Solanco Jettisons Off To District 3-5A Playoffs As Golden Mules Push Away Pesky Middletown Crew, Enters Postseason Play For First Time In 16 Years While Riding Six-Game Winning Streak

Written by: Andy Herr on February 10, 2026

In retrospect, having them play this game – during this week – was if not something totally bathed in irony, then most certainly apropos if nothing else.

For most fans of high school hoops within District 3, especially in the Lancaster-Lebanon League in particular, the entire focus and attention this week is squarely focused on the conference playoffs.

Sure, for good reason of course. But while the boys’ L-L tourney will resume once again on Tuesday night for the semifinal round affairs, Monday night offered those with just a little bit more meat left on the scheduling bone a chance to take center stage.

You see, while the spotlight is rightly the brightest right now for the four L-L League teams that find themselves just two wins away from hoisting a trophy on Thursday night at Manheim Township, two which have never done that ever before, with another not having done so for nearly two whole decades, there are other squads still competing that deserve their moment in the sun. Albeit if maybe they haven’t garnered much attention whatsoever this entire season all the same.

For the Solanco Golden Mules, this season has been an unequivocal success story. But you might not even be all that aware of it.

Part of the reason? Perhaps directly correlated to the fact the Mules reside in Section Two, arguably the league’s most competitive division this year, with Solanco never being able to truly crack that glass ceiling and inserting themselves into a prolonged discussion topic when it came to reaching these aforementioned league playoffs.

But no matter what the underlying reason(s) involved, this has still been a demonstrable forward step for the program tucked away in Lancaster County’s southern end with the Mules already a lock to reach the District 3 playoffs next week for the first time since 2010 courtesy of their 14-7 season-long record coming into their Monday night regular season finale. Beyond that, even with guaranteed games left ahead of them still, Solanco has already rattled off the most wins during a season since that 2010 campaign, with the added possibility of this 2025-26 campaign blossoming into the most Solanco wins witnessed during the 21^st century when assessing the current high-water mark of 18 victories accrued by the 2005-06 squad that sits in their collective sights. And if that wasn’t already newsy enough, how about Solanco positioning themselves quite nicely by steadily climbing up the rungs of the District 3-5A ladder of late by virtue of their #12 slot coming in, with Solanco currently in the midst of a five-game winning streak entering Monday night. Certainly not a bad play when you’re also trying to chase down what would be your program’s first district playoff win since 1986 should you happen to get that too.

So, yeah. For a group that has in some ways just blended into the background noise of this year while also quietly going about their work to the tune of continuing to build upon the best Golden Mules’ season found since anyone playing on this current Solanco team had barely been born, Monday night’s somewhat innocuous trip over to Middletown seemed fitting for a game – and team – that doesn’t seem to mind not being overly boisterous. Instead, they seem quite alright with having their play speak the loudest of volumes.

And just like their season in general, this game too would prove itself to be yet another case of the Golden Mules just going about their assignment successfully without much fanfare being required.

Early on against Middletown, it was a bit of a struggle for either team to find their rhythm and flow offensively. But once that happened, Solanco’s Nolan Wagner found himself with a starring role as the Mules’ 6’1 senior sniper poured in a pair of back-to-back treys in successive fashion inside the final two minutes of the opening frame, providing a much-needed jolt for the visitors which they then parlayed into a 13-8 lead upon heading into the second stanza.

Yet as Solanco continued to bear witness to first-hand, putting away these Blue Raiders, in this, their season finale, proved to be something far easier said than done.

Case in point, a pair of Middletown buckets cashed in to begin the second quarter by way of the Raiders’ senior duo found in Tyson Snyder and Nickayus Zenon respectively, a four-point salvo by the hosts which quickly saw them race back to within a single digit, 15-14, with Solanco burning a timeout with 5:41 left to play before the half to try and stop this sudden bleeding.

Turns out, that brief stoppage proved to be the exact cut-stopper that the Mules needed.

In terms of specifics, Solanco would then rattle off a timely 10-0 run over the course of the ensuing three minutes and change as a Mules’ jumper splashed home by another in the plentiful crop of Solanco seniors, Isaiah Wright, put the finishing touches on what became a 25-14 Solanco cushion with a shade inside of three minutes left to play before the break.

