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Cranberry boys repeat as D-9 3A champs
Overtime!
Berries turn back Brookville; mighty Eisenhower next
Chris Zerbe/Christy Fackler photo
Cranberry battled from behind all games and finally measured Brookville, 57-53, in overtime Tuesday to win the District 9 3A championship.
The Berries, 22-2, will play District 10 champion Eisenhower Saturday in a subregional. The Knights ousted Corry, 70-49, in their title game Tuesday.
Cranberry led 15-10 early in the second quarter, but it was all Brookville from then until the fourth quarter, the Berries trailing by as man y as seven points..
A basket by Cole Findlay, who led the Berries with 18 points, tied the score again at 49 in the overtime. They went ahead to stay on a brace of free throws, including two apiece by Shia Sanchez and Connor Morrow that put them up by five.
Sanchez was six-for-eight from the line.
Blake Marchinke, one of may players to foul out, backed Findlay with 13 points.
The district title was the second straight for Cranberry, which had beaten Brookville twice before this season.
Girls win, too
Cranberry girls won their semifinal game again Brookville, 41-27, for a 15-9 record. Emma Morrow scored 11 and Jaydn Shumaker 10 for the Berries.
​
Oil City 500-Point Seasons
Oilers fail to overcome
their latest slow start
It was one slow start too many for the Oilers, who couldn't overcome their latest Tuesday against Harbor Creek, and was eliminated, 60-50, from the District 10 Class 4A playoffs at Edinboro.
The Oilers (18-7) trailed 10-2, 17-4, 21-6, 26-10. They did climb to within nine on a few occasions, but then something bad would happen again.
Actually, it was a six-point game late -- far too late -- 53-47 with 1:02 to play.
As has been the case of late, an underclassmen was the bright spot. This time it was sophomore Carter Thompson (pictured) who delivered three three-pointers and 11 points to keep the Oilers to within striking distance.
Freshmen Isaiah VanWormer and Brady Fulmer offered some qualify minutes, too.
Nevin Stinson led the Oilers with 17 points.
Stinson finished his career with 961 points, No. 3 all-time behind Ben Schill (1,130) and Chris Jasiota (975). Logan Way (949) is the only other player in OCHS history over 900.
Playoffs
District 10
CLASS 4A BOYS
​​
SEMIFINALS
Tuesday, Feb. 24
Prep 95, Hickory 69
Sharon 64, Warren 56
CHAMPIONSHIP
Friday, Feb. 27​
Prep vs. Sharon
Third place
Hickory vs. Warren
5TH PLACE BRACKET
Tuesday, Feb. 24
Harbor Creek 60, Oil City 50
Girard 40, Fairview 33
Friday, Feb. 27
Harbor Creek vs. Girard
Top 5 places advance to PIAA tourney​
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District 9
DISTRICT 9 3A BOYS
CHAMPIONSHIP
1. CRANBERRY 57, 2. Brookville 53( OT)
(Cranberry will play District 10 champion Eisenhower Saturday in a sub-regional.)
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DISTRICT 8-9 2A GIRLS
SEMIFINALS
1. Karns City vs. Moniteau, Wednesday, Union
2. CRANBERRY 41, 3. Brookville 27
CHAMPIONSHIP
Karns City-Moniteau winner vs. CRANBERRY, TBA
(Two advance to PIAA tourney)
D-10 Boys Titles
* Farrell also has 13 WPIAL titles
Cranberry: 9 titles in D9 and D10
The curse of Steve cleaves Lives On...
Steve "Ike" Cleaves has scored more points in a single season for Oil City High School basketball than anybody else.
Ever and still.
Cleaves totaled 541 points for the Oilers in 1919-20 -- an astounding 106 years ago. Nobody has scored more points in a single season since then. Not even Nevin Stinson, whose challenge this season fell five points short Tuesday in what turned out to be Oil City's 2025-26 finale against Harbor Creek.
The big deal about Cleaves' total is he shot all of the team's free throws -- otherwise, no asterisk, no "modern." Those were the rules until 1924.
Mike Emick held the "modern" single-season school record of 498 points in 1971, which Stinson did break.
As it turns out, Stinson, with 520 points, had one game to pass Cleaves, but he came up short with 17 against Harbor Creek.
So, when the dust settled it was Cleaves 541, Stinson 537. And the Cleaves "curse" still had life...
​What's more, neither Cleaves nor Ellis Hall, the Oilers' DFS in 1922, were locks at the free throw line -- 52% (compared to 83% for Stinson.) Oiler fans were up in arms when coach Bill Fountain. didn't make a change in 1922. But he stayed with Hall, who scored 466 points.
Cleaves who would shoot hoops with his brothers outside their home in the alley near the Episcopal church downtown, went on to captain Princeton's basketball team, so he was no slouch. He later became an attorney with a prominent New York City law firm (Somebody, Somebody and Cleaves), and died in New Jersey in 1991 at the age of 89.
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On the mat, in the pool
Regional
qualifiers
District 9/10 3A champs Aiden Thompson and Dalton Wenner of Cranberry.
Thompson, Wenner claim District titles; 11 more Berries, Knights place
Cranberry's Aiden Thompson (133) and OW Dalton Wenner (139) claimed titles in the District 9/10 AAA wrestling tournament Saturday at Clarion.
The Berries finished fourth among eight teams; Harbor Creek won the event. Franklin, led by 107-pounder Seth Hollerman, was 12th among 24 teams in the D-10 2A event at Sharon High School. Cathedral Prep was team champion.
The Berries also received a second from Noah Lucarelli (285), third from Brett Hurrelbrink (107), fourths from Alex McLaughlin (172) and Clark Findlay (189), a fifth from Jamarcus Cooke (160) and a sixth from Ethan Schreffler (152). Lucarelli and Hurrelbrink qualified for regionals.
The district crown was the fourth for Wenner and the second for Thompson.
Gary Kiselka was fourth for Franklin at 215. Orvis Davis (139) and Ethan Hart (152) were seventh and Kaden Kiselka (285) was eighth. All the Franklin place-winners advanced to regionals.
Regionals are Feb. 27-28. The 3A will be at Canon-MacMillan and the 2A will again be at Sharon.
Oil City and Franklin coaches -- brothers Eric and Charlie Smith -- are putting their athletes through final paces in preparation for the District 10 meet.
All four local squads have outstanding individuals entered in the meet, including the Franklin girls who claimed the region title this season. (Photos by Christy Fackler)
District 10 swimming
set this week at
Ohio's spire institute
Football
Franklin finds
its man
Austin Ion was introduced as the new Franklin football coach at a school board work session on Jan. 19. He officially became Franklin's 26th paid coach at the board's Jan. 26 meeting.
Ion succeeds Matt Turk, a former Knight all-star, who resigned after six years at the helm.
Ion is a 2017 Keystone High School graduate who played football, basketball and baseball for the Panthers.
He played wide receiver at Grove City College, where he majored in accounting.
He has coached at Keystone for eight years and most recently served as jayvee coach under coach Todd Smith.
The commiittee to select a new coach at Franklin consisted of athletic director Becky Barnes, high school co-principal Tom Holoman, Central Elementary principal Joe Keenan and assistant AD Chris Romanowski.
Ion was the choice among "nine good applicants," according to Barnes.​