Waynesburg coach ends career on tough loss
NORTH HUNTINGDON – Mark Stoner imagined a much different ending to his 23-year coaching career. He imagined going out a winner, with a bang, with his son happily leading the way into the sunset.
Instead, the Waynesburg coach went out on the back end of a 54-50 loss to Valley in the preliminary round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs.
And Stoner sure could’ve used his son, Nathan, last night at Norwin High School. But the team’s leading scorer sat out the loss with an ankle injury.
No, this was not a fairy-tale ending.
“The best player on this team was out,” Stoner said of his son. “If he plays – well, you see the score. I don’t want to take anything away from Valley. They played well. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
So Stoner, 47, called it a career. Instead of coming back for a third season as Waynesburg Central’s head coach next winter, he’ll continue working for Coca-Cola and spend his free time watching his son play college basketball.
“It’s been a grind,” Stoner said. “A lot of people probably think it’s because my son’s leaving, but I’ve been doing it for 23 years, and I’ve struggled with a real bad hip this year and missed two months of work. I’ll go back to work Monday. They want to shoot me up with cortisone. I hate needles, guys. You think I’m crying now. Oh, my God, that’ll drive me through a wall.”
Tears flowed freely in the Waynesburg locker room, but the excuses didn’t. And they could have.
The game went down to the wire and a controversial intentional foul call against Waynesburg factored into the outcome.
After Heath Gorby’s basket cut Valley’s lead to 52-50 with 7.5 seconds left, Valley’s Jonathan Stuck heaved a long inbounds pass to a streaking Tyler Santucci. Gorby caught up to Santucci and fouled him as he went up for a lay-up. The official called an intentional foul with 5.1 seconds left.
Not only did Santucci receive two free throws – of which he made one – but Valley also was awarded the ball. And since the intentional foul was only the third of the half against Waynesburg, the Raiders had to foul four more times before Valley went to the line again.
When Valley did finally go to the line, there were 1.9 seconds left and Santucci made another free throw for a game-clinching 4-point lead.
“I didn’t think it was an intentional foul,” Stoner said after being asked about the call. “It wasn’t cheap; he didn’t go down or anything like that. You should let the kids win the game. But what are you going to do?”
Valley held the largest lead of the game, by either team, at halftime, 30-22, but Waynesburg rallied behind the hot shooting of C.J. Mason.
Mason made three 3-point shots in the third quarter, and his third gave Waynesburg a 37-35 lead. The score was tied four more times but the lead changed hands only once – and Valley kept it throughout the last-second fireworks.
Mason led Waynesburg with 14 points. Teammate Anthony Bocchini scored 12 points and had 6 steals. Zack Phillips scored 10 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.
Valley was led by Stuck with 12 points and 6-foot-8 center Andrew Barker with 8 points and 15 rebounds.
Valley (11-11) will play top-seeded Moon (19-4) in the first round early next week. Waynesburg ended its season 13-12.
“I’ve been with some great guys,” said Stoner, a former assistant at West Greene and Waynesburg, as well as Waynesburg College. “It’s a different style now; I’m a fiery guy. But these guys have responded. I can’t take anything away from this group.
“I’ve been through the wars. It’s just time to do something else. I hope my assistant, Aaron Ankrom, a great, great, great kid who’s really starting to assert himself, succeeds me. I think he’d make a great head coach.”