December 26-27

The world slowly began to return to normal on Monday, I was at the mall for lunch and things were livelier than usual largely because of schools being out on holiday break. On Tuesday Jenny was in town on business, we were together over the lunch hour. In the evening I was at McCaskey for the opening round of our annual holiday tournament. York High was entered (as they are every year), the other squads were Largo from Upper Marlboro, MD and Delaware Valley Charter from Philadelphia. It seems like every few years something happens to screw things up (be it a team mistaking what nights the games are scheduled for or a team dropping out at the last minute), this occasion was unfortunately one of those. Del-Val was unable to commit to playing in the second round on Wednesday, as a result the opening night schedule was reshuffled. York was originally matched against Largo and JPM versus Del-Val but we swapped opponents. On Wednesday York and Largo meet in the lone game of the night, since Del-Val can only play on Tuesday JPM (as the host team) will sit it out on Wednesday as well. In the opener on Tuesday Del-Val defeated York, in the nightcap the Red Tornado won over Largo 66-56. We knew little about Largo coming in but they are a good club and the game was competitive just about all the way through. We were up by four at the quarter, at the half the score was tied. The game was still dead even entering the final quarter before we were able to pull away down the stretch. Ricky Cruz had the big night with 27 points including 11 in the decisive fourth quarter, Jathan Gonzalez was the only other player in double figures with 12. The win improves the club's mark to 2-3, the boys next play in the new year on January 2. Funny how it worked out that the York-Largo game on Wednesday is what the consolation game would have been anyway, the prospective championship game ends up being canceled completely. If I were available I would work the York-Largo game but I am absent for hockey in Reading so at least from a McCaskey standpoint I'm not missing anything. Take care, thanks for reading.