Lancaster Mennonite Encounters An Old Nemesis In District 3-3A Title Game As Blazers Spar With Trinity, Fall To Shamrocks For Second Consecutive Season (Article By Kyle Morgan)

Written by: Andy Herr on February 26, 2026

Lancaster Mennoite’s boys’ basketball program has steadily built quite the dynasty in recent years.

Back-to-back Section Four titles in the L-L League, plus their first league championship in over two decades this season. A Class 2A state title back in the 2022-23 campaign. And maybe most impressively, a whopping six straight appearances in District 3 championship games dating back to 2021, with the Blazers winning four consecutive 2A gold medals through 2024.

Then came last season when they were bumped up to Class 3A. Mennonite made the finals against, but this time, they faced Trinity, one of the best programs in both the Mid-Penn Conference and District 3 as a whole. Entering this season, the Shamrocks had earned 20 District 3 titles, second behind only Reading at 24.

Mark them down for 21 now. In a repeat of the 2025 finals, where Trinity pulled away and won 66-54 after a scrappy Blazers’ performance, the Shamrocks did it again in 2026, this time coming away with a 65-54 victory Wednesday night at Red Lion, part of a girls-boys doubleheader where the Lady Shamrocks pulled off a late comeback against Pequea Valley to win 45-41.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t this way,” Mennonite head coach Jeff Hartenstine said. “You always see how the brackets are shaping up and how dominant Trinity is. You’re just thinking, ‘Okay, as we’re preparing for the opponents we’re seeing in the regular season, leagues and districts, we’re also trying to do some things to get ready for Trinity.’ We know we’re gonna see them down the road. We have the knack for now, preparing for the future and the current games. But man, they’re a good team. I have nothing but respect for them and the way they do things.”

The scores were nearly identical, and a lot of the players were the same, but on the other hand, the vibes were entirely different from last year at times. Trinity’s five starters all played in the 2025 finals; the Shamrocks’ only significant graduation was Owen Schlager, now a freshman at Siena, who went off for 24 points that game.

Of course, the Blazers brought back a lot of their heavy-hitters from the previous year as well. They were also looking to avenge a 77-58 defeat to Trinity back in December, the last time they took a hit in the loss column. Hartenstine noted that the Shamrocks generally went man vs. man defensively in that game.

This time around, they broke out a 3-2 zone for virtually the entire first half, slowing the game to a crawl. By the time the first timeout was called just beyond the midway point of the first, both sides had put up just five shots each, and no player had more than 2 points.

The Blazers struggled with consistency on offense, finding it difficult to get good looks against Trinity’s zone. There weren’t many turnovers, and Mennonite did get a number of offensive boards from Bill Rothwein and Brady Grau along the way, but the Shamrocks’ athletic depth shone through; eight players took the floor during the game for them, all of whom had at least 20 contests under their belt this year, compared to the Blazers’ relatively smaller rotation.

“I don’t want to say it was totally unexpected, but they had only shown that once or twice during the season against some of the larger teams they played,” Hartenstine said. “That caught us by surprise. Credit to them: when they’re in a zone, they’re big, they’re long and they’re athletic. Certain things we can get away with against other zones were not open in this one. It’s a very hard thing. I got to do a better job as a head coach, but when you’re sitting against a zone, and you’re having trouble scoring, all your enthusiasm and energy starts to go down.”

To their credit, the Blazers didn’t make things easy for the Shamrocks, matching them stride for stride. Any time Trinity nudged ahead, Mennonite was able to tie the score back up, right up until sixth man Cole Felician knocked down a long 2-pointer to give the Shamrocks a 10-8 advantage ahead of the second quarter.

The wheels started to fall off a bit for the rest of the half, however. Senior Liam Sexton came alive during the second, kickstarting a 6-0 run with an and-one putback and later throwing down a fastbreak dunk as well. Down 22-11, the Blazers came to life briefly with their only field goals of the quarter (a driving layup from senior Brady Grau and a rare 3-pointer from senior Bill Rothwein), but junior Nick Smith immediately answered with a 3-ball of his own. Sexton then finished off the half with an easy layup to put Trinity’s lead at 27-16.

