


Other Numbers of Note
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Susan Blauser grabbed 1,124 rebounds in her career, including 417 as a senior in 1995...Her older sister, Lauren, is second on the Berries' all-time list with 968..
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Rachel Agnew handed out 153 assists and Carla Stephens issued 103 for Cranberry's third straight state championship team in 1995...And in addition to scoring at a 23.4 ppg clip and pulling down more than 400 rebounds, Susan Blauser led the team in steals with 108. Sabrina Agnew added 93 and averaged 16.5 points.
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Carrie Mason shot 89 percent from the line and holds school records for assists (757) and steals (425). She averaged 25.8 ppg from 1998-01.
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Too bad...Lorrain Etzel's record is very incomplete. He scored 473 points as a senior in 1965, but Derricks and News-Heralds are pretty much unavailable online for his junior and sophomore seasons. He was, however, averaging 14 points through the first 11 games of his junior year, which would give him 627. And, if he scored at that clip the rest of 1963-64, he would be approaching 800 career points...Dan Vogan, who ended his career in 1972 with 973 points, missed several games his junior year with a fractured wrist...
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More Tough Luck: Matt McQuaide's junior season was cut short by an injury. He played in only the first eight games...McQuade also grabbed 17 rebounds when he scored a career-high 40 the next season, Jan. 30, 2020, in a come-from-behind victory over Redbank Valley...McQuaide finished his career with 762 points...
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Jack Stack put together back-to-back games of 36 and 41 points for the Berries to ring down the curtain of the 1942 season...The Blizzard said the 41 was "believed to be a modern individual scoring record for district high schools..."Jack Stack had a brother named George. They called him "Smoke"...
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The 1947 Berry Bush had Merle Sheffer for 385 points and the Berries winning 23 games. I looked through the paper and he had 260 points (not including a win over East Brady when the opposing coach took the Bulldogs off the floor with Cranberry ahead 18-5 in the second quarter) and the team ended with a 15-6 record -- four of the losses coming to Rocky Grove. Don't know if they were counting games from the Emlenton tourney or what. And Sheffer didn't even play in those.
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Cranberry boys ended a 33-game losing streak with a victory over Commodore Perry in 1981. The Berries were 0-23 the year before...Brilliant in defeat: In addition to scoring 36 points, Kevin Dumpe grabbed 25 rebounds in 79-77 loss to Franklin on Jan. 22, 1974...The Berries beat Franklin later on that season behind Roy Sanner's career-high 37 points. Cranberry was credited with 30 team assists that game...
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There were no 30-point games for the Cranberry girls during the 1992-93 season despite the presence of the Blauser sisters in the lineup to name two, but Susan Blauser really went to town as a junior in 1993-94 re-writing the single-game school record book with 37-, 38-, 39-, 40- and 41-point outings...She hit 16 of 19 shots from the floor, including a rare three-point attempt, in the 39-point game against Eisenhower...She made 20 of 22 when she scored 42...Her previous career high before she first broke the record was 29 (three times)...
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The girls reached the century mark for the first time in a 101-36 romp over Franklin on Oct. 11, 1977. The old scoring record was 81 points set earlier in that season against Franklin...Merle Sheffer had been credited with scoring a school record 385 points (or whatever) in 1947, but his total included those post-season tournaments they had before the PIAA playoffs were expanded in 1972. Jack Stack's totals had been "jacked" for the same reason, but now only his regular season totals are counted here...Dan Shaffer had 40-, 36-, 35-, and 30-point games in 1977-78 when he just missed a 500-point season, finishing with 498...
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Berries fielded girls basketball teams during the 1930s, but by 1942, the program was gone. Big stars of that era were Emily Burgi with her 321 points in 1938 and 39- and 31-point games and 6-3 Norma Vogelaar, who played in only 40 games, many of which the scoring is not accounted for (i.e., not in the paper), but she had 518 points in the 21 games I could find for her. That includes a 38-point outburst in one of them...
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The Tri-County League was formed in 1941 and the Berries, coached by Howard Smith, won the first title...
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The Berry Bush on the 1937 boys team:
Willie Hricsina -- "one of those boys from River Ridge Farm"
John Flick -- "hails from that place called Seneca"
Gene Strawbridge -- "hails from the small town of Bredinsburg"
Bob Weaver -- "sophomore who hails from Cranberry"
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Cranberry's colors used to be blue and white.

Norma Vogelaar (No. 18 in this photo) scored an unheard of 38 points against Hickory (Warren County) on March 7, 1939. Cranberry fielded some juggernauts in the late 1930s. Emily Burgh scored an unheard of 321 points in 1938. Norma's dad, Martin, was born in Holland, and was a gardener for Joseph Sibley at River Ridge. He built a greenhouse on Mercer Road in Franklin in 1951. Norma belonged to the Latin and glee clubs in high school. According to the Berry Bush, "she was always up to some devilish trick." She later became Norma Falconer and lived in Stockton, Calif. But...not only did she have that 38-point game, Vogelaar also had a 33- and two 30-point efforts. In eight games I found in the paper, she scored 212 points...

Emily Merryman riddled the nets for 45- and 42-point games for the Berries. (Eric Elliott/Derrick screenshot)

Ryan Willison is Cranberry's all-time leading scorer with 1,771 points. (Eric Elliott/Derrick screenshot)