And while the Blue Raiders would finally quench their long-awaited thirst with a bucket from the field that ended their impromptu four-minute-long scoring drought with 90 seconds remaining, the bulk of Solanco’s second period damage had been done as the Mules carried the spoils of a 25-16 lead with them into the second half against Middletown.

However, come the start of the third quarter, Solanco, primarily taking the form of Kiran Ludgate most of all, began to put their fingerprints all over this one.

On the season, Ludgate leads a primarily senior-laden cast of characters found at Solanco by averaging over 16-points-per-game to his credit. Fittingly, much in the same vein as the team he plays for, while other names residing in Section Two might get more headlines, Ludgate nonetheless finds himself as the second-leading scorer in all of L-L Section Two, trailing only Cocalico’s Timmy Hambright, who admittedly is putting together an All-State caliber season. Sure enough, with a workmanlike effort here against Middletown as well, Ludgate once again did the necessary things required for his team to achieve victory – something far more telling and valuable than any personal stat line could reasonably offer.

First and foremost, Ludgate began the third act on Monday night with a put-back bunny at the cup to help raise the curtain on the second half, a bucket which also coincided with Ludgate becoming the first player in the game from either side to reach double figures scoring on the evening.

Then, after calming sinking a pair of freebies at the charity stripe which then saw the Mules’ lead expand out to a ten-point gap at 34-24 with inside of four minutes left to play in the third, Ludgate immediately followed that up by fearlessly standing in harm’s way and taking a charge for his troops, an exclamation point which punctuated the 6’3 Solanco senior’s impressive body of third quarter work.

And with Ludgate primarily helping to lead the way of what was nonetheless a remarkably balanced Solanco charge, the Mules could later look up and find themselves all of eight minutes away from their first postgame season in 16 years, potentially going in on a high note, considering their 35-26 lead enjoyed after three.

But c’mon. This is Middletown we’re talking about. A town that prides itself on never backing down from any sort of challenge when dared. Did anyone really think the Mules were truly out of the woods here? Spoiler alert, but they certainly weren’t.

In terms of what became the Blue Raiders’ furious final rally of the 2025-26 campaign, it began with a pair of timely takes to the cup by way of Middletown junior guard, Mason Spencer, as the pair of Spencer-led buckets clipped the Solanco cushion down to a modest 35-31 margin to conclude the first two Raiders’ trips offensively inside the final stanza.

Then, even while they would eventually knot things back up at 38-38 stalemate following a bucket by way of Nickayus Zenon, the leading Blue Raider on the night who pumped in a team-high 12 to lead the Middletown charge, the weaponry of Solanco eventually reigned supreme.

For that, while Zenon’s latest bucket here would tie the score, it would come sandwiched between a pair of Nolan Wager triples knocked down to counter for the Solanco contingent as Wagner’s latest and greatest not just made it a 41-38 Mules’ lead on the immediate trip down the floor, but it would prove to be a lead which the guests would never surrender for the remainder of the contest.

Speaking of treys, the other Wagner in the bunch, Garrett, looked just as lethal from beyond the arc on this night as well, something best exemplified by he himself tossing in a pair on Monday night against Middletown, but none more bigger than the sophomore’s final one which later saw the Mules’ advantage swell out to a 46-40 difference with roughly half of the final quarter still yet to unfold.

From there, Middletown would get no closer, much less being able to add just one more point to their existing number with time now winding down on their season.

For those final nails hammered home, those would largely come via a fast break layup put home by way of Isaiah Wright which then preceded another Nolan Wagner 3-ball, his fifth of the contest, as Wagner’s 15-point night helped to make this eventual outcome anything but suspenseful with just a handful of minutes remaining.

And once the clock hit zeroes, it was yet another double digit Solanco win tallied this season, their 11^th time doing so over the course of their 15 triumphs seen this season, 51-41, as Solanco now looks forward to a much-deserved playoff excursion for the first time in almost two decades next week following this successful verdict over Middletown.

Not bad for a team that is flying under the radar without all that much notoriety to be found this season.

“It’s nice when people talk, but we just come into the gym every day, every day since the beginning of the season, knowing what we can achieve in terms of making the postseason and things like that,” Solanco’s Kiran Ludgate said following the final regular season game of his Golden Mules’ career Monday night. “We were saying, ‘Get to the postseason. Let’s get to the postseason.’ We’re in the postseason now. We made districts,” Ludgate added with pride. “It’s good. It feels really good to say that.”

