In City Defined By Steel, Holy Cross Proves To Be Less Malleable As Crusaders Rigidly Force Lancaster Mennonite’s Exit In Quarterfinal Round Of PIAA-3A Tournament In Bethlehem, Allowing Blazers To Look Towards Immediate Future Of Promise
Written by: Andy Herr on March 16, 2025
It’s funny in some ways how so much yet so little can change over the course of just two years’ time. Whether you want to ponder that statement and apply it to life in general, or would rather drill that notion all the way down to that of the boys’ high school basketball scene in the state of Pennsylvania, some things just don’t ever seem to change all that much when you get right down to it. Even if they do in actuality. Just take the scene found awaiting on Saturday afternoon at Liberty High School in Bethlehem for instance.
Two years ago, these same two programs faced off with one another for the opportunity to play on the biggest of stages. And on that March night at Martz Hill on the campus of Pottsville Middle School in 2023, the Lancaster Mennonite Blazers were able to take down the valiant efforts possessed by the Holy Cross Crusaders for a state semifinal victory that proved to the penultimate on their year’s journey as Lancaster Mennonite would go on to topple one of the best athletic brands contained within all the state, Aliquippa, in the 2023 2A state title game their very next time out to capture the program’s first-ever state championship banner.
That much had remained steadfast and in place by the time Saturday afternoon rolled around– witnessing both Holy Cross and Lancaster Mennonite being unable to quit each other for yet another matchup somewhere inside the state bracket now in 2025.
But that since that night at the place affectionally dubbed as “the Mecca” of high school hoops almost two years ago to the day, things have changed for both the Crusaders and Blazers respectively.
Chief among them, that 2022-23 campaign shared between either ballclub would prove to the final on the sidelines when it came to each program’s head men in charge as Holy Cross’s Al Callejas and Mennonite’s Seth Buckwalter, the latter of whom would conclude his tenure in wrapping up Coach of the Year honors prior to departing in taking a junior high coaching job within the same program, both upstanding men left significant sized-shoes to try and fill for their successors.
As it turns out, the next of kin in terms of leading each program, whether it be by blood or by role, have done quite well for themselves nonetheless.
From the Holy Cross perspective, seeing Al Callejas Jr step into the role from that of his father seemed nothing if not natural for the Crusaders’ ascension upward, especially considering the way in which the tiny private school from Dunmore has just continued to win these last two years. Like getting to last year’s state championship game type “continuing” prior to falling that aforementioned Aliquippa goliath that was dead-set on righting the wrongs the Quips had experienced their last time at Giant Center in losing to yes, if you recall, Lancaster Mennonite.
For the Blazers, they too haven’t seemed to skip much of a beat.
Sure, while Jeff Hartenstine, Buckwalter’s foremost assistant during that Mennonite state title climb, was tasked with the somewhat unenviable task of having to succeed not just the state’s Coach of the Year but a state title-holding program to boot prior to his first-ever job in leading a varsity program, he has carried on the Blazers’ torch marvelously.
Regardless, as was to be somewhat expected perhaps when it came to LMH taking a step back from reaching the absolute pinnacle the year before given the subsequent graduation losses seen in the form of Cam Hurst, David Weaver, and Savier Sumrall to name just a few off the 2023 state championship bunch, a wildly-young Blazers’ unit nonetheless reached the state quarterfinal round last year too before eventually falling to Constitution to conclude Hartenstine’s remarkable first-year while in charge.
But this year, even with both Holy Cross and Lancaster Mennonite being put back together despite each being that an entire class higher than what they had both been accustomed to, another meetup felt all but inevitable.
This season, fresh off the newly implemented classification demarcations and all, both the Crusaders and Blazers found themselves up a class from years past in now being considered 3A squads come the start of their respective 2024-25 campaigns. Even still, the winning formula for each hadn’t seen to change all that much considering how both Holy Cross and Mennonite wound up meeting one another for the second time in three seasons with the opportunity to head back to that state semifinal game hanging in the balance – albeit now in 3A – in game between two clubs that came in sporting combined records of 47-8 amongst them.
So yes, what’s old is indeed new again when it comes to these two squads in particular. And that’s even you want to change the year on the calendar, or the classification level in which you ask them to play.
And for Lancaster Mennonite most of all, they now hope that the end result that came out of Saturday afternoon’s matchup does indeed prove to be a case of déjà vu for them. You see, the last time there were here at Liberty High School in 2022, the Blazers’ season came to an end against another foe by way of District 2, Old Forge, which in turn helped lay the foundation for what came next year in that of a state title run. Unfortunately for them, they have to now hold onto that hope in coming up short against a stingy and well-schooled version of this Holy Cross crew.
Perhaps it should’ve be a harbinger of things yet to come considering it came not even a full 50 seconds into the contest.
For that, Holy Cross would answer Lancaster Mennonite’s early bucket off the opening tap with a Matt Lyons’ rebuttal of a bucket inside which then prompted a momentary stoppage in the action as the Crusaders’ 6’6 senior big man had just eclipsed the 1,000-point mark over the course of his career for the green and white with 7:11 still remaining in the opening act.
