Early on in Thursday night’s District 11 Class A quarterfinal game between Weatherly and Lincoln Leadership Academy, the contest became a tale between two sophomores.

LL’s Gilberto Rodriguez and Weatherly’s Scotty Zoscin traded three-pointers for the lead — one of only two times in the first quarter that the Wreckers led during the game.

After an early Weatherly 21-20 advantage, it was all Lions from there on out, as Lincoln Leadership cruised to an 80-56 win to advance to Monday’s semifinal game.

“We weren’t prepared the first time we met them, and experience-wise, we have a young team,” Lincoln head coach Pernell Hosier said. “No. 1 (Rodriguez) is a sophomore, and he’s been tremendous all year. We had guys that didn’t have experience, and they’re finally starting to get going.”

Weatherly beat Lincoln Leadership on the road during the regular season, 71-69 on Dec. 22. The latest outing, held at Northwestern Lehigh, had some slight changes.

There was still a Lincoln high scorer, but this time it was Rodriguez (game-high 30 points) instead of Josh Gonzalez, who had 18 points in Thursday’s win. Both players made the most of their shots, and the defensive end for the Lions proved to pay off in the rematch.

“He was definitely looking forward to this game,” Hosier said about Rodriguez. “He really didn’t have a great game the first time they met. He had nine points. This is a game that he marked when we found out we were playing Weatherly.

Zoscin was the leading Weatherly scorer with 23 points. He also accounted for 12 of the first 14 Wrecker points with four three-pointers in the first quarter. Antonio Colecio joined Zoscin as the only other Weatherly player to have a double-digit night with 16 points.

“We came in with a good game plan,” Weatherly head coach Corey Gerhart said. “We were going to try to shut No. 13 (Gonzalez) down, and again somebody else lights it up. We played good for the most part, good defense. With us being young and only losing one senior, hopefully we can get back to the playoffs next year.”

DEFENSE … Lincoln Leadership coach Pernell Hosier talked about how his defense was more prepared for this matchup. “More importantly, it was defense. We didn’t do a great job rebounding, so that’s why I wanted a big lineup to try to make sure we won the rebounding war, and I think we did that. We controlled the tempo. Last game, we didn’t really get to press and push the ball like we wanted to. This time, we got it under control and once we got the tempo, we were able to dictate the game.”

UP NEXT FOR LL … Lincoln Leadership will face Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg in Monday’s semifinal. “They’re a tough team,” said Hosier. “They’re a well-coached team. I think my guys are prepared. I think they’re going to come out with a lot more energy. Again, we played them the second game of the season and lost by 12 or 13. I think right now it’s about the kids, about being more prepared and ready to go.” Notre Dame beat LL 80-67 on Dec. 8.

GERHART ON THE SEASON … Weatherly coach Corey Gerhart talked about how the 2018-19 Wreckers season went. “I would’ve liked to win a lot more games. Our record doesn’t indicate the talent we have on the floor. We’ll learn from that and hopefully, we build on that. The offseason we are going to be working hard on some of the things we need to work on.” The Wreckers ended the season 7-16.

WEATHERLY

Zoscin 7-3-3-23, Colecio 6-3-3-16, Gerhart 1-0-0-2, Lowman 2-1-1-5, E. Derr 0-3-4-3, Obert 2-1-2-5, Berger 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 19-11-13-56.

LINCOLN LEADERSHIP

Rodriguez 8-6-7-30, Concepcion 0-0-0-0, Gonzalez 6-2-2-18, Cruz 4-1-2-9, de los Santos 2-1-2-6, Vasquez 1-1-2-3, Diaz 0-0-0-0, Wynder 1-0-0-2, Moore-Rawlins 0-0-2-0, J. Pagan 3-3-4-10, A. Pagan 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 28-15-21-80.

Weatherly 21 13 7 15 - 56

Lincoln LA 20 21 20 19 - 80

Three-pointers: Weatherly - Zoscin 6, Colecio 1; Lincoln LA - Rodriguez 5, Gonzalez 4, de los Santos 1.