Red Lion Looks The Part As Young Lions Make Quick Work Of Conestoga Valley To Draw Date With Northern York In Cedar Cliff Holiday Tournament Final, Drop Buckskins To Third-Place Game Against Hosts
Written by: Andy Herr on December 26, 2024
This is usually the time of year when we start to get a clearer picture on things. A more concise view as to who exactly figure to serve in their respective roles in terms of being either a mover or a shaker in each of the four Lancaster-Lebanon League division races if you will. And right on cue, while those narratives are once again taking shape just a few days prior to the official flip over to the new calendar year, so too is the Section Two’s landscape starting to get a bit of a read.
Granted, while the Warwick Warriors are the ones currently sitting pretty while owning a 3-0 divisional mark, their resume admittedly did take somewhat of a body blow their last time out on Monday evening when the Warriors proceeded to drop their first game of the season to a currently sub .500 Palmyra team in a game which took place on Warwick’s home floor. Beyond them, the Ephrata Mounts also sit undefeated in section play, followed next by Cocalico, before then finding and locating Conestoga Valley sitting right there, just a game behind Cocalico heading into January.
In terms of CV’s season thus far, it’s been a little of this, and a little of that.
For the positives, a pair of back-to-back triumphs on the road against Dallastown and Garden Spot respectively stick out first and foremost, a pretty sultry stretch for any team tabulated up until that point. Now, as far as the somewhat “down” side to things, almost certainly that can be traced to a pair of back-to-back losses in two separate instances throughout the month of December, ironically enough being the bookends which sandwiched that aforementioned winning streak. All told, while the Buckskins may have come into their holiday tournament at Cedar Cliff over on Cumberland County’s west shore with a 3-4 overall mark to their name, one could reasonably make the argument that of all teams residing in any one of the divisions that folks may not be yet “talking about”, Conestoga Valley has certainly proven themselves to be a squad that can – and will – keep opposing coaches up late at night in trying to scheme against the Buckskins.
So, here, on the day right after Christmas, Conestoga Valley loaded up their wagons and headed west for their initial date with Red Lion over at Cedar Cliff to help get the tourney underway on Thursday night inside the Colts’ house.
But as the Lions by way of the York-Adams League were about to demonstrate, while they be young in terms of age, do not let their overwhelming amount youthful pieces fool you. For if Red Lion can bottle up and utilize this same formula over the next several seasons, forget about being a team to contend with inside their own neck of the woods for a second. Instead, Red Lion may prove to be a household name in the District 3 realm if their performance against Conestoga Valley is to serve as any indication of things perhaps yet to come.
Simply put, if the message uttered back in the clubhouse prior to tip-off in Red Lion camp was to start things off in a manner so decisive that any sort of impending drama wouldn’t even make its way off the proverbial runway against Conestoga Valley, let’s just keep it simple and say that the directive was received loud and clear beforehand if so.
In fact, following a smooth floater in the lane tallied by way of Lions’ sophomore guard, Isaiah Ogurcak, Red Lion had already found themselves with a double figure lead, 12-2, with the opening quarter already nearing its midway point by that juncture.
And while CV’s freshman guard, DeMere Salisbery, would keep the deficit at ten, 15-5, following a triple sunk which ended the Buckskins’ extended scoring drought at the time, an ensuing triple down on the other end, this courtesy of Kade Shepherd, made it a 21-8 Lions’ advantage before a leak-out bucket in transition courtesy of Ogurcak helped to send Red Lion into the second stanza with a commanding 27-8 buffer placed between themselves and Conestoga Valley.
Speaking of Conestoga Valley’s explosive freshman talent, he would be found showing off nearly the entire magazine of weaponry inside his arsenal once the second frame commenced.
Granted, while the current situation as it related to Red Lion still being found out front by a 31-15 count might’ve seemed to be right on par with how things had begun at large with the Lions keeping the Buckskins at bay, DeMere Salisbery was most certainly doing his best to almost single-handedly keep CV in the fight, especially considering how his two successive triples sunk had helped to get the team from Witmer claw back to within their closest distance in quite some time at that 16-point difference. Speaking of Salisbery, the flesh and blood of one of the greatest players the L-L League has ever seen in any sort of capacity from his days at McCaskey, Dustin Salisbery, the heir to one Lancaster County’s household names in a basketball sense would proceed to tally all of Conestoga Valley’s points throughout the second stanza all by his lonesome.
