LaBrae rallies from way back for Blue win

By Jon Moffett

The Vikings were down by 20 points in the second quarter, but stormed back to win.

LEAVITTSBURG — Matt Szorady watched as the bomb he had just dropped caused the LaBrae High School gymnasium to explode with joy.

The 5-foot-8 sophomore drilled a game-winning 3-point shot as time expired that propelled the Vikings (6-2, 2-0 All-American Conference Blue Tier) to a 67-66 victory over Newton Falls Friday.

The shell-shocked Tigers (8-2, 1-1) could only watch in despair as the referees raised their arms to signal the try was good.

LaBrae coach Chad Kiser summed up the frantic game as best he knew how.

“Holy smokes,” he said as he wiped his brow. “I couldn’t tell if [the referee] had called a foul also, because there was a chance for a foul also, or if he had signaled three.”

The referees did signal three and LaBrae was able to beat its rival after being swept last year.

A thrilling fourth quarter helped fans forget that Newton Falls once led the game by 20 points. But the Vikings refused to quit.

With 6.2 seconds left in the game, LaBrae junior Jacob Jaros was fouled by Stephen Page. Page, who dominated the game from a defensive standpoint, was called for his fifth foul on the play and had to leave the game. Jaros, who had made each of his previous six free throws, headed to the line.

Jaros sank the first shot, much to the dismay of the boisterous Newton Falls student section. His second shot clanked off the rim and into the hands of the Tigers’ Brian Sole, who was immediately fouled to stop the clock.

Sole missed the first of his two shots — he had gone a perfect 9-9 prior — and made the second. The Vikings inbounded the ball and put their faith, and the game, into Szorady’s hands.

Szorady at first tried to drive to the basket, but was stuffed by the Tiger defense. He then faded back and tossed up an awkward-looking shot just before the buzzer.

Swish.

“Once it left my hand and started going toward the hoop I thought it had a chance,” Szorady said of the most dramatic of his 16 points. “Thank God it went in.”

The Tigers started hot and led 22-9 after the first quarter. A 7-0 run to open the second improved the lead to 29-9.

Sophomore Cody Dillon had more points (15) than the Vikings did (nine) during that stretch.

Dillon got into foul trouble early and sat most of the third quarter. He finished with 17 points.

The Tigers treated the gym as a shooting gallery in the first half. The team shot 72 percent from the field — 70 percent from beyond the arc. LaBrae shot 29 percent — three percent of 3-pointers — in the first half.

Four Tigers made deep balls and three had two or more.

But a powerful halftime speech from Kiser rallied the Vikings.

“Coach just kept preaching defense,” Szorady said. “And we just kept playing defense and kept the intensity up. We just played great defense. That’s what helped us out; that’s what kept us in the game.”

LaBrae opened the second half on a 6-0 run.

Newton Falls coach Roy Sembach gave credit to the Vikings, but said it was a run-of-the-mill contest between the rivals.

“It’s your typical LaBrae-Newton Falls game,” Sembach said. “It’s both team playing as hard as they could and unfortunately, we came out on the tough end of it.”

Sembach made no excuses, but said losing players like Page and Dillon to fouls made the game more balanced.

“I didn’t mind slowing down a little bit, because we had a couple of our best players in foul trouble all night,” Sembach said. “They’ve never been in foul trouble all year, but they were tonight. I thought we did a pretty good job of playing through adversity.”

jmoffett@vindy.com