Senecas lock down Stockaders, claim 1st district title since 2022

GALION – It's hard to beat a team three times in a season. That's what Old Fort was attempting to do as it matched up with rival Calvert Saturday in a Division VII district final at Galion High School. But Calvert was well-prepared, jumping on the Stockaders from the opening tip and playing stellar defense to knock off Old Fort 49-33. The Senecas (17-7) claimed their first district title since 2022.Old Fort (16-9) had trouble getting into any kind of rhythm offensively, a lot of that due in part to the excellent Senecas defense, even being out-sized as they were under the basket, they battled and made things tough all night.While that was a big reason for the win, also was the hot start shooting as senior Logan Ritzler hit two 3-pointers and junior guard Grady Otterbacher followed with one of his own to set the tone for the Calvert's offense in the first quarter."It was great competition. They're always scrappy and come out hard, it just feels great to get them back," Ritzler said. "(Coach Jon Otterbacher) told us he didn't want us to take that many jump shots and attack their zone instead tonight, but after I hit that first two and Grady hit his first two, I knew we were going to be shooting good and we never let off the gas."This means a lot. My sophomore year coach told me I was only in the game to shoot, so that motivated me these last two years to work hard in practice and become a better defender. Now, I'm guarding the other team's best players and just working them and making them tired, but this feels amazing."Even though Calvert started hot, Old Fort was right them the Senecas as it only trailed 14-12 after the first stop.However, after that first period, things tightened up significantly for the Stockaders. Calvert began the second on an 8-3 spurt behind treys from Ritzler and Otterbacher and a layup from Vincenzo Lyons to build a 22-15 edge.But the score was just 25-19 at the half."They made some shots early … we didn't execute defensively and getting everyone covered that needed to be covered and they made us pay. Those earlier games we played them they didn't make us pay nearly as much as tonight," Old Fort coach Eric Hoover said. "We also just couldn't execute anything offensively. Nothing was really working and couldn't do much going to the basket. Really, we didn't do a whole lot well on either end of the floor that we needed to get done to win this game."Calvert played even stiffer defense in the third, holding Old Fort to only four points as it built a 36-23 advantage heading into the fourth. "It's been a couple years since we've been back here. Old Fort is a great team, a great program and they have so many great basketball players," Otterbacher said. "We had to prepare physically and mentally for their zone, we did the best we could to screen their zone to get us some open looks early on to get us a lead. We were able to pull them out of their zone and get some easy looks down the stretch."It was nice to start like that tonight and we know that Logan and Grady are two of the best players in our area and when they're going well it's tough for us to be defended just because Grady is so long to shoot over people and Logan is so quick he always gets his shot off. Those two did a great job playing off of each other."An early dagger in the fourth quarter was a Lyons three-point play, upping Calvert's advantage to 42-26 with only 6:01 to play.Gallagher led Old Fort with 10 points, followed by Grant Havens with seven. It wasn't a typical season as far as challenging for a league title late in the season for the Stockaders, but making another tournament run to a district final appearance was nothing to sneeze at."These kids compete hard … never will be able to fault them for that," Hoover said. "They didn't shoot the ball the best, we didn't handle the ball the best, weren't the most skilled, but it's going to be hard to play harder than us. That's their mentality. They are hard-working kids in life and they brought that to the basketball court. It was fun to watch them play together."We were a play away, an overtime game away again from winning a league title, ultimately. We were right there. I think only our reputation would've put us in that place this season after what we graduated last year, but people stepped up and competed, played well all year long. We had so many questions coming into the season, but they all had outstanding years."Ritzler paced the Senecas with a game-high 20 points, while Lyons tacked on 12.Next up for Calvert is a trip to Barberton High School Tuesday at 8 p.m. It will take on Hillsdale (18-7)."We gotta push ourselves in practice this week, harder than we've ever done before," Ritzler said. "We have to be ready to go whoever we play." Calvert 49, Old Fort 33OF (16-9): Isaac Gallagher 2-6-10; Brock Hull 1-0-2; Andrew Tackett 0-2-2; Grant Havens 3-0-7; Dimitri Carter 2-0-6; Henry Beisner 3-0-6. Totals: 11-8-33.Calvert (17-7): Grady Otterbacher 3-0-8; Logan Ritzler 6-4-20; Emman Moreno 0-0-0; Max Herbert 1-0-2; Tucker Coleman 2-0-4; Logan DeMoss 1-1-3; Ethan Baugher 0-0-0; Vincenzo Lyons 5-2-12. Totals: 18-7-49.Old Fort&emsp;&emsp;12&emsp;&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;10&emsp;&emsp;– 33Calvert &emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;11&emsp;&emsp;11&emsp;&emsp;13&emsp;&emsp;– 493-point goals: Old Fort 3 (Carter 2, Havens); Calvert 6 (Ritzler 4, Otterbacher 2)Foul shots: Old Fort 8-13; Calvert 7-12Turnovers: Old Fort 14; Calvert 9