Northern Lebanon Remains Primed For Playoff Push As Vikings Top Annville-Cleona, Embark On Critical Week Of Games After Navigating Through Early Season ‘Storm’

Written by: Andy Herr on January 13, 2026

It might be hard to reconcile, but we’re actually here. Yes, if you look ahead just far enough, you’ll see that the finish line is in sight. Truly, where does the time go? But for a season that is just now starting to make the turn towards home, there’s still plenty of unwritten stories left to tell across the entire Lancaster-Lebanon League boys’ basketball season as this year both ramps up while also starting to peter out simultaneously.

Section Four might be one of those places as it turns out.

Barring something unforeseen down the stretch, Lancaster Mennonite figures to be your eventual section champ here – to the point where it might be appropriate to start engraving their name on the trophy if we’re being honest. Behind them though, as far as who might be joining the Blazers in the league playoffs in mid-February? Well, that’s anybody’s guess.

To be sure, the tectonic plates within the division were rocked when Northern Lebanon went into Lancaster Country Day – the same school made it to the 1A state semifinals last year – and sprung a massive road upset in the middle of December to give the Vikings a major, resume-building win that figured to be vital in the event that NL could parlay that into even further success as the season took shape. To their credit, thanks to some general chaos that took place all around them from the likes of Pequea Valley, Columbia, and most everyone else in between, while folks may have not been paying attention to the gang from way up there in Fredericksburg as of yet, they’d be better served if they had as NL came into this pivotal week while just one game behind Pequea Valley when it came to second place in Section Four.

Ironically though, had it not been for one previous slipup in particular, the Vikings would indeed be right there on level-ground with PV.

Granted, while it may have been the very first game of section play, and it had come all way back in the single digit days of December while also impossible to truly understand the ramifications for down the line, Annville-Cleona got the better of Northern Lebanon back on December 9^th in a hard-fought 64-63 triumph that night. As fate would have it, not only would that remain as A-C’s lone league win coming into this current week, but it was also the Dutchmen’s last win period considering how Annville made the quick jaunt over to Northern Lebanon’s campus on Monday night while looking to break their current nine-game hex dating back to that fateful early December contest against NL.

Suffice to say, what better way for Northern Lebanon to recognize their current positioning than by also looking to make amends for what was arguably their most stinging loss experienced thus far with NL having their sights locked on a possible berth into the postseason?

And while it was apparent all throughout Monday evening as to why A-C had posed enough challenges to ultimately knock off NL in that prior game held last month, the verdict was indeed flipped on its head by the time this night was over with. And with it, not just a dish of revenge best served cold, but one that now makes the Vikings equally hot when it comes to playoff aspirations.

Simply put, the first quarter scoring was a bit of a slugfest between these two in their second matchup. To put it rather mildly..

Sure, while the field goal shooting in the game’s first eight minutes was just as chilly as temperatures found just outside the gym doors, it wasn’t as if the defenses had lacked their shared imprints. In fact, while Northern Lebanon was clearly out-sized from a height perspective, the Vikings’ physicality most certainly wasn’t overmatched as NL tallied three clean rejections of would-be Annville-Cleona shots – all from within point-blank range – to help keep the Dutchmen as a whole at bay early on.

All told, thanks to the efforts of Annville-Cleona’s 6’6 sophomore forward, James Garney, who would tally all five A-C points along with Northern Lebanon senior guard, Kael Erdman, who pumped in a trifecta for the NL contingent at the 1:43 mark of the opening frame, the game trudged onward and forward into the second stanza with the score locked in a true stalemate in the truest sense of the word, 5-5, with either side understandably eager to shake free from the early doldrums and find some kind of offensive spunk and overall spark.

Those honors would then be bestowed upon the red-clad visitors when looking at the initial stages of the second quarter as fate would have it.

While it may not have seemed like much, rest assured that Garney’s traditional three-point play that began the second quarter proceedings when combined with a John Ditzler triple not long afterwards – the first points from anyone in a Dutchmen uniform not named James Garney at the time – created what felt like a somewhat massive 11-7 bulge in favor of Annville-Cleona with 5:50 left to play in the opening half given the circumstances.

But for a team that simultaneously wanted to make good on assuring themselves that Annville-Cleona wouldn’t have the last laugh this year and end up breaking out the brooms for what would’ve been a clean sweep over them this winter, Northern Lebanon promptly responded in kind to the challenge being offered to them.

