The Rocky River Pirates win the Westshore Conference regular season title.

Better late than never, River celebrates WSC crown
By Zachary Dzurick
Sports
Published March 1, 2006

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On Feb. 17, one of the best basketball seasons in Rocky River high school's history had seemingly unraveled. With a fourth straight loss at Bay, the Pirates appeared a fractured team.

With the next game an entire week away, coach Tom Thompson and his staff challenged the team, who put all their energy into their best week of practice all season.

That focused energy translated into a 64-48 home win over Fairview, that salvaged not only an outright WSC conference championship, but restored the team's mojo heading into the sectional tournament this week at Westlake.

"Our staff did a great job this week," Thompson said. "We honed in on some things and we had a lot more energy and picked our team up. We competed all week and it is something we got away from. Our JV team was 18-2 and day in and day out give us everything we can handle. I think that was a big reason we came out like we did."

Rocky River coach Tom Thompson cuts down the net after the Pirates win over Fairview. (Photo by Larry Bennet)

The Pirates started the game on a 12-2 run. Senior Zach Haudenschild had eight of those points including two three pointers as the Warriors started in a triangle and two to try to neutralize guards Joe Caruso and Kyle Frohnapple.

Fairview ended the quarter with the last two baskets to cut the lead to six. It started a pattern of River getting a lead and the Warriors scrapping back. The Pirates led by as many ten in the second quarter and 11 in the third quarter. Fairview did close to six at 37-31 on driving lay-up from junior Kevin Fillinger. But on River's next possession, two Fairview plays ran into each other on a rebound causing it go out of bounds. That led to a Frohnapple jumper. On Fairview’s next possession, a Warrior was fouled, in the ensuing entanglement the same player was called for a technical foul. Caruso made both free throws. Caruso then buried a three pointer and senior teammate Chris Baltusnick followed with an old fashioned three point play to make the lead 47-31. Fairview would continue to play hard but never could get back into the game.

"I will take my guys and play anyone anywhere," coach Eric Smith said. "We are what we are. We have some things we can do well. Tonight we had some shots we did not knock down. I told the guys not to hang their heads. We are now 0-0 just like everyone else in the state of Ohio. Records don't mean anything, you don't get any extra points for any of your wins. We like our tournament draw. We need to take care of business (tonight) against Keystone and if we do we get to play Bay again. We beat them at our place by three and lost at their place by two. That's dead even."

Smith gave credit to Rocky River for the win.

"We tried to take Caruso and Frohnapple away in the first half and Haudenschild had a big first half," Smith said. "They have multiple guys who can score the basketball. They are not the conference champions for nothing."

Fillinger led Fairview with 20 points. Thompson was deeply impressed.

"Fillinger was not a surprise to us," Thompson said. "The kid has played outstanding against us twice. We tried everything. He had 20 tonight but he had 30 last time. I give the kid credit, he put the team on his shoulders and tried to keep them in the basketball game."

A big key to the game was how Rocky River handled the triangle and two.

"We have gotten to the point where we have seen that now and have made some adjustments," Thompson said. "The second half when they went man, we went motion offense and tried to move the ball and the kids did a great job swinging the basketball and getting it down."

Thompson and his players believe the win erased the bad feelings of the losing streak and has sparked their confidence for the sectional and district tournament at Westlake High School.

"I am so proud of our kids and it is special it was against Fairview, who is a rival," Thompson said. "The whole student body, we had a great pep rally and they were 100 percent behind us. They have been great all year, but it came down to the kids and it was all business this week."

"All week we were challenged on defense and offense," Haudenschild said. "All week we went all out. The JV team gave us one heck of a week scrimmaging us in practice. It paid off tonight. It was tough losing all those games in a row and we could have won it away a few games ago, but this win makes it feel a whole lot better."

Our defense was hurting us and we were playing too selfish on offense," Caruso said. "This week in practice we took it to another level and put our hearts in each other's hands. This win totally brings back our confidence. We were able to cut down the nets and bring home a WSC championship, the first in 12 years for Rocky River."

Something the team hopes is just a first step.

"Tonight we really came together as a team," Frohnapple said. "We ran the motion offense like coach wanted. But this is just a start to the post season which is our main goal."