Conestoga Valley Keeps On Keeping On As Buckskins Roll Past Ephrata, Maintain Firm Grip On Section Two Standings With Perfect Record Still Intact
Written by: Andy Herr on January 17, 2026
Let’s just be frank and acknowledge it… It’s incredibly hard to make it through the regular season unbeaten.
This year, no matter what the optics of the Lancaster-Lebanon League boys’ basketball may be– whether perceived or actualized – it is nonetheless a pretty remarkable feat for the league to still currently have three unblemished squads inside all but one of the conference’s four sections. And while not intending to necessarily throw shade at any of the sections in particular, going wire-to-wire during the regular season campaign is even more impressive should it happen in either Section One or Section Two. You know, those neighborhoods where the big, bad boys of the 6A and 5A worlds happen to reside. Which then leads us to the one in that triumvirate of untouched squads not named Octorara or Lancaster Mennonite. Greetings and salutations to you, Conestoga Valley.
Coming into the year, Section Two’s outlook figured to be muddied at best. Not because there wasn’t anyone to write home about. Quite the contrary in truth when you remember that the likes of Cocalico, E-town, Solanco, and of course the two-time reigning defending champs, Warwick, all call that section their home turf. Perhaps now you can see as to why the preseason prognosticators certainly had their work cut out for them when determining a concise pecking order.
Yet it wasn’t as if the Conestoga Valley Buckskins were to be treated as some second-class citizen when it slotting them amongst this crowded field of contenders. Sure, while the elephant – or Tornado – in the room was that the Bucks would be without their star freshman guard from a year ago who put the local audience on notice, DeMere Salisbery, as the now sophomore made the short move across the border to play his dad, Dustin Salisbery, suiting up for McCaskey these days following his impressive first varsity year as a Buckskin.
Remember some of these names though? Sawyer Esbenshade, Camryn Bair, Toby Schaub, Josiah Garcia? If you do, that right there might’ve been enough of a reason as to why there was ample and real optimism heading into this winter inside Conestoga Valley’s camp. And to the shared credit of those four along with their supporting cast, they’ve all collectively held up their end of the bargain as the Buckskins came into Friday night still unbeaten in league play while sporting a sensational 7-0 record to flash at the naysayers.
In those seven triumphs, the Buckskins hadn’t even really had their hand held to stove either when you consider that all of CV’s section wins came by an average 15-point winning clip, meaning that the Bucks were literally just as likely to trigger the mercy-rule into effect as they were to actual lose any one of those same games when you look at such number purely at face value.
But that’s where things got a little bit interesting on Friday night at Rill Gymnasium on the grounds of the CV campus.
The one who had given the Buckskins their most challenging test thus far? The same team coming into town, the Ephrata Mounts.
And sure, while some may have just initially written this game off as likely just the latest and greatest in CV’s pursuit of a regular season unscathed, the Buckskins knew better than to just shrug off the Mounts’ 4-8 record coming in, not the least of which can be directly correlated back to that prior December 11th game at Ephrata Intermediate School in which CV escaped by all the hairs on their chinny, chin, chins against those same Mountaineers in the first meeting given the 38-35 final verdict in what was then the second game of league play.
Admittedly, coming into this evening, much was different.
At that time in early December, no one really knew what their season might develop into. Now, especially from Conestoga Valley’s perspective, the goals are clear. Among them, leave no doubt and finish things off with an undisputed Section Two crown. Beyond that, enjoy the home cooking that their home floor can provide by potentially making it all the way to the league championship game. And finally, tie up any remaining loose ends from now til the end of the regular season by hopefully finishing in the upper half of the District 3-6A playoff field, an achievement that would award the Buckskins with at least home game where only win is required to then punch a ticket into the state playoffs.
Perhaps CV had that in mind. Regardless of whatever that prevailing motivation had been coming into the night, the Buckskins made clear they weren’t the least bit interested in playing nicely with their houseguests on Friday night. No, they instead looked – and played – like they had some serious business to tend to.
To say that the pace of the first quarter between these two long-time adversaries was played at an extremely deliberate pace would’ve made even the most ardent defenders of seeing the high school game continue to be played without a shot clock blush just a smidge. There, especially with the Buckskins rolling out a 1-3-1 zone defensively, shot-making – and shots period – were in short supply throughout much of the game’s first eight minutes on Friday. In fact, it took the homestanding Buckskins a solid 3:15 worth of game time before finding the bottom of the well, an achievement unlocked by way of a 3-ball sunk via CV 6’5 junior forward, Carter Gehman, which ultimately broke the scoring seal for either side.
From Ephrata’s perspective, their time would come nearly three minutes after that as a matter of fact.
When it came to the Mounts’ first bucket of the contest, those honors would be bestowed upon one of the two seniors found on the Ephrata roster, Grayson Shellhammer, as Shellhammer’s bucket along the baseline made it a 6-2 CV lead with 2:15 left to play in an opening frame where points were obviously at a premium.
