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SCRANTON – Year after year, Old Forge keeps welcoming the challenge of playing larger schools through the basketball regular season.
And, year after year, the Blue Devils arrive at playoff time battled tested as they move down to play schools of their own size.
While that formula has deprived Old Forge of contending for as many regular-season championships as other quality programs, it has paid off it late February and March.
The success continued Feb. 27 and 28 at the Lackawanna College Student Union when Old Forge extended its District 2 Class A dominance by winning boys and girls titles.
As, they often do, the Blue Devils made it look easy.
A.J. Cantarella scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Old Forge, which opened an 18-point, first-quarter lead on the way to a 70-42 romp over MMI Prep in the boys championship game.
Tori Tansley had 26 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots the next afternoon when the Lady Devils defeated top-seeded Forest City, 52-35, in the girls championship game.
The boys have won three straight District 2 titles and eight of the last nine.
“We play in a very tough division with all Double-A teams,” said Joey Gutowski, who contributed 16 points and seven assists in the championship game. “It’s great competition that really gets us prepared for the playoffs.”
Both Old Forge teams went 4-8 while playing in Division 3 of the Lackawanna League, which produced three of the four semifinalists in the District 2 Class AA tournament. The division opponents included AA boys champion Mid Valley, AA boys runner-up Holy Cross and AA girls champion Dunmore.
The Lady Devils, who advanced all the way to the state championship game last season, won their fourth straight district titles. They have played Forest City in the last eight finals, winning seven of them, all by at least 13 points.
“The four seniors on this team are a close-knit group of girls,” Tansley said of a senior group that includes fellow starters Nina Pascolini, Kelci Yesnowski and Nicole Tagliaferri. “We’re the first four-year group (of Old Forge girls) to win this championship from our freshman to our senior year.
“It’s just been a really great experience.”
That experience has included a 7-3 record in state tournament play entering Saturday’s PIAA Class A girls opener against Millville.
The boys entered as the third seed in a five-team field and made the final with a 52-42 victory over second-seeded Lackawanna Trail Feb. 20 when Gutowski went 8-for-8 from the line in the fourth quarter to finish with 13 points.
The Blue Devils had to overcome a deficit early in the semifinal, but neither Old Forge team trailed in the final.
Old Forge scored the first eight points of the boys final, then the last 13 of the first quarter for a 21-3 lead that left MMI coach Joe Flanagan impressed.
“They’re a fantastic basketball team,” Flanagan said. “This was more about them than about us.”
Cantarella, a 6-7 senior center, had 10 points in the first quarter.
“We came out with that attitude of scoring early and grabbing that gold,” Cantarella said.
Old Forge (12-12) led 26-5 early in the second quarter and 37-15 early in the third quarter.
Ben Grochowski added 12 points and eight rebounds in the win. Nick Pelosi had eight assists and Armando Sallavanti had six.
Pascolini made sure the girls got off to nearly as fast a start against Forest City, scoring seven points for an 11-2 lead with 1:37 left in the first quarter. She finished with 12 points and four assists and kept the Old Forge offense running smoothly while Forest City concentrated on stopping Tansley.
First-year coach Ron Stacchioti said the team is improving at the most important time of the season.
“We’ve started hitting our outside shots when people have committed to Tori,” Stacchioti said, “and, we played good defense (in the final).
“We could surprise some people in states.”
After hitting just one field goal in each of the first two quarters, Tansley finished 8-for-15 from the floor and 10-for-12 from the line. She had 18 of her points in the second half.
Nicole Tagliaferri contributed five steals and four assists.
The Lady Devils (12-10) reached the final with a 50-32 victory over Susquehanna.