Governor Mifflin Seniors Help Write Another Impressive Chapter As Mustangs Run Through Lampeter-Strasburg, See Pioneers Fall To Second Straight Quality 6A Opponent

Written by: Andy Herr on January 4, 2025

Without getting in the way of any real debate, it’s been rather obvious that the Lampeter-Strasburg Pioneers have acquitted themselves quite nicely to a local audience over the years. Without going through their entire laundry list of achievements on the boys’ side of the basketball floor over the last several years – along with other sports if we really wanted to keep the discussion going for a considerable length of time – the various years listed high up on their banners pinned to the gym walls tell the story well enough when it comes to the Pioneers’ sheer prowess, arguably ownership, of whatever section of the Lancaster-Lebanon League they have happened to call their home. And that’s not even talking about when they win the entire conference in its own right as they’ve also done inside the last decade as well.

But that’s one thing.

Yes, while most of the other programs inside the L-L League would starve themselves if it meant even a chance to have even a morsel of the prolonged success that L-S has partaken of, the Pioneers know full well that taking the next step, winning far greater prizes, involves stepping outside your county and conference borders if it means a greater likelihood at possibly claiming a District 3-5A championship before then parlaying that into a lengthy run through the state bracket. And to their credit, over the last few days of December and into early January, Lampeter-Strasburg has done precisely that.

After starting the bulk of December play off with another prototypical, hot L-S start out of the gates that resulted in a 7-1 overall record, the Pios welcomed Conestoga into town last Friday for a dinner-hour game. Yes, not Conestoga Valley as a local audience may think, but rather Conestoga.

To be frank, if no one knew exactly who the Conestoga Pioneers were coming into the night, rest assured they certainly did after words as the impressive 6A outfit by way of District 1 largely ran into Lampeter unimpeded by virtue of their decisive 57-37 triumph, a win that was punctuated by holding an oft-always highly potent L-S offensive attack to all of 18 points throughout the first sixteen minutes of play. Then, following what was an apparent scheduling snafu between L-S and Oxford which caused their previously scheduled noon tip-off time affair this past Monday to now get pushed back into late January, that meant that the Pioneers would have to sit idly by for an entire week while having to chew on that Conestoga defeat.

The problem was, they wouldn’t exactly be seen doing anything but diving right back into the deep end of the pool for their first game out by loading up the bus on a snowy Friday night to tangle with the Governor Mifflin Mustangs, an impressive 6A club in their own right, who have gotten off to an 8-2 overall record while also defeating the two previous L-L squads on their December slate by an average of 14 points between the likes of Cocalico and Lebanon respectively.

But as mentioned, while Lampeter-Strasburg could take the easy route and just load up on empty carbs if you will and schedule far inferior opponents to fill out their schedule, kudos to them for scheduling up here and having the wherewithal to know they are capable of frying bigger fish. Then, if you can bag one of these marquee games as well, even better.

However, as would quickly become evident almost right from the outset of Governor Mifflin’s opening possession alone in Friday night’s tussle, this would be another night in which the Berks County bully continued to rule the roost against a neighbor to the south.

As far as that opening trip down the floor on Friday was concerned, while it may have “only” culminated in a two-point bucket awarded to Mustangs’ big man, Evan Byrne, the tone had clearly been set as the 6’8 senior big man’s put-back came on the heels of what was no less than four offensive rebounds snared down by he and his fellow Mifflin troops, proving that Mifflin would have clear ownership inside the rings throughout all 32 minutes of this one.

Case in point, Byrne continued to thrive in his leading role of being a nearly seven-foot thorn for which the Pioneers couldn’t contain as another Byrne bunny at the cup not just resulted in his seventh and eighth points tallied on the young evening, but it also upped Mifflin’s cushion out to a 12-7 difference with three minutes left to play in the opening quarter.

Then, when once they did decide to take their show outside, the other star of the first act, Matt Koehler, proceeded to trade in his earlier buckets inside the paint for a 3-ball as well, with the other member of the Mustangs’ senior frontline making it a 15-7 affair before the opening stanza eventually culminated in a 19-9 Mifflin advantage. All told, both Byrne and Koehler were remarkable throughout the first eight minutes on Friday night seeing as how they themselves were leading L-S by a 17-9 count all by their lonesome.

In the second, not even the stoppage in between quarters seemed to deter the hosts all that much.

In fact, the Mustangs’ lead would eventually balloon upwards and out to 14 following a personal 5-0 salvo authored by way of Mifflin junior guard, Mark Lachina, as Lachina’s latest outburst made it a 27-13 contest before a finish through contact at the cup chipped in courtesy of Byrne, already well on his way to a 12-point outing, made it a commanding 31-13 difference with just 2:57 left to go in the opening half.

