Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes McDonald’s Joey Cappuzello drives to the basket as Springfield’s Dylan Sheely defends.

MCDONALD – With one senior and eight sophomores making up a bulk of the Blue Devils roster, McDonald has endured some growing pains throughout the season. It seems the Devils may be hitting their stride.

A gritty victory 57-54 at home over a veteran-heavy Springfield Tigers squad is a win that the Blue Devils hope can propel them forward.

A trio of players hit 12 points for McDonald (7-6): senior Wyatt Wolford and sophomores Brady Klockner and Joey Cappuzzello. Their seventh win of the campaign also matches their previous season’s total. It also was the Blue Devils’ first win over the Tigers since January 2020.

“Our guys were resilient tonight, we really were. We’ve been battling and battling, we had a couple of rough games, but really got over the hump against Jackson-Milton,” McDonald coach James Franceschelli said. “(Springfield) is a well-coached team. Coach Brink is one of the best around and their players play so hard. For our guys to match that tonight, we have one senior and eight sophomores, that’s a program-changing win for us hopefully.”

Springfield (9-3) held a slim 9-7 edge following the first quarter, in a contest that was a nip-and-tuck affair, but McDonald started off the second with a quick three buried by Klockner to engineer the beginning of a 7-0 Blue Devils run.

Both teams kept pace with each other, but Tigers junior Carson Cunningham scored eight points in the second quarter, including a late bucket to provide his team with a 32-31 lead going into the intermission.

Later up 37-34 following a make by Springfield senior Dylan Sheely, McDonald sophomore Casey Miller replied by drilling a key three-pointer in front of his team’s bench. Following trading of points, the host Blue Devils took the lead for good at the 3:04 mark following a pair of free throws from Cappuzzello. A 9-0 run by McDonald included clutch threes from sophomores Jonathan Black and Drew Zajack, who helped keep the Tigers out of the net until the 50.6 mark.

Springfield was able to piece together some possessions via steals that included some swift makes by junior Aiden Appel, who tallied 11 points, in the final 50 seconds of the game, but McDonald made enough free throws to keep a pace ahead.

“It’s a big program win for us. They’re a good team, they play very physical. Our younger guys have grown up a lot over the season and it’s a big win,” Wolford said. “It’s a great group effort, and it’s great to see it. It just means we can all trust each other, that’s the biggest factor. Some games during the beginning of the season (scoring) was pretty heavy on one person or another, so getting it evenly distributed is pretty important in case we’re defended pretty well.”

Cappuzzello added, “We’ve had more guys play and everyone who is coming in is playing hard and able to hit shots in big moments, that really helps us. (Free throws) help win games, making free throws are easy points, you just have to be able to knock them down, especially if the other team is making a run.”

Appel led Springfield with 13 points, senior Sean Guerriero added 12. Sheely (11) and Cunningham (10) also found double-figures in scoring.

“We scraped and fought, made it close, but to be honest we dug ourselves too big of a hole. We didn’t shoot it well tonight at all. I thought our shot selection and shooting was definitely a factor and hurt us,” Tigers coach Jeff Brink said. “Our guys are experienced guys. They’re all tough kids, basketball is a long season, there’s going to be bumps in the road.

“You just got to be able to get back in the lab and get to work. You got to look at it and say hey, it’s part of the season, take it as a learning experience.”

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