The deck was stacked against the Northampton boys basketball as they strolled into Central Catholic’s historic Rockne Hall last Friday looking to claim the program’s first-even EPC playoff win.

Their bus was stuck in traffic, causing them to arrive late for the scheduled start of warm-ups. The home crowd was large and raucous creating an intimidating environment. The Vikings boasted a 19-3 overall record with three EPC All-Stars including first teamers Lucas Mushrush and league MVP Jahrel Vigo.

It took awhile for the K-Kids to find their footing as Central hit their first four shots from the floor and forced a couple of Northampton turnovers in the first three minutes of the game. But the Kids showed their resilience as they came back to lead 15-13 after the first quarter following a 7-0 run to end the period.

The teams each scored a dozen points in the second quarter with the K-Kids knocking down a quartet of threes and the Vikings scoring all of theirs from inside the arc.

Northampton roared out in the second half, scoring the first 11 points of the third quarter as part of a 14-2 stretch that saw the lead expand to 14 points.

However, Central scored the last 5 points of the third quarter and the first 5 of the fourth to bring the crowd back into the game and cut the lead to four. The margin shrank to 2 points with five minutes left in the contest, but the Kids never blinked as they ran off six straight points.

Leo Regec hit a dagger three to respond a Vikings’ basket and Korbin Sollars scored 7 points in the final 1:44 to help the K-Kids pull away to a 61-50 win.

“We played with confidence,” said head coach Matt Scholl. “In the middle of the season we weren’t playing confident and it showed in our body language. The calls didn’t go our way in the third and fourth quarter, but instead of getting down, we pushed right through.”

“It wasn’t one guy. It was everybody. We hit shots (9 of 20 from three-point range). Noah Walakovits is a great basketball player. Today he kind of took over the game for a while. Ethan Raphun handled the ball when they were coming at us with the pressure. Korbin Sollars hit a big three. They showed composure and they did it together,” continued Scholl.

Walakovits, named a third-team EPC All-Star this week, offered his thoughts on playing in a tough playoff road game, “It was great. It was very loud and shooting the free throws was crazy, but it was a good experience. Because we were the higher number seed coming in here, nobody really thought we could win, but we pulled the upset.”

Walakovits led the Kids with 25 points, scoring at least 6 points in all four quarters. Regec scored 15. Sollars chipped in a baker’s dozen. Jake Raysley had 4. Brady Simock and Logan Walter both scored 2.

Vigo led all scorers with 29, but Northampton held Mushrush to just 4 points.