There aren’t many secrets when Perry Engard and Dennis Steinly match wits on the coaching sidelines.
The two have quite a history.
Engard was an assistant when Steinly coached the girls’ varsity at Hatboro-Horsham, and later, Steinly was on Engard’s bench at Souderton before taking over the helm of the boys’ program at Hatboro.
Their paths still cross, and on Thursday – 36 hours before their teams were scheduled to square off in a key Continental Conference battle – Engard and Steinly found themselves dining together at a breakfast honoring Steinly’s daughter, Caitlin, for her selection as Student of the Month at Souderton. She chose Engard as her faculty rep.
All of that will be forgotten on Friday night when the Indians host the Hatters in what figures to be another SOL war.“We’re always in a dogfight with them,” Engard said. “No matter if one team is better or worse. It doesn’t matter. We still play each other very tough.”
One game separates the two teams in a Continental Conference that feature a log jam at the top of the standings.
While the Indians appeared to regain the form that saw them sprint out of the gate to an 8-0 record in their convincing 77-52 win over Quakertown on Tuesday, the Hatters saw their five-game winning streak snapped by Central Bucks West in a 42-41 loss.
“A team like CB West was 3-3 going into Tuesday night’s game, and with a win over us, all of a sudden it puts them even closer into the mix,” Steinly said. “Two weeks ago, North Penn and Quakertown were both sitting on top of the conference, and they’ve fallen a game back.
“It’s like the ping pong balls in the lottery machines. Some are coming up, and others are falling.”
The Indians share the conference’s top spot with defending champion Central Bucks South. Both teams are 5-2.
“The rest of the season really is all on us,” Souderton senior captain Sam Wonderling said. “We believe we’re the favorites, but no one else in the league does, and they’re going to be coming at us every night.”
The Hatters are one of four teams boasting a 4-3 mark league play, and they’re not conceding the conference crown to anyone.
“From day one after the season ended last year, we knew we had the talent to compete for the title of the Continental Conference, so winning the conference has always been a high goal for us,” senior captain Pete Williams said. “We had a little bit of a setback, but we’re back in a position to control our own destiny, and that’s all we can ask for.”
The Indians rolled to a 67-48 win over the Hatters in the SOL opener for both teams in December. Things have changed since then for both squads.
Senior Connor Poston, a second team all-league selection last year, has returned to the Hatters’ lineup after being sidelined with a broken wrist while senior Nate Lewis will make his debut for the Indians on Friday night after completing a 13-game suspension.
“Connor is definitely one of their main team leaders, and it definitely helps to have him back,” Wonderling said. “We do have Nate in his first game back, and I think we’re going to be playing with that added excitement.
“We just have to forget about the first game against them because we know it’s going to be nothing like that. They’re hungry to beat us after we beat them in their place.”
Williams acknowledged that beating the Indians will be no easy task.
“They have A.J. Picard who’s just a great player,” he said of the Indians’ star guard. “The last time we focused on stopping him, but you really can’t stop him.
“We just can’t let him get going. He’s going to score his points, so we just have to make sure the other four players on the court don’t get going also, and we should be able to stay in the game with them if we can do that.”So far, no one has figured out the secret to containing Picard, who is averaging 20.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists. The Indians’ marvelous guard is shooting 71 percent from the foul line, 57 percent from inside the arc and 43 percent from three-point range.
In other words, he doesn’t miss a whole lot.
“Sometimes when a player is as good as A.J., we take it for granted and expect it, but we’re very blessed to have him and the kind of player he is,” Engard said. “He scores a lot of points, yes, but he’s also our leading assist man.
“He tries hard to get everyone involved, and a lot of times he’s guarding the other team’s best player. He’s leading us in steals, and he does so many things that are taken for granted, but like Jimmy (Connolly) before him, everyone should appreciate the special player they’re watching while he’s here.”
Not to be forgotten is Picard’s solid supporting cast.
All four remaining starters – Nate Moyer, Kyle Connolly, Mark Wonderling and Jeff Bishop - are averaging over six points a game, and Anthony Sergio, who connects on 43 percent from three-point range, is averaging 8.6 points a game off the bench.
“Without his supporting cast, we’re certainly not where we are right now,” Engard said. “You’re usually only as good as your senior class. As a three-year starter, Kyle Connolly certainly brings a toughness to us that we need.
“Sergio has been a nice surprise off the bench as a junior and Mark Wonderling has had a great season as a sophomore, but I think what’s dictated where we go night in and night out is the steady play of Jeff Bishop and Nate Moyer.”
The Indians saw their eight-game winning streak snapped in a week that saw them drop a pair of games to North Penn and Central Bucks South.
“Those losses brought us back down to earth and made us realize there’s still hard work to be done,” Sam Wonderling said. “We’re excited because we know we haven’t reached our potential yet, and that as well as we’ve been playing, we still haven’t played our best basketball.”
Wonderling – a study in perseverance for sticking with basketball after three ACL surgeries – pointed to team chemistry as a key to the Indians’ 11-2 start.
“Everyone on the team gets along with each other,” he said. “When that chemistry carries onto the court, you can definitely see it in the way we move the ball, the way we work together.”
On the other side of the court, the Hatters are a decidedly different team than the one that stumbled out of the gate to a 2-6 start.
“It was a tough adjustment because you take your best player off of any team, and it’s going to be an adjustment period,” Steinly said of the loss of Poston early. “I thought the kids got some valuable experience that has helped us when Connor came back.