By comparison, the pace of play in the second half was the complete opposite, with the two sides trading mini-runs back and forth. The Shamrocks got things going with six straight out of the break, punctuated by a steal-and-dunk from junior Andre Steele, but Mennonite was able to stop the bleeding with a Grau 3 and a layup from sophomore Jackson Bare.

An alley-oop layup from Sexton heralded a 5-0 Trinity run from there. Then, a 4-0 run from Mennonite off a drive from senior Chase Hurst and a Bare steal-and-score. Back-to-back 3’s from Steele late in the third gave the Shamrocks a 52-31 lead, which wound up being the largest of the game, but Hurst was able to pick up a 3 and an and-one layup (without the free throw) to make it 52-36.

Whistles began sounding during the fourth; both teams were in the bonus by the 4-minute mark. Trinity was hurt more by them early, and Mennonite took advantage, getting it back to a single-digit game with a 10-2 run to start the quarter, thanks to a couple of Bare 3-balls and some additional buckets from junior Daulton Nolt. The Blazers’ defense threw some zone looks toward the Shamrocks as well to help force more turnovers.

Alas, they also shot themselves in the foot with turnovers of their own, chiefly two within 45 seconds of game time. Mennonite also missed out on multiple chances at the foul line as well, ultimately finishing just 8-of-18 from there. The closest the Blazers got for the rest of the game was an unreal midcourt pass from Bare to Rothwein for an alley-oop layup. Otherwise, the Shamrocks did enough with their free throws, mainly from Steele, to close out the win.

“In the second half, we started attacking it a little bit more, but every time we’d miss, they’d get an easy run-out for a dunk or a layup,” Hartenstine said. “I knew we were gonna have to be very good to beat them. They’re just a super impressive team. We had a conversation in the locker room about digging out of holes like that. Even if you make a nice run late, everything has to be perfect. We missed some free throws, and we had those turnovers in transition. When it’s an 8-point game with four minutes left, and we don’t capitalize, it’s tough to suck it up and go force another turnover on the other end. On our best day, I think we can give them a good game, but they’re so well-coached and athletic. All the credit to them.”

Hartenstine noted that the lessons he and the rest of the team took from the December loss was that, in order to compete with Trinity, the Blazers had to perform better on the boards and in transition defense. They were able to accomplish the first goal, outrebounding the Shamrocks 24 to 22 off the back of an even 10 from Rothwein.

But Trinity wound up being too deep to slow down offensively. Steele finished with a game-high 19 points. Sexton was right behind him with 18, his second-best output of the year; he also didn’t miss a shot until the fourth quarter. Sophomore Nike Craig was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, finishing with 11. Smith and senior Marcus Yeager contributed 6 each, plus a number of assists and rebounds in big moments.

“When you’re deflated by a bad possession on offense, and you see them streaking out the other way, it’s so hard to sprint back and get stops,” Hartenstine said. “Sometimes, it’s demoralizing to see them get those dunks and fastbreaks. A 2-pointer that doesn’t go in for you can become a 4-point swing.”

Bare had a team-high 15 points for Mennonite, all but one coming in the second half. Rothwein posted 13, while Hurst grinded out 10 despite a down shooting night by his usual standards. Nolt and Grau rounded out the scoring with 9 and 7 points, respectively.

Both teams will now advance to the PIAA Class 3A tournament, scheduled to begin next Saturday. Trinity will draw the fourth-place team from District 6, while Mennonite gets the third-place team from District 12, which is likely to be Lansdale Catholic.

The Blazers are familiar with the Crusaders, having beaten them 57-39 during the first round of last year’s state tournament. After a second-round victory over Catasauqua, they would finally fall to Holy Cross in the quarterfinals. In order to make it further this season, Mennonite will have to parlay some of the second-half Trinity momentum over into states. Maybe a rematch with the Shamrocks is on the horizon?

“We can build off it for sure,” Hartenstine said. “Late in the game, we did some really good offensive things against the zone they were still in. I expect Trinity to go very far in states, so hopefully, we learned and figured a few things out. Now we got a week off until our next game, so we’ll get in and practice. The guys just need a little bit of time to recoup and hit it hard for states. We’ll figure out who our opponent is and do our best. Hopefully, we can keep it going, get on a bus and have some fun.”

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