In reality, going back to that earlier Mennonite bucket which had helped raise the curtain on this day? That would ultimately prove to be the Blazers’ final instance in playing with the lead for the remainder of the contest as time would show.
While Lancaster Mennonite does like to play fast when the opportunity presents itself, they don’t necessarily like to go this fast as they did against Holy Cross throughout the majority of the initial eight minutes on Saturday as a plethora of Blazers’ turnovers ultimately helped set them behind the 8-ball. As a result, with Holy Cross eager to inflict even further damage given LMH’s ill-timed generosity, a traditional three-point play tallied by another in the Crusaders’ senior-laden rotation, Michael Hughes, preceded a triple of the more modern variety tossed in by 6’2 senior forward, Mario Matrone, as the Holy Cross lead had swelled into double figures at 15-4 with already half of the opening quarter having since been expired and the Blazers not in any sort of gear.
Suffice to say, starting the game off while getting doubled up by an 18-9 difference at the closure of the opening stanza wasn’t the best of the positions in which the Blazers happened to be residing at the time. Then again, provided that Holy Cross had converted on a litany of bunnies that were left unfulfilled from point-blank distance in the first quarter all the same, the Crusaders’ cushion could’ve been far greater and sturdy once the second quarter rolled around on Saturday which at least kept the Blazers within a grasp somewhat.
In reality however, Holy Cross was nonetheless content by keeping Mennonite at arm’s length if that’s what it in fact the job required.
Case in point, while a sweet Adam Badyrka pullup jumper on the Crusaders’ second offensive trip of the period made it a 23-9 lead in Holy Cross’ favor, a trademark Chase Hurst bucket at the cup that comes with the upmost difficulty behind it, made it a 23-11 contest with 5:40 left before the halftime break.
And that right there would be the window in which not just the second quarter on Saturday was contested, but largely the game itself.
Yet when the gap did grow beyond that essentially dozen-point difference that seemed set in stone, such as it did following a theft and layup in transition courtesy of Holy Cross sophomore defensive stalwart, CJ Thompson, making it a 30-15 contest with 100 seconds before the halftime stoppage, a timely 5-0 spurt authored by the Blazers which was capped off by Hurst, the eventual game-high scorer in his 16-point showing, helped breathe some life in Lancaster Mennonite, albeit while trailing by a 30-20 count following the first 16 minutes.
Even in the second half, it seemed as if nothing Lancaster Mennonite threw up against the wall had seemed to stick when it came to making an incision into Holy Cross’s established cushion which they had been riding upon ever since the opening frame.
Whether the deficit was played at a baker’s dozen, such as the case following a nice stick-back bucket at the cup chipped in by Michael Hughes which made it a 35-22 Holy Cross lead with 6:40 left in the third, or a 3-ball dialed up and splashed home by Mario Matrone roughly one-minute later which then upped the hill to 15 at 41-26, Lancaster Mennonite just couldn’t make much hay.
Even when they did, such as when Chase Hurst found Bill Rothwein underneath the cup for a nice two-man game played between the Blazers’ pair of starting underclassmen, it continued to remain a 44-31 affair all the same with three minutes and change left to go before the third quarter’s horn.
Then, in perhaps the most tangible way in which Holy Cross could muster up when it came to visibly negating any significant Lancaster Mennonite charge down the homeward mile, an emphatic rejection of a would-be Blazers’ shot at the quarter’s closure by way of Holy Cross sophomore big, Colin Ritterbusch, put the punctuation mark on a 47-33 Crusaders’ lead at the end of three.
Simply put, if Mennonite had any such desires of seeing this ride continue onward for at least another week, the Blazers had exactly eight minutes and nothing more guaranteed in order to try and do so. And to their credit, while they hadn’t been able to demonstrate much in the way of sound traction seen at that point throughout the afternoon in trying to go against what may have the been their most sound and disciplined of an opponent found yet this season in Holy Cross, there would be a significant charge drummed up by District 3’s runner-up within the final frame.
Perhaps it was somewhat quiet and inconspicuous considering the game’s overarching feel up until that point, but following a leak-out bucket in transition compiled by Cody Fisher which was then preceded by a bucket inside on their next trip courtesy of Brady Grau, the Blazers’ junior tandem had certainly achieved their assignment in whittling the hole back down to ten, 49-39, with just a shade over one minute having been bled off the fourth quarter clock by that point.
Then, following two more Fisher buckets scored by the rangy 6’3 junior wing, the Blazers had crawled back to within their smallest difference seen since the opening moments of the first quarter as Mennonite was suddenly within half a dozen, 51-45, with plenty of time remaining given the 4:24 timestamp.
And while Mennonite would continue to hang around as best they could over the final stretch run, something best evidenced by a Hurst pullup jumper sunk with now inside of two minutes left to play which made it 59-49 Holy Cross lead, the Crusaders’ propensity to find have all the answers to the Blazers’ riddle found throughout was ultimately the difference in the end. In fact, Lancaster Mennonite would come no closer throughout the remainder of the game while the eventual verdict of the outcome was still somewhat undecided.