“We asked Pete Williams to handle the ball and converted him to point guard, and that was an adjustment because he’s generally considered a shooter, so that was a big sacrifice he made. Mike Marvin really had to shoulder the scoring load, and he certainly did that.”
Marvin is averaging 16.5 points, 9.5 rebounds while connecting on 54 percent of his shots from the field. Christian Bolling, who average 9 points, is shooting 35 percent from three-point land and 77 percent from the charity stripe.
“The season has been a lot of ups and downs,” said Williams. “We had a lot of people switching positions.“We had a freshman, Mike Brown, who had to come in and start because we were shorthanded. He really didn’t know what the varsity level was like, but everyone seems to be getting together, and we’re starting to play basketball the way we know we can.”
In their five-game winning streak, the Hatters reeled off wins over CB South, CB East, Upper Moreland, Pennridge and Quakertown before falling to West on Tuesday.
Credit the addition of Poston for the Hatters’ turnaround.
“I think from the moment he came back, the team’s confidence rose,” Engard said. “He’s still not 100 percent, but what he’s given them is hope, and they’re playing that way.
“We’re looking to get Nate (Lewis) back in the mix and hoping he has a similar effect on us."
“Connor’s had a calming influence on the rest of the players,” Steinly said. “He brings confidence to the rest of the team, and he’s made the players around him better.
“He’s made the most of a difficult situation. Coming into his season, I’m sure he had aspiration of doing great things – scoring and things like that, but the wrist injury has prevented him from doing that. He hasn’t let that take away from his game. He’s become an all-around better player.”
Steinly acknowledged that playing consistent basketball for 32 minutes is essential if the Hatters hope to reverse their fortunes against the Indians on Friday night.
“Souderton is a team that going into the season we thought was going to be a team we needed to beat, and that’s still the case as far as I’m concerned,” the Hatters’ coach said. “That was a pretty impressive win they had over Quakertown, so it’s a huge test for us on the road coming off a loss.
“We’re going to have to play very well.”
Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Souderton.
Just the Facts
Last year’s record: Souderton 10-4 SOL (15-10 overall); Hatboro-Horsham 5-9 SOL (9-13 overall)
This year’s record: Souderton 4-2 SOL (11-2 overall); Hatboro-Horsham 3-3 SOL (7-7 overall)
Last meeting: December 18, 2009 – Souderton 67, Hatboro-Horsham 48 (Souderton: A.J. Picard – 20 points, Mark Wonderling – 10 points, Nate Moyer – 10 points, Kyle Connolly – 8 points, Jeff Bishop – 7 points, Anthony Sergio – 7 points; Hatboro: Mike Marvin – 20 points, Christian Bolling – 16 points)
Last game: Souderton 77, Quakertown 52 (A.J. Picard – 22 points, Mark Wonderling – 19 points, Jeff Bishop – 13 points, Nate Moyer – 8 points, Joseph Plank – 6 points; Anthony Sergio – 5 points, Kyle Connolly – 4 points)
Central Bucks West 42, Hatboro-Horsham 41 (Christian Bolling- 16 points, Mike Marvin – 10 points, Connor Poston – 9 points, Pete Williams – 3 points, Matt Kane – 1 point)
Souderton
Projected starters and season averages:
#10 – Jeff Bishop (Sr., F/C) 6.2 PPG, 6.9 rebounds
#11 – Nate Moyer (Sr., G) 9.5 PPG, 3.8 assists, 2.0 steals
#21 – Mark Wonderling (Soph., G/F) 8.1 PPG, 5.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists
#25 – A.J. Picard (Sr., G) 20.2 PPG, 5.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists
#32 – Kyle Connolly (Sr., G/F) 9.5 PPG, 6.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists
The rest of the Indians:
#1 – Greg Mendrzycki (Soph., G)
#3 – Derek Brown (Sr., G/F)
#5 – Joseph Plank (Sr., G)
#12 – Daniel Falencki (Soph., G/F)
#15 – Anthony Sergio (Jr., G) 8.6 PPG (43 percent 3-point field goals)
#20 – Ryan Connolly (Soph., C)
#22 – Sam Wonderling (Sr., F)
#23 – Ryan O’Connor (Sr., G)
#24 – Nate Lewis (Sr., F)
#30 – Korrey Council (Sr., F/C)
Hatboro-Horsham
Projected starters and season averages:
#24 – Christian Bolling (6-0, Jr., G) 9 PPG (35 percent 3-point field goals, 77 percent foul line)
#30 – Matt Kane (6-0, Jr., G) 3.9 PPG, 4 rebounds
#31 – Mike Marvin (6-6, Sr., F) 16.5 PPG, 9.5 rebounds (54 percent field goals)
#33 – Pete Williams (6-0, Sr., G) 5.8 PPG, 2.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists
#35 – Connor Poston (6-5, Sr., G) 6.4 PPG, 7.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists
The rest of the Hatters:
#3 – Ryan New (6-0, Soph., G)
#10 – Shane Cummings (6-2, Jr., G)
#14 – Carlton Stafford (6-3, Sr., G/F)
#20 – Travis Bryan (6-7, Jr., F)
#23 – Darrin Oliver (6-3, Sr., F)
#32 – Mike Brown (6-3, Fr., G/F)
#45 – Sean Nealon (6-1, Sr., F)
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