All told, while the offenses would gradually pick up steam comparatively speaking inside of the final two minutes and change, it nonetheless remained a score in which either team had yet to crack double digits considering the 8-4 lead the Buckskins possessed heading into the second quarter against Ephrata.
Finally, almost right from the jump once the second stanza got underway, it would prove to be CV’s offense that would be the unit to garner the first real bit of momentum.
Case in point, a pair of buckets tallied by Sawyer Esbenshade and Toby Schaub respectively, making it a 12-4 Buckskins’ lead following the first two offensive possessions trips of the new quarter, before that cushion would then swell outward and upward into double figures at 15-4 following a traditional three-point play finished off by CV’s rapidly-rising sophomore guard, Kylinn Noon.
By that juncture though, if there was any possibility for any lingering drama when it came to the eventual outcome of this one, any of those premonitions were quickly wiped away.
In fact, that sizable CV margin would later swell up to a commanding 16-point margin, 27-9, once another of the talented Buckskins’ underclassmen, Jayden Conaway, saw the CV junior finish off a sweet spin move at the cup with things already started to roll downhill for the home contingent.
And while Ephrata’s Pharrell Whitfield, the eventual team-high scorer on the night for the Mounts in lieu of his pocketing a 12-point night’s worth of work, would can a triple to cut the difference back down ever so slightly at 27-12 with a tick over one minute still remaining in the first half of play, that same margin would be the wind which would help carry the Buckskins into the halftime break when looking at their 29-14 cushion enjoyed after the game’s first 16 minutes.
Maybe it was some kind of fog that hung over either club once they emerged from their respective locker rooms to begin play. Maybe it was just something about quarters that began with uneven numbers. Whatever “it” was, rest assured that both the first and third quarters on Friday began with extremely timid offensive starts between these two.
Much like in the first frame, it would once again take the Buckskins well over two minutes to regain their scoring touch now come the start of the second half. For that, Kylinn Noon, the game-high scorer on the night tossing in a baker’s dozen, would be the one to quench the Bucks’ collective thirst for points with an easy put-back before another 3-ball sunk by Carter Gehman nearly two minutes after that allowed CV to truly regain their mojo considering the now 21-point lead at 36-15 the hosts now possessed with 3:55 left to play in the third by that point.
Ironically, much in the same manner in which one of their two seniors had been the one to at long last notch the Mounts’ first points way back in the first period courtesy of Grayson Shellhammer, the other member of that Ephrata 12th-grade duo, Sahmad Rogers-Spicer, would answer the bell when called upon this time around as a Rogers-Spicer trifecta gave the visitors their first field goal of the second half with a majority of the third quarter already having since been expired.
As a result, thanks in no small part to a clean theft and subsequent layup cashed in by Jayden Conaway, the CV lead remained at a nearly insurmountable total, 40-20, with just eight minutes remaining once the third quarter horn sounded as the Buckskins successfully held the Mounts to all of six points.
But the margin of separation would only grow steeper even despite the eventual outcome all but a foregone formality.
Easy to recognize that once Sawyer Esbenshade, a 10-point scorer against Ephrata on this night, came away with a strong take to the rack before a kick-out trey nailed on the very next CV possession by Toby Schaub, a 12-point performer in his own right Friday, made it a 51-25 Conestoga Valley gap with time rapidly winding down.
Lastly, the final member of the four-man Buckskins’ clan who would claim double figures in the scorebook on this night, Camryn Bair, a 10-point honoree, completed an old-fashioned three-point play with that aforementioned mercy-rule already set into motion at 57-25 before things would later conclude with Ephrata notching two more points added to their sum total prior to the final buzzer.
And once it did, Conestoga Valley had prevailed with a workmanlike 57-27 victory over Ephrata to not just keep their perfect section record alive and well, but maintain that precious two-game buffer between them and whomever happens to claim the #2 slot behind them at any one moment with the amount of games remaining suddenly starting to dwindle.
So, can they do it? Well, they’ve passed every one of the tests asked of them so far. But maybe it’s not all that important. Check that. It is, but it’s not everything either.
In a world of sound, historical data where the evidence strongly suggests that the odds of any team that happens to emerge from any L-L League section not numbered either One or Two winning the league championship are modest at best, there’s reason as to why Conestoga Valley has the right to believe that even bigger things lie ahead.
Sure, of course they’d like to boast in the history books that were untouchable in section play in 2025-26. That’s reasonable. But, if they had their preference, they’d gladly trade in an unbeaten record from December to early February if it meant they would instead receive victories on February 7th, February 10th, and February 12th. For only one team in the entire league can accomplish that feat. Whoever does will be the ones cutting down the nets at Manheim Township with gold medals around their necks that Thursday night after being crowned as the Lancaster-Lebanon League boys’ basketball champion. Then again, maybe CV can have their cake and eat it too. After all, 15-0 in league play does have a nice ring to it when you think about it.
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