However, as would be another prevailing theme that would emerge and take hold throughout the remainder of the night, for every little of tangible momentum that Conestoga Valley was able to muster, Red Lion would just as quickly be right there to throw buckets of ice-cold water on any of these best laid Buckskins’ plans.
In fact, following a fantastic rebuttal in the face of CV’s most ardent of challenges posed thus far to date, Red Lion, namely via their sophomore class most especially, would be the ones to inflict the greatest amount of damage against CV in response.
First, a smooth spot-up J cashed in via the handiwork of forward Chase Ruch before another Ogurcak jumper, a two-point addition to what would culminate in a game-high 25-point performance once the night was through for Ogurcak, helped to usher the Lions into the break with the advantageous position of sitting just 16 minutes away from a date in the title fight with the aid of a 39-17 halftime lead serving as the prevailing wind at their backs.
The good news from Conestoga Valley’s perspective? The third quarter on Thursday night would prove to be their finest of all periods put forth against Red Lion. The bad news you ask? Well, despite making visible hay in terms of chipping and clipping the Red Lion buffer down to size somewhat, the Lions could just as easily fall back and catch themselves in lieu of their commanding lead that had already been generated.
Ironically, for as much as DeMere Salisbery largely stole the show for CV in the second quarter, another Buckskins’ underclassman, Sawyer Esbenshade, was right there behind him as the junior sniper did the yeoman’s work in terms of trying to lift his crew upwards inside the third act.
Case in point, following an eight-point salvo that was exclusively authored by way of Esbenshade, CV had somewhat quietly whittled the Red Lion lead down to a much more modest hole, 48-32, with inside of five minutes left to play and momentum starting to tilt ever so slightly in the Bucks’ direction.
But again, as would come out in wash at nearly every turn on this night, Red Lion’s rebuttals with be nothing if not difficult for the Buckskins to try and counter against.
There, with the winds of change starting to go against them, the Lions once again turned to the underclassmen found in their rank and file. Turned out that would prove to be another fruitful decision on their part.
First, a timely take to the cup courtesy of junior guard, Kade Shepherd, which would then precede a jumper knocked down by Ogurcak right before the third quarter horn. And once that buzzer did ultimately blare out, all of that earlier Conestoga Vallley-engineered mojo was just as quickly pushed aside considering the 55-32 Red Lion advantage come the end of three.
In the fourth, even with the outcome already being out of reach, Red Lion just kept swinging nonetheless.
Wouldn’t you know it, but thanks to another couple of 3-balls splashed by in Ben Martin to begin the frame – yet another sophomore found in the Lions’ rotation – the current #12-ranked team in the very early District 3-6A power rankings looked to be of the part and then some considering the mercy-rule they were able to inflict on a fellow 6A outfit as the final stanza drug onward from there.
Yet while CV’s Sawyer Esbenshade would chip in another 3-ball to add to his night’s work, this one helping to push him over the top in terms of claiming team-high scoring honors with a 16-point showing once the dust had settled, making it a 65-38 affair with the running clock already having gone into effect, that would indeed turn out to be the final scoring tabulated on what was a thorough and dominant Red Lion showing against Conestoga Valley which ended in a 65-38 verdict in the opening round of the Cedar Cliff Holiday Tournament.
From here, while this will obviously be a tough pill to swallow, not the least of which could be tied to this being the Buckskins’ largest margin of defeat so far this season, there is no rest for the weary. For them, it’s time to get back into the saddle just one day later, this time playing Cedar Cliff on the Colts’ home floor, as the hosts fell to Northern York in the opposite first round matchup held on Thursday night. After that, it’s a three-game gauntlet against the likes of the defending L-L conference champs, Cedar Crest, on January 3rd, before then meeting up with stalwarts Hershey and Cocalico directly afterwards.
Then again, as they have proven to be in spurts so far in December, when the Buckskins are clicking and hitting on all cylinders, they can be an arduous assignment for almost anyone. The key now will be making sure that the pistons hit in uniformity on a far more consistent basis moving forward. And if they do, with many of these races still up for grabs and a fair chunk of divisional matchups still yet to take place, let this be a formal warning to the masses not to simply take Conestoga Valley’s record at face value and not pay them any additional mind beyond that. For if you do, that could very likely prove to be the gravest of all self-inflicted errors to bring upon yourself as this is certainly won’t be the last we hear of Conestoga Valley yet this season.
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