-Solebury (1-13, 1-11) will host William Tennent Friday.
Quakertown 18-21-13-9 61
New Hope-Solebury 8-6-8-2 24
Quakertown (61) – Sam Wilkin 6 3-3 19; Kyle Rosenberger 4 5-5 14; Anthony Callan 1 0-0 2; Ethan Tomlinson 2 2-4 6; Tanner Clancy 2 1-1 5; Gavin Mushrush 1 0-0 2; Jaxon Torres 1 0-0 2; Matt Thomas 3 0-0 8; Brendan Panmanabhan 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 21 11-13 61
New Hope-Solebury (24) – John Nettles 2 0-0 4; Rocco Massimino 1 3-4 5; Nicholas Rieder 1 0-0 2; Liam Ross 5 3-8 13; TOTALS 9 6-12 24.
3-point goals: Quakertown – Sam Wilkin 4, Matt Thomas 2, Kyle Rosenberger, Brendan Padmanabhan.
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