Published Saturday, March 6, 1999 
GROVE CITY - Like an awestruck survivor of a natural disaster, Linesville High School head basketball coach John Acklin could only ruefully acknowledge the fury of the force that had just wreaked havoc on his club.
"There's such a disparity in talent between the two (teams') kids, there's just no way you can compete at the level. I mean, they're the defending state champs and they may lose, but it's gonna take a heckava team to beat them,'' Acklin praised, following Kennedy Christian's 73-50 victory Friday night in the District 10 Class A title title.
The Golden Eagles soared to their third straight D-10 crown in impressive fashion, claiming their ninth consecutive victory and 15th in the last 16 outings. Collectively, in its three district playoff wins. Kennedy defeated Villa Maria, Cochranton and Linesville by a combined 111 points.
Although the round of 32 is just beginning, Kennedy is playing so well at this juncture, it's difficult to conceive the club could surpass its current clip.
Connecting on nine of its first 14 floor shots while coercing Linesville into a handful of turnovers and 3-for-11 shooting, Kennedy assumed a commanding 23-9 first-quarter lead. By intermission, the Golden Eagles extended that advantage to an insurmountable 47-18 as Ryan McElhinny and John Reimold tallied nine and eight points, respectively, Marcus Oatis and Keenan Christiansen evenly split 14 additional markers, and Gary Satterwhite turned in a 7-point, 5-rebound, 2-blocked shots contribution from the bench. In all eight players scored.
"The first half, we played very well,'' acknowledged veteran mentor Joe Votino. "I mean, the whole team. Boy, we're just passing the ball so well, we find the open guy, we're playing so hard on defense.
"It's very important that we have a scouting report and we know what (the opposing team) are running,'' Votino related. "And our kids are pretty smart. Every scouting report we have presented to them - and we have walk-throughs and we go over exactly how they're supposed to defend people - they basically do it to a 'T' and that's very important...
"Man, am I impressed,'' the characteristically cautious Votino admitted. "I'm impressed with how hard we play, I'm impressed with how together we play. We're such a different team. We're no longer relying on one guy anymore; we've got five, six guys in double figures. ... When we were beating Mercer and West Middlesex, we still weren't playing that well, even though we were winning by wide margins. We started playing a little bit better in that Slippery Rock game, that was a close one. But, boy, since then, we have really started playing basketball as a team!''
Although its intensity level waned somewhat during the second half, Kennedy just coasted, although Satterwhite, owing to his handful of blocked shots, became an immediate fan favorite.
"Gary Satterwhite's just unbelievable!'' Votino gushed.
The Golden Eagles (19-6) featured a quartet of double-digit scorers, led by Oatis and Christiansen, who split 26 points, and Reimold and McElhinny, who added 12 and 11 markers, respectively. Illustrating Votino's contention regarding his club's selflessness, McElhinny distributed a handful of assists, Christiansen and Reimold four each, and Oatis added three as Kennedy was credited with 18 assists. That, in part, explained the Golden Eagles' collective 53.5 percent (30 of 56) shooting.
Linesville (20-7) was led by slender sophomore sharpshooter Steve Button, who poured in a game-high 27 points by connecting on half of his two-dozen shots. But Button - who already surpassed the career 1,000-point plateau in the Lions' recent semifinal win over Iroquois, had little help. Collectively, Linesville connected on only 19 of 55 (34.5) floor shots and was guilty of 19 turnovers.
"We're doing things the right way, and we're executing,'' Votino emphasized. "It doesn't matter who you're playing, as long as you're doing the right things, and we're doing that.''
Notes: Satterwhite's eight boards and Reimold's half-dozen led Kennedy to a 36-33 margin on the boards, although Pat Crum collared a game-high 10 caroms for Linesville. ... Reimold turned in 6-for-7 shooting and Oatis was 6-for-8. ... Kennedy committed 14 turnovers. ... the Lions lost starter Kevin Kral less than three full minutes into the game due to a severely sprained left ankle and he never returned.
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DISTRICT 10 CLASS A CHAMPIONSHIP
KENNEDY CHRISTIAN 23 24 10 16 73
LINESVILLE 9 9 6 26 50
KENNEDY CHRISTIAN - Oatis 6-1-2-13; R. McElhinny 2-6-6-11; J. Reimold 6-0-0-12; Christiansen 6-0-0-13; T. Hurl 2-0-0-4; Satterwhite 4-1-4-9; D. McElhinny 2-0-0-5; Hockett 2-2-2-6; N. Reimold 0-0-0-0; Rossi 0-0-0-0; George 0-0-0-0; Clayton 0-0-0-0; G. Hurl 0-0-0-0; Pisegna 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goals: R. McElhinny 1, Christiansen 1, D. McElhinny 1. Totals: 30-10-14-73.
LINESVILLE - Button 12-3-8-27; Chesko 2-2-2-6; Crum 2-3-8-8; Kingston 0-0-0-0; Kral 0-0-0-0; Deets 0-0-0-0; Hruska 2-0-0-5; Greenawalt 1-1-2-4; Summers 0-0-0-0; Litwiler 0-0-0-0; Pysher 0-0-0-0.3-pt.
