By Christopher A. Vito cvito@delcotimes.com

RADNOR — The next game could not come soon enough for Archbishop Carroll.

Last Friday, the Patriots had their perfect season halted against Catholic League Blue Division powerhouse Neumann-Goretti. And the three days between games was almost unbearable.

“It definitely put a sour taste in my mouth,” said Carroll senior Andre Wilburn, of the Patriots’ 11-game winning streak coming to an end. “That’s all we were thinking about the last couple days, is what they did to us.”

Poised to keep their skid at one game, the Patriots took out their aggression on Archbishop Wood, the unfortunate next opponent on Carroll’s schedule. Wilburn scored 15 points and hauled in 10 rebounds as the Patriots led for all but the opening three minutes of their 54-45 win over the Vikings.

To Wilburn, it did not matter who the Patriots were playing. That’s what having their unbeaten record blemished meant to him. But it did not hurt the Patriots’ cause that Carroll (12-1, 7-1) and Wood (11-2, 6-2) were tied for second place in their division.

A win over Wood could be a valuable commodity when the playoffs roll around. Only three Class AAA teams from District XII advance to the PIAA tournament, and a maximum of two are available to Catholic League teams.

“We knew Wood only had one loss as well, and to the same team we lost to in Neumann-Goretti,” said Carroll coach Paul Romanczuk. “This was a battle for second place and I was kind of hoping … this would be a real character win for us.”

The first of Wilburn’s six buckets put Carroll on the board and his second gave the Patriots the lead for good, at the three-minute mark of the first quarter.

Though the Patriots led, 20-15, at halftime, they did not put away the game until the second half, when they turned the game’s tempo in their favor. They forced Wood into making six turnovers in the first nine minutes out of intermission and led by as many as 11, at 41-30.

And without a comparable big man, Wood could not handle the inside presence Carroll senior Kasheef Festus. The 6-5, 240-pound forward dumped in 11 of his 15 points in the third and fourth quarters.

“We went their way in the first quarter and even the second, but then we made them play our way afterward,” said Festus, who also had eight boards. “They made us play that half-court offense that really isn’t us. When we went into the break and turned it up a notch, it started going our way.”

The Vikings had no choice but to resort to their outside shooting if they were to stay close. Fran Dougherty hit both of his 3-pointers in the second half and Doug Macrone converted all five of his after halftime.

But the Patriots owned the equalizer in taking care of the basketball. Sophomore guard Juan’Ya Green joined Wilburn and Festus in double figures, tallying 11 points and five assists.

The three-day layoff following their loss to Neumann-Goretti was not all sour grapes for the Patriots. Romanczuk’s wife Kelly gave birth to their second son, Collin Wendell, hours after Friday’s game.

“I was able to erase that memory pretty quickly with something joyous,” said Romanczuk, whose eldest son, Cooper, is 18 months old. “I had my phone in my pocket the last couple games, wondering when the call would come. I got home at 10:30 and we had him at 1:30.”