January 9-12

Monday morning lunch at the mall started the week in the accustomed manner, on Tuesday afternoon we convened at McCaskey for the short ride to Manheim Township HS in Neffsville. The boys split a pair of games in my absence over the weekend, they won at Warwick on Friday and lost to Reading High at home on Saturday. For me personally this was my first time on the bus since December 17 when we went to Chester, I missed each of the last two road games because of hockey. The Red Tornado JV squad lost its first game of the season on Saturday, on this night they got back on the plus side and stayed unbeaten in league play with a 47-44 win. The varsity game was your typical knock-down drag-out fight to the finish, JPM emerged victorious 67-65. We trailed by five at the half but turned on the jets in the third quarter to take an eight-point lead into the fourth. MT didn't fold their tents (not that anyone expected them to), they fought back to tie the score with eleven seconds left in regulation. On the ensuing possession a Township player was called for a holding foul, with four seconds showing on the clock William Joseph calmly sank both free throws to give us a two-point advantage. MT had an inbound play after a timeout but a last-second shot fell way short as JPM held on for the crucial heart-stopping victory. Coach Powell used eight players and seven of them scored including four in double figures: Isiah Speller led with 17, Ricky Cruz 15, William Joseph 14 and Jathan Gonzalez 13. The club's mark stands at 5-5 overall and 4-2 within the league. Had lunch with Jenny on Wednesday and ran a morning errand run on Thursday, the middle of the week was otherwise quiet but the weekend should be busy. Take care, thanks for reading.