Lions fall in sectional final
SPARTA. Pope John girls basketball team loses to top-seeded Morris Catholic, 66-34.
Sparta /
| 19 Mar 2025 | 11:55
Pope John's Mia Washington takes the ball toward the hoop in the game against Immaculate Heart Academy on March 6. The Lions won, 45-43, in the semifinal round of the NJSIAA North Jersey, Non-Public A Tournament but lost in the final round to top-seeded Morris Catholic, 66-34. (Photos by George Leroy Hunter)
Pope John's Natalija Novkovic tosses the ball toward the hoop in the semifinal round of the NJSIAA North Jersey, Non-Public A Tournament. She scored four points, grabbed five rebounds and is credited with four steals.
Pope John's Mia Washington drives forward as Immaculate Heart's Casey McCauley tries to keep pace. Washington scored 22 points in the game.
Immaculate Heart's Casey McCauley handles the ball under tight coverage from Pope John's Cailey Fitzmorris in the first half. McCauley scored 12 points.
Pope John's Mia Washington and Immaculate Heart's Olivia Valente reach for the ball during the tip-off to start the game.
Pope John's Katie O'Keefe scored 10 points, grabbed six rebounds and is credited with two steals.
A highly successful 2024-25 campaign came to a close when the second-seeded Pope John XXIII Regional High School girls basketball team bowed to top-seeded Morris Catholic, 66-34, in the championship game of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) North Jersey, Non-Public A Tournament on Monday, March 10 at Franklin High School in Somerset.
The Lions were seeking their second straight sectional title after winning a year ago for the first time since 1998.
Morris Catholic, the No. 1 ranked team in the state, improved to 27-0 with the win.
Pope John trailed, 15-12, before Morris Catholic’s offense came alive in a 23-3 second-quarter showing.
Mia Washington scored a game-high 17 points for Pope John, which also received 10 points from Natalija Novkovic and five points apiece from Marisa Captoni and Katie O’Keefe.
Pope John, under head coach Peter Torres, finished with a record of 21-7 this winter, including an 8-3 mark in the American Division of the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference. Its two divisional losses were to Chatham, which is ranked No. 4 in the state.
The Lions also reached the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament final, where they bowed to neighboring rival, Sparta, 40-38. Pope John had won the title for the first time last season.
The team was led this year by Washington, a junior guard who averaged 19.2 points a game, made 46 3-pointers and will take 1,176 career points into next season.
Other catalysts for the Lions included O’Keefe (9.4 points per game), Nokovic (7.4 ppg), Captoni (6.6 ppg), Cailey Fitzmorris (2.5 ppg), Madeline Tybur (2.1 ppg), Caitlin O’Malley (3.6 ppg) and Alexandra Arbore (1.1 ppg).
Here’s how other Pope John teams fared recently:
Ice hockey
Pope John, seeded ninth, held a one-goal lead late in the second period before eighth-seeded Seton Hall Prep connected for four straight goals in a 5-2 loss in the first round of the NJSIAA Non-Public state tournament Feb. 25 at Codey Arena in West Orange.
Hunter Parrillo and Sean Hughes each scored as the Lions took a 2-1 lead with 4:09 remaining in the second period. Seton Hall Prep, ranked No. 9 in the state, then received a goal and two assists from John Renzullo as part of its closing four-goal outburst.
Pope John finished 14-6-1 this season under head coach Ryan Brown. The team was led by Parrillo (20 goals, six assists), Nicholas Colatrella (11 goals, 10 assists), Luke Jarosiewicz (four goals, 17 assists), Magnuss Bars (eight goals, 10 assists), Aidan Perry (four goals, 10 assists), Liam Amabile (four goals, nine assists), Jack Jarosiewicz (three goals, eight assists), Hughes (three goals, seven assists) and Cameron Guerra (six goals, four assists).
Goalie Mason Giordano halted slightly fewer than 400 shots this season for a 0.893 save percentage.
Indoor track
Joey Rozynski placed eighth in the 55-meter dash in 6.49 and 13th in the 200-meter dash in 22.42 to pace Pope John at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions on March 2 at Ocean Breeze in Staten Island, N.Y.
Seamus Corcoran was 16th in the pole vault with an effort of 12-6; the 4x400 relay team of Corcoran, Joshua Watson, Charles Peterson and Tyler Wright was 25th with a time of 3:36.59; and Joshua Watson was 27th in the 55-meter hurdles to round out the boys competitors.
On the girls side, Casey Carney was 13th in the 800-meter run in 2:17.29; Katelyn Nolan was 14th in the 3,200-meter run in 10:59.60; Tessa MacMullin was 16th in the triple jump in 34-10; and Peyton Richards placed 29th in the shot put with a throw of 29-4.75.
The 4x400 relay team of Carney, MacMullin, Katy Miller and Julia Ireland was 11th in 4:02.60, and the 4x800 relay team of Ireland, Miller, Gwendolyn O’Hearn and Tanya Makhija was 21st in 10:17.63.
Sussex Tech bowling
The second-seeded Mustangs concluded their season with a 5-2 loss to seventh-seeded Park Ridge in the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 1, Group 1 tournament on Feb. 13 at Sparta Lanes.
Sussex Tech (12-5) was led by Owen Demeter (628 high series, 235 high game), Ethan Corrado (628 series, 227 high game), Kyra Birchenough (525 series, 212 high game), Gabrial Chase (458 series, 173 high game), Mike Christensen (317 series, 178 high game) and Hunter Gieger (128 high game).