Fortunately, just when they needed it most, L-S began the long process of gradually starting to chip away at things.

Granted, while it may not have seemed like much at the time, it was hard to overstate the importance of a Connor Kouterick bucket inside not long afterwards considering the Pioneers were once again stuck in the mud offensively for the second straight game inside the opening half. And all things considered, while you never want to head into the half while trailing by a 31-17 count on the scoreboard, L-S was still well within reach provided they could in fact get back in top gear despite Mifflin largely owning every facet of the first half of play up until that point.

Indeed, slowly but surely, Lampeter-Strasburg was indeed warm to the fight once the third frame got underway.

After finally being able to get himself free from the clutches of the Governor Mifflin defense which had largely kept a lid on things up until that point, L-S’ foremost star, Chase Smucker, was able to finish off a nice cut en route to the hoop for two of his team-high 12 points bucketed on the night with this latest deuce making it a 32-21 ballgame with 5:20 left to play in the third. From there, after nabbing a steal following his stellar on-ball work defensively, Emory Fluhr was able to race home with an easy layup in transition as the Pioneers’ 6’1 senior forward brought his team back to within their closest deficit since back in the first quarter considering the current 35-26 situation with now four minutes left in the period.

However, even with this newfound bit of dancing with momentum and all, Governor Mifflin would end up slamming the door shut on any possible L-S inklings of completing the nearly 20-point comeback stemming from earlier in the contest.

To be sure, it was hard to undersell as to just how valuable Matt Koehler was – and is — to the entire Governor Mifflin machine, but especially here on this night. Here, inside the latter stages of the third quarter, the 6’3 senior’s bucket at the tin not just made it a 43-28 Mustangs’ lead with now inside of two minutes left to go, but it also awarded two more points to the one who would emerge as the victor in terms of game-high scoring honors with Koehler netting an impressive and emphatic 24-point night’s worth of work once the dust finally settled against the Pioneers. Perhaps that is indeed a much more clear and concise way to illustrate his worth as far as this particular contest was concerned.

Later, after building that lead back to what it nearly had been seen at earlier in the night, a steal and subsequent coast-to-coast finish at the rack compiled by Jahmair Johnson, yet another member of the talented Governor Mifflin senior class, gave the Mustangs their largest lead of the evening at that point, 49-29, before the quarter would expire roughly a minute later with the hosts once again enjoying the spoils of a sizable 49-31 advantage.

In the fourth, it was largely just a matter of Governor Mifflin put their final stamp on things.

But don’t tell that to L-S’ Jared Hostetter, however. It was rather obvious that Pioneers’ 5’11 senior guard simply wasn’t going to participate in those festivities without a rebuttal seeing as how Hostetter proceeded to author seven of his eventual 10 points on the evening inside the opening stages of the final stanza from both inside and outside the arc to help give the Pios a bit of mojo down the final stretch run.

Yet this was Governor Mifflin’s night largely from start to finish with any sort of speedbumps getting in their path. And that only became even more evident in the waning stages too.

As mentioned, Governor Mifflin boasts an impressive senior lineup in this, their 2024-25 edition. Across the board, the Mustangs’ soon-to-be graduates make this a formidable bunch for the rest of the 6A field to try and contend with. If it isn’t Byrne and Koehler inside, then it’s the guards outside that demonstrate their collective venom. And perhaps none more so than their bouncy table-setter, Stephen Mayo, who seems to alter gravity at times once he’s out and running in transition. Never was that more obvious than when his chin was on the rim for a finish at the cup inside the fourth quarter which made it a 60-40 Mustangs’ advantage with time running slim.

All told, Governor Mifflin’s senior lineup would account for 60 of their 65 points on the night as a whole, with an Alex Lopez trifecta added in for good measure, as Governor Mifflin continued their impressive season with a decisive victory over yet another L-L squad standing in their way, knocking off L-S by a 65-47 final count once the buzzer rang out on Friday night.

From the L-S side of things here, again, not the result, and not the way those in Pioneers’ camp wanted this much-anticipated matchup contest to go down, much like the Conestoga game that came before it. Fair and valid point, yes, but we know what Lampeter-Strasburg can be once they get back into their familiar territory and the collective havoc they always seem to wreak. And hey, with no clear frontrunner found anywhere else in the L-L League as it is this year, who’s to say this can’t be another season in which L-S hoists gold at Manheim Township come mid-February? Games and opponents like this will only continue to refine them. That’s surely not exactly the type of statement that the rest of the conference wanted to hear uttered.

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