Can past inspire Carroll to AAA state title win over Imhotep?

JOE MOSTARDI has spent the past few days trying to channel Beyoncé.

Not by singing. By texting.

His message, in effect . . .

If we win it, then we'll get to put a ring on it.

And Mostardi, a 6-1, 155-pound junior wing guard, is relying not only on words to inspire his Archbishop Carroll High basketball teammates. Evidence of the ultimate prize is tucked away in the photos portion of his cellphone, and it's not just sitting there.

The 2008-09 season was the Catholic League's first in PIAA competition and the Patriots wound up storming to the Class AAA state title. Joe was then a seventh-grader at St. Anastasia, in Newtown Square, but his brother, Vince, was a deep junior sub for Carroll.

Judging by the image in Joe's phone, which he proudly displayed before practice, the title rings are pretty darn cool.

The top is red [Carroll's primary color] with AC in bold relief. On one side is a Patriot logo. On the other is a basket, with a ball passing through in midswish, and Vince's surname.

"I've been texting this to all my teammates," Joe said. "And telling them, 'One more win and we'll get one of these!' Everybody's pretty excited."

On Friday, 8 p.m., at Hershey's Giant Center, Carroll will meet another District 12 team, Public League champion Imhotep Charter, for the AAA crown.

Mostardi will be the guy on the wing, trying to knock down treys and/or making snappy passes, whatever coach Paul Romanczuk is requiring.

Mostardi finished with just one point Tuesday night as the Patriots bested Montour, 50-45, in the semis. Please don't think he visited Bricksville. He attempted just one shot from the floor, as did the other wing guard, Nick Jones, while the inside guys, sophomores Derrick Jones and Ernest Aflakpui, combined for 26 shots and 36 points.

Montour was vastly undersized down low "and those guys [Joe/Nick] bought into our plan to force the ball inside," Romanczuk said.

With gyrations and facial expressions, Romanczuk then made sure to relay the details of what he considered the play of the game, Mostardi's late assist to Aflakpui.

A high pass was coming Romanczuk's way. The ball was so off-target, he said, he put up his hands and prepared to catch it. Instead, Mostardi soared/snagged and followed with a perfect feed to Aflakpui, who was more than 25 feet away.

By now, longtime Catholic League fans are likely saying to themselves, "Mostardi . . . Mostardi . . . Hmm, I wonder if . . . "

He is. The boys' father, Dan, was a two-sport star for Carroll (class of 1981), earning first team coaches' All-Catholic honors in basketball and first-team All-City laurels in baseball. He played the latter sport at Villanova and ranks sixth on the school's career list for stolen bases.

Dan and his wife, Anna, have one other child. Nicole, age 9, also focuses on basketball.

"She's going to be good, I guarantee you," Joe said. "My dad has her working out just as hard as we do."

While Joe can't offer many vivid memories of Carroll's '09 title run, he does recall watching the title game on TV and attending the school's on-campus parade, which also celebrated the championship collected that same weekend by the girls' team.

The next year, Vince, who's now playing at Penn State Brandywine, went from deep sub to rotation member and had the pleasure, at the Palestra, of getting the assist on the basket by Anthony Butler that sent the Patriots to the CL final with a victory over La Salle.

"Remember that?" Joe said. "I was actually talking about it today."

This year, Imhotep and Carroll can be considered side-door and backdoor finalists, respectively. 'Tep fell to Neumann-Goretti for the City Title while Carroll was dumped by same in a CL semi. They wound up being the second and fourth seeds, respectively, out of District 12. (In '09, there was no fourth seed.) N-G's '13 season ended with a loss in the quarterfinals, the same round in which Carroll stunned the Saints in '09.

"We thought we were going to do better in the Catholic League this season," Mostardi said. "But now we have a chance to redeem ourselves.

"We played Neumann in our league opener and hung with them pretty much the whole time, until they pulled away at the end. We thought things would be different at the Palestra [for the semi], but . . . Didn't work out that way. We proved we still had that fight in us. We've kept pulling out wins. One more to go.

"I've been talking to my brother a lot. He keeps reminding me about how awesome everything was. And how it would be even better for me since I'm a starter on this team."

Interestingly, Carroll's hoops coach in '81 was Barry Kirsch and he's still there as a math teacher. So are two other men who taught Dan, ex-football boss Dan Bielli (health/phys ed) and Joe Dowd (theology).

"Mr. Kirsch is always messing around, cracking jokes about my father," Joe said, laughing. "Mr. Bielli and Mr. Dowd are always saying how good he was . . . Too bad I didn't get to see him play.

"I know my dad was the best of all three of us. It would be really nice to hear someone say I play like he did."

Maybe next year. Maybe as a defending state champion.

That would have a nice ring.