First, while ignited by Erdman, one of two Vikings who would conclude the night by tossing in a double figure scoring performance, by virtue of his theft and layup at the cup which preceded an offensive rebound and stick-back by way of 6’1 junior forward, Bryce Martin, the game was knotted up once more at an 11-11 count with half of the second quarter having been expired by that point.

So, with Erdman being one of those two Northern Lebanon players who would finish with two numerals next to their name in the scorebook by the time the night was over with, who would be the other you may ask? If you’ve watched much Vikings’ basketball at all the last couple of years, you probably don’t have to go looking very far to find that answer.

To say that Andrew Via has a lot on his plate in terms of carrying the bulk of the mail on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor for the Vikings this season is probably doing the 5’8 senior guard a massive disservice. Aside from running the show at point, Via’s peskiness and kinetic energy to find and be near the ball defensively that usually results in getting deflections and steals of the like help make Via a key piece of the NL equation who impacts a large chunk of any sort of success that Northern Lebanon is routinely able to enjoy night in and night out.

With that in mind, it probably shouldn’t have been all that shocking of a development to see that Via himself would be the one to give his cast of Vikings their first lead of the contest at 15-14 following his corner trey with three minutes left in the half before then coming away with two consecutive steals defensively in the latter stages of the second act with one he would finish off himself in transition while then dishing one off to a streaking Ryan Clemmer at the cup on the other, a largely Via-led salvo that allowed Northern Lebanon to head into the half with ownership of the 18-17 advantage.

By this time, with Northern Lebanon being the ones to enjoy a brief spurt of momentum upon heading into the second half, it would be curious to see if the Vikings would be able to continue such a pace. Spoiler alert, but they basically would.

In fact, thanks to a dead-eye triple sunk at the top of the key by the who had his fingerprints all over this damage that had been done to Annville-Cleona, Andrew Via, en route to finishing as the Vikes’ leading scorer by a bucketing a 15-point showing on the night, NL was in the midst of their largest cushion at the time, 28-24, with now a shade over four minutes left in the third quarter of play.

And while Via might’ve been the one to power the Northern Lebanon machine by and large, he would have a counterpart on this night representing the Annville-Cleona contingent too.

While Via would sink 15 points on his night, that would also be the number reflective of one James Garney, a 15-point scorer in his own right as well on Monday night in this rivalry affair, but Garney’s plays were equally as punctual and critical as were Via’s opposite him.

Case in point, a bucket from the field before a pair of Garney freebies sunk at the charity stripe in the waning stages of the third frame had eased A-C back within reach, 28-26, before the Dutchmen would indeed get back on level ground courtesy of a put-back bucket by way of the lone senior on the entire A-C roster, Hudson Sellers, as Sellers’ bunny knotted things up at 28-28 before a final Northern Lebanon bucket set the stage for a 30-28 contest heading into the fourth quarter.

But speaking of seniors, there’s simply no substitute. And rest assured that Northern Lebanon isn’t the least bit interested in trading any of theirs away.

With the game still up for grabs, Andrew Via continued to impact winning for NL right from the onset of the fourth frame in particular.

For that, consider his steal and finish before his assist to Bryce Martin on the ensuing Vikings’ trip down the floor, making it a 34-30 ballgame, a margin that felt somewhat seismic considering the game’s lack of offensive firepower and time on the sand dial suddenly running thin.

But if Annville-Cleona hadn’t already felt as if things were slowly slipping away, they most certainly recognized the brunt of that once that other member of the Northern Lebanon senior class, Kael Erdman, poured in a dagger triple from beyond the arc, this one making it a 37-30 Vikings’ advantage, before a smooth turnaround jumper by Via allowed the home side to flirt with a double figure lead, 39-30, with the Dutchmen camp running low on time and answers.

And while Sellers would do his part when it came finishing off a bucket via a nicely-executed baseline out-of-bounds play for A-C that clipped the margin down to a half dozen at 40-34 with 1:08 left to play, late-game foul shooting by way of the Vikings – from Erdman and Via in particular – helped to put a bow on what was a key, key victory for Northern Lebanon to snatch up as the Vikings continued to allow themselves to look forward by putting themselves right inside the middle of the playoff picture following this 45-36 triumph over Annville-Cleona on Monday night.

Without much in the way of debate, this was one the NL cast had circled for quite some time if you were to ask them.

“This is the most I wanted to win,” Andrew Via, NL’s senior guard, acknowledged candidly in defeating A-C after emerging from his team’s winning locker room Monday night. “Just because of losing by one (point) at their place, their whole student section being hype, then (the student section) storming the court like it was the Super Bowl or something. It was crazy,” he added of that earlier December tilt. “Getting that win tonight just made me feel so good.”

