By PAUL GOTHAM
Chris Cardon had a dilemma. It was a good problem to have, but he had to make a decision.
When Patrick Thomas returned from a wrist injury in late January, Cardon needed to make room in the lineup. His Eagles had gone 8-1 in the junior forward’s absence, but the 32nd-year coach knew his squad’s potential and realized Thomas needed to be in the lineup.
Cardon turned to a senior captain for a solution.
“I went to Tanner Pioch and said ‘I need to bring Patrick back in the lineup,'” Cardon recalled of the conversation when he took the senior forward out of the starting five. “He said ‘whatever you need coach.’
“It’s that selflessness of a guy like Tanner Pioch that has made a difference. I’m sure he wasn’t happy, but he did what was good for the team.”
Irondequoit has won 12 of 13 since the lineup change including its second straight Section V Class A title and NYS Far West Regional championship.
Background reads: Josh Serrano comes up big as Amityville takes Suffolk ‘A’ title
Background reads: Irondequoit holds on to beat West Seneca West
Background reads: Serrano feels Amityville is mentally and physically prepared
“Once we made that move and had that combination and got some more games under our belt it made us a little bit more diverse,” Cardon stated. “We potentially have five guys that on any night can get double figures.”
Timing, though, was not Irondequoit’s friend when Thomas suffered his injury on December 21st. The Eagles lost to Rush-Henrietta, then ranked in the state, the following week and squeaked by UPrep, a contender for the Section V Class AA crown, the next day. After that the Eagles welcomed eventual Class AA No. 1 seed Fairport to their Cooper Road gymnasium.
“A real key to our season was after we lost to Rush we came back to play UPrep and we just played an awful first half, uninspired. The second half and the overtime we persevered. We won the game. We played Fairport at our place, played with a lot of energy. I thought we played pretty well. That kinda lit the match a little bit.”
When Thomas went down injured, Cardon replaced the forward with Josh Stenglein, a guard, and turned a potential weakness into a strength. Given the opportunity Stenglein has averaged nearly 10 points per game and finished with a pair 20-plus performances.
“When we put Josh in for Patrick, it allowed us to spread the court. Josh is such an outside presence. He opened up more space for the other guys.”
Cardon pointed to the impact Stenglein’s presence has had on the Eagles leading scorer, Gerald Drumgoole.
“Gerald carried us with a lot of high-scoring games,” he explained. “If he didn’t score 30 in some of those games, we never would have won. Now we don’t have to rely on Gerald to go for 30. He had a great game the other day (against West Seneca West) with 23 points, 14 rebounds and six assists.”
Stenglein has also teamed with Frederick June, Jr. on the other end of the floor to supply Irondequoit what it needed.
“He’s gives us another good perimeter defender,” Cardon stated. “A lot of people don’t know that Josh plays really, really good defense especially on the ball and one pass away.”
That has made June more effective as well.
“He usually takes the other team’s best play and locks him up.” Cardon said of the junior point guard. “He’s done a really good job of that between Nigel Scantlebury (Greece Athena), Billy Thomson (Wayne) and Juston Johnson (West Seneca West). Freddie has been a real key.”
Irondequoit plays Section XI champion Amityville (25-1) in Saturday’s NYS Class A semi-final.
“We’re going to need every bit of that against this Amityville team because they’re really good. They are the best team we’ve played in years.”
What: NYSPHSSA Class A semi-final.
Where: Floyd L. Maines Arena – Binghamton, N.Y.
When: Saturday, March 17th 9:00 AM.
Who: Irondequoit (22-3) vs. Amityville-XI (25-1)
What’s at Stake: A spot in Sunday’s championship game against the Mohonasen-II (15-9) vs. Ardsley-I (20-7) winner.
Players to watch for Amityville: Julius Goddard Sr. 13.2 ppg, Myles Goddard Fr. 8.1 ppg, Divaahd Lucas So. 6.5 ppg, Jayson Robinson Sr. 16.8 ppg and Josh Serrano Sr. 26.0 ppg.
Players to watch for Irondequoit: Gerald Drumgoole Jr. G 21.5 ppg, Robert Diaz-Judson Sr. F 6.7 ppg, Frederick June, Jr. Jr. G 8.9 ppg, Josh Stenglein Jr. G 9.6 ppg and Patrick Thomas Jr. F 12.3 ppg.
Leave a Reply