“There’s moments when it hits you,” the Mules’ leading scorer in this outing continued after tossing in a game-best 17-point showing against Middletown. “Like on the bus rides home, you get to thinking about it. At nighttime, you get to thinking about it,” Ludgate remarked when asked if he and his teammates ever felt as if they were the midst of authoring one of the Mules’ best seasons in quite some time this winter.

“We’ve known with the talent we’ve had for a couple of years now; we’ve known that at some point this would all work out and that if we all worked together, we knew we could end up where we wanted to be,” said Ludgate. “This year, it just feels like a family, you know? Like going out to games with your brothers…That feeling really makes it known to where like, ‘I’m going to pass you the ball and I know you’re going to be there.’ I know my guys got my back,” he continued. “This year, it’s just really come together. You can really trust the people you’re with.”

But to Ludgate and his fellow seniors, this is bigger and goes beyond just how this year ultimately ends up. For them, the ones with the most onus, they don’t want this 2025-26 tale to just be some flash in the pan type of season for Solanco as time marches onward.

“This whole team is very close,” Ludgate remarked of the internal chemistry bonding this squad together. “Once the seniors leave, we’ll still be in contact with the younger guys and there will be still contact with everybody. The seniors will definitely be rooting on the younger ones, and we’ll definitely be coming back,” he said of he and his fellow members of the 2026 graduating class. “I do think the younger ones have learned a lot from us and we’ll all still be very close.”

As for one who will come back next year, albeit without any eligibility left remaining, Solanco first-year head coach Scott Gaffey is excited that this group, his first in Quarryville, finds itself with a chance to do something truly special once next week gets underway inside of the district playoffs.

“Yeah, our guys know it and are extremely excited for the opportunity,” Gaffey said of the buildup in anticipation over the course of the next couple of days inside his team’s camp once playoff gameday creeps ever closer. “The intensity that we’ve played with, that’s what we’re trying to carry…Offensively, we’ve kind been here and there at times, but our defense is what has really improved as this season has gone along. Because of that, we have a chance against anybody,” said Gaffey. “Whether it’s Cocalico, York Suburban, whoever it is, we’re going to have to go on the road,” he continued regarding the two most likely teams awaiting the Mules’ arrival on the bracket line against them once those matchups officially get unveiled later this week. “But this last little stretch we’ve been on, that’s helped us,” he continued of the Mules’ final seven regular season games, five of which have come away from their friendly confines at home on campus.

“We talked to our guys a little bit tonight like, ‘This is a good run for us going into the postseason. We play this game early and we have this whole week.’ Normally, if you didn’t have a game this week, you’re out trying to find a scrimmage with someone,” Gaffey made mention of. “We had this game. This is our little postseason ramp up because it’s against somebody (Middletown) that’s good, has played well at home, and now we got another chance to experience all of that.”

“What I was most proud of tonight was how we responded,” the Mules’ boss explained regarding this contest. “(Middletown) made a run at the end and we had to respond. Our kids, in the face of adversity, responded really well to that. When you play someone good right away in the first round of districts, there’s going to be runs and you’ve got to respond. In districts, you’re not going to win games by like 50 (points).”

Now though, with the fat getting trimmed that coincides with the move from the regular season into the postseason, while Solanco has been somewhat unassuming to some perhaps, there really won’t be much room to hide the rest of the way. Even if they still might try and play that card.

“We’ve paid a little bit of attention to that,” Gaffey shared of the general public’s overwhelming praise of teams perhaps going elsewhere this season. “We’ve flown under the radar a little bit and the guys have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder, but what we’ve really talked about, aside from trying to chase history, is building and setting the standard for Solanco basketball moving forward,” said Gaffey. “This is the groundwork that we want to lay. Like, ‘Do you guys want to be remembered as that one really good team before things fell off, or do you want to be known as the group that set the stage for everyone else?’ I think this group wants to be the group that sets the standard for everybody else.”

Now, seeing as how this is the first Solanco team to reach the postseason in 16 years, the first part of the characteristic is certainly cemented in. From here, only time will truly reveal the answer as to the narratives that ultimately unfold. But no matter what happens the rest of the way, this is certainly a Mules’ squad that deserves to be celebrated. Even if they still might be awaiting such acclaim.