Yet much like that prior Annville-Cleona game in a vacuum, this Northern Lebanon season has gone though pockets of both choppy waters and calm seas at times throughout this campaign. It’s the ability to respond though which has made all the difference. That’s something both Via and his coach are well cognizant of.

“It’s been a learning curve for me,” Northern Lebanon first-year head coach, Franklin Wilson Jr, shared postgame Monday when asked about his thoughts in leading the team at the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s northernmost outpost throughout the first month and change at the helm. “For me, being a first-year varsity coach, I knew that when I came to Northern Lebanon, my first thing was setting some sort of culture. That’s the word all these coaches use. Culture, culture, culture. But what is that? To me, it’s holding these guys accountable,” Wilson Jr continued. “Not just in the gym, not just in the school, but everywhere in the community. Wherever you go with a Northern Lebanon emblem on, what does it stand for? What do people expect? I think my first few months here were a little rough because I’m a high intensity guy, very passionate, and that can be misunderstood at times,” he remarked. “But when you have guys like Kael Erdman and Andrew Via who understand, ‘Coach is passionate because he cares and he wants to try and turn this ship around.’ Having guys like that makes it easier for me…It’s definitely been a big learning curve, but we’re excited for the future.”

As Wilson Jr mentioned, having a key piece like Via, one of whom much is asked no doubt, certainly makes life easier on the actual floor as well.

“I mean, (Wilson Jr) basically says that if I’m not in the game or if I score like under five points, then we probably aren’t going to win the game just because I’m all over the place getting steals and rebounds, scoring and setting things up offensively,” Via stated in regards to the dialogue shared between he and his coach when it comes to his basketball value. “I think I play a pretty big role and he expects a lot out of me,” said Via. “When I do those little things, being everywhere defensively, and getting my guys good looks and things like that, it just helps win the game for the entire team.”

His boss would agree.

“I told him that it would be hard playing for me just because I’m a point guard and I expect so much from that position,” Wilson Jr said of his preseason chats exchanged between he and Via before they began on this journey together. “He’s just a kid that I can’t keep off the floor because he has all of the intangibles,” Wilson Jr said proudly of his senior floor general. “He might turn it over, but he’ll get it right back just off of pure hustle, grit, and energy. That kid is just electric…He has a lot of the things that as a coach you love because you just can’t teach it. You either have it, or you don’t. He plays hard all the time. He doesn’t care if we’re at open gym, playing Connect Four at team camp, whatever it is, he just wants to win. He’s very competitive. I love that kid.”

Now, with the current and former point guard working in lock-step with one another, they know what possibly lies ahead for them collectively.

“Before every game, like for districts, he reminds us, ‘Hey, this is a playoff game. This is a must-win game.’ Things like that,” Via said what Coach Wilson Jr offers to the troops while operating under the intense heat lamp known as the chase towards to the postseason. “Section games, he always reminds that we’re right there tied for second and we need to win those must-win games like we did tonight.”

“We needed that win tonight. A lot,” Via mentioned with added emphasis. “We really need to go 3-0 this week to have a really good chance and get a good look because Pequea is doing really well this season.”

“We talk about it every day,” the Vikings’ coach said without hesitation when it comes to recognizing where his team currently sits for potentially beyond the first week of February and their guaranteed games remaining on the slate. “With all that’s happened in our season, all the turmoil, all the stuff that’s been going on, we’re still a game out of second place and we still have everything in front of us,” Wilson Jr said with both excitement and pride. “All of our postseason goals are still in front of us, but we have to handle our business. Tonight was a step in the right direction.”

Yet regardless on how this Northern Lebanon season shakes out, whether playoffs are in their future or not, those in charge see nothing but net-positives for the years to come. Something that would not be possible if it weren’t for the ones who will soon be heading out the door this spring once they graduate and become alums.

“Like I’ve told Kael and Andrew, ‘They’ve changed the program,’” Wilson Jr said regarding his pair of senior stalwarts most of all. “They’ve changed it by just being here, being around, and just going through the storm with me by laying the groundwork down for the junior high kids and everyone else who sees what the standard is based on what those two guys have done. Everyone else will have to follow suit.”

For now, those two will try and help guide Northern Lebanon towards achieving something that hasn’t happened since they themselves were in the 4^th grade — seeing the Vikings reach the postseason.