But if ever there remained a flicker of light in Mennonite’s camp inside the game’s waning stages, rest assured those were quickly extinguished by the one who gotten the day’s festivities underway in a grand fashion, Matt Lyons, as Lyons’ demonstrative two-handed dunk put the capper on what became a 63-52 final readout on this quarterfinal round matchup, vaulting Holy Cross to a date next Saturday against another private school juggernaut, West Catholic, as District 2 now tangles with the esteemed Philadelphia Catholic League for the right to head to Hershey following the Burrs’ victory over Riverside in the other matchup held prior at Liberty on Saturday afternoon.
Afterwards, while making the long and somber exit out of a locker room for the final time as far as this iteration of the Lancaster Mennonite Blazers was concerned, while the sting of this loss hurts in that it marks the end of their journey in the here and now, it’s not as if the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Four champs departed Bethlehem without offering much in the way of a fight against a tough foe on Saturday. Far from it as they see it.
“We tried,” an understandably subdued Mennonite head coach, Jeff Hartenstine, quietly said afterwards. “We started off a little sluggish and were just really digging out of a hole the entire time,” he remarked. “It just felt like we’d do this, we’d do that, and there’s just a loose ball or a rebound that we just handed (Holy Cross), and we’re just not catching up. In that third quarter, after coming out of the locker room only being down ten, we thought we could make some headway and some inroads. But then we’d start scoring two’s and they’d start scoring three’s,” Hartenstine said of Holy Cross. “You just look up at that scoreboard and it’s a kick in the butt.”
“I tried every defense we had there at the end. I tried every substitution we had,” Hartenstine said. “I think we had it down to six there, but I’ll do a lot of thinking in that I could’ve possibly done something different,” he added with candor in self-evaluation.
“One thing about our guys, they just battle. They battle like crazy. That always gives us a chance,” the head man highlighted with pride and a noticeable inflection raise in his voice by that point. “Even today, I think there was one rebound there where it was a 50/50 ball and if we come out with it, maybe we have the chance to really make it interesting.”
And while every Blazer save for one, Jordan Lilly, the team’s lone graduating senior, is due back next year, it doesn’t make the promise of tomorrow feel any better. At least not in the immediate moment of it all course.
“You spend so much time doing something three and a half straight months for six days straight, more than anything, it’s that we don’t get to practice anymore and that the group isn’t together. We were having a tremendous amount of fun,” Hartenstine then stated of the moment. “If you’re in the gym that much with guys, you gotta have fun. This was a really fun group to be around.”
“With a couple of the setbacks that happened this year with some of the losses recently, I was worried that I wasn’t getting them to where they needed to be,” the second-year coach again remarked with unbridled humility. “This last week or so, we played some really good basketball. For that, I’m very satisfied with the guys. They exceeded my expectations. I certainly hope they feel like they exceeded their own.”
“We all really just wanted this run to keep going, but that’s a really good Holy Cross team. So incredibly well-coached, incredibly well-balanced,” he said of the opposition that had just knocked he and his team out. “They have so much size, tenacity, and you can tell they’re mature kids… It just wasn’t meant to be today which stinks.”
But for a team in Lancaster Mennonite that has certainly grown comfortable to life in its own skin, something best exemplified in the Blazers routinely testing themselves against opponents that are perceived to be far greater, whether it be by pure size, or something more abstract like that of an acquired reputation, Saturday could prove to be the foremost key learning lesson for a program that hopes to not just make it back to this Elite Eight round for what would be the sixth-year in a row provided that comes to pass next season, but also has every right to feel as if 2026 can potentially be a carbon copy of 2023.
“Each time we make a run like this, people that have done this all the time, 15-20 years, they always say, ‘You should join this summer league. You should jump in this showcase event instead.’ I think we’ll keep doing what we have been doing, but while trying to up ante a little bit,” Hartenstine shared of the to-do list ahead. “Maybe travel a little bit further in some additional directions for Saturday shootouts and things like that just to make sure.”
“We’ll go to Philadelphia (in the summer) and plays teams there, but that’s an entirely different version of basketball that isn’t anything like a Holy Cross,” he continued. “There has to be a good mix of playing the Holy Cross’s of the world that are mature, Catholic kids that are just so fundamentally awesome and well-coached. Then, you also have to play against the great athletes that fly around and really expose you… We’ll try and go wherever we can, spend whatever money we need to go to these shootouts.”
But no matter what they decide to do, or where they decide to go over the course of the upcoming months leading up to the start of next year’s campaign, one thing is for certain when talking about Lancaster Mennonite. This is a group that has very real expectations and should feel as if it is one of the premier teams found within any corner of the state in not having to take a back seat to anyone. Five consecutive quarterfinal appearances? That speaks for itself. Then, add in maybe the most cohesive unit returning in that of the entire 3A ranks come 2025-26 that could’ve easily had an “Aw shucks” attitude while leaving Liberty High School instead of that shown in visible pain and overcome with emotion? Yeah, there’s reason as to why the Blazers hope that next year’s journey figures to be yet another long road that winds through the month of March. For them, they just hope it ends with a final sweet treat, say some Hershey’s chocolate, by the end of it.
Follow LLhoops on Twitter @LLhoops
