After Emotional First Weekend, L-S Steadies The Ship, Closes Out E-town As Pioneers Climb To 2-1 Record Heading Into Section Play

Written by: Andy Herr on December 9, 2025

Coming out of the first weekend of the season, to suggest that the shared experiences found inside their respective tip-off tournaments in which they played were a bit of a mixed bag when referencing both Elizabethtown and Lampeter-Strasburg might be a bit of disservice.

For starters, coming out the initial weekend with a pair of 1-1 records held between them, both the highs and the lows over the span of Friday and Saturday for either club seemed to be eerily similar as well.

For E-town, their shortcoming came on Friday evening in the opening round of Lebanon’s tip-off event, as the Bears fell to one of the scariest teams hanging out inside of L-L Section Three this year, ELCO, by a 49-48 decision – a setback experienced in overtime no less.

That said, while the name of the game for E-town was undeniably bouncing back when it came to the consolation affair on Saturday night in taking on Our Lady of the Cross, an upstart private school located within the Lebanon County borders, a decisive victory figured to be afoot nonetheless considering the stark difference found between a 6A school and that of a 1A outfit still getting their sea legs as a program. Sure enough, that’s precisely what transpired as the Bears rolled with ease en route to a 69-12 victory, a game which required Our Lady of the Cross to bury a step-back 3-ball at the final buzzer to finally reach the double-digit plateau.

On the other hand, for L-S, the good news and bad news would flipflop between nights comparatively speaking.

As far as first games go, it’s hard to envision a better start to the Austin Smucker coaching era, but the young coach wasn’t alone when it came to stealing headlines for the Pioneers in the first game of the season. No, not when those were arguably surpassed when considering the efforts found via L-S freshman, Johnny Galarza, as Galarza made an immediate impact by pouring in a 26-point effort in his first game at the high school level, helping to culminate in a 69-65 victory in L-S’ favor against South Western on Friday night in the opening round affair of the Hershey’s tip-off event.

Then came the game against the host school on Saturday.

In that outing, against the defending PIAA-5A state runners-up mind you, L-S walked into a proverbial buzzsaw against the homestanding Trojans, dropping a 78-48 final verdict, highlighted by the reigning 5A State Player of the Year semifinalist from a year ago, Cam Sweeney, netting his 1,000^th career point while donning the Trojans’ orange and blue.

Simply put, for an opening weekend that saw the ebbs and flows of what a season can bring be magnified within just the span of 24 hours alone, starting this new week off on the right foot figured to be paramount for both E-town and L-S in their own regard, especially with the dawn of section play looming right there on the horizon already this week. Fittingly, these two schools just so happened to have each other placed on the schedule to help raise the curtain on the second full week on Monday night with L-S kicking off this new chapter in their program’s history with this first game played at home in welcoming E-town into town for a Section Two/Section Three crossover affair.

And while it may not have been perhaps the most glamorous or picturesque, it would nonetheless prove to be a beautiful victory all the same for L-S come late Monday night.

To say that both E-town and L-S had a tough go of it early on in terms of either cracking the scoring seal might be a slight understatement.

Yes, while L-S junior guard, Asher Jones, began the night’s proceedings with a steal and two-handed dunk that energized the Pios’ partisans, the game would remain at a 2-2 stalemate heading into the back half of the opening frame once E-town’s Nate Poff followed suit with a theft and layup of his own roughly two minutes and change afterwards.

However, that latter half of the first act? Well, that just proved to be “The Brady Zuber Show.”

To say that the L-S lefty senior wing had a torrid close to the first quarter would also be a disservice.

In fact, following a pair of 3-balls fired in by Zuber, not only did E-town have to burn a timeout while now facing a 15-6 deficit with just 41.9 ticks left to go, but a smooth pullup jumper sunk in the closing seconds not far behind allowed Zuber to close the first quarter on his own personal 10-0 flurry, while also more importantly pushing the L-S lead out to a sizable 17-6 difference come the start of the second frame.

In the second quarter, much like in the first, points would prove to be a premium.

Granted, while Johnny Galarza would sink a jumper of his own – the first L-S bucket to break the Zuber-led personal charge – to make it a 19-6 Pioneers’ lead, E-town was able to keep within reach somewhat, not the least of which was due in part to a pair of shots knocked down by Carter Torborg, slicing the L-S lead into single figures at 19-10 with 5:01 left before half.

All told, L-S would nonetheless be able to keep the Bears at an arm’s length throughout the remainder of the second act, heading into the half with ownership of the 25-13 lead following the first sixteen minutes.

Gradually, yet somewhat suddenly all the same time, E-town began authoring their most ardent challenge seen up until that point.

Sure enough, while a steal and finish by way of E-town’s Cayson Ward got the Bears back within single figures at 30-22 with 2:40 left in the third, a combined 3-4 trip to the charity stripe via the efforts of Carter Torborg and Prince Wratto respectively was followed shortly thereafter cut the once sizable L-S buffer all the way down to a much more modest five, 34-29, prior to entering the game’s final stanza.

Yet E-town only continued to make the L-S troops sweat it out throughout the last eight minutes.

Case in point, seeing that L-S lead be whittled all the way down to the smallest of margins, 35-34, following a 3-ball tossed in by Nate Poff, finishing with the silver medal in terms of Bears’ scoring found on the night with a 13-point placing him just one-point behind Torborg’s 14-point showing, with a full six minutes and change still left to play.

However, when E-town needed to string together consecutive stops in order to achieve what they had hoped would be them soon summitting the mountain and getting control of the lead, that opportunity would not come to pass.

That said, it certainly didn’t help those efforts once Asher Jones rose up and splashed home a huge triple to push the Pios’ lead back out to two possessions, 38-34, to get things in order for the home team.

Ultimately, even despite E-town’s constant persistence found down the final furlong, L-S was finally able to quell the Bears’ effort, especially by way of late-game foul shooting in particular.

And while a Torborg jumper would close the gap back down to two at 45-43, the one who really got the night started for L-S, Brady Zuber, promptly closed things out with a pair of clutch freebies found at the charity stripe to seal the deal for good even despite an E-town bucket which just beat the final buzzer, allowing L-S to finally exhale once they had garnered a final 47-45 victory for their troubles over E-town.

Afterwards, while most everyone who stepped foot onto the floor was integral for L-S the entire evening, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone more valuable to the entire operation Monday night than that of Brady Zuber. In fact, he and his teammates recognized his collective efforts by awarding him with the L-S “Impact Player Chain” which Zuber proudly donned after coming out of his team’s victorious locker room.

“It goes to the player who makes a huge impact on the game,” Zuber, the game-high scorer with a 19-point body of work, explained of the award. “Not necessarily the leading scorer or anything, but someone who worked the hardest and made the winning plays throughout the game.”

And how.

“I was just having fun really,” Zuber said of his game played here against E-town. “I’ve put a lot of work in, so I have the confidence to just go out there and do it.”

That, and considering that the Pioneers were also absent the services on Monday of one of their foremost players in the entire rotation, Hayden Martin, Zuber and his mates selflessly stepped to this task too once called upon.

“I definitely felt like my role was more increased tonight,” shared Zuber. “Hayden is such a great scorer. He brings a lot of scoring for us. I think I did a good job of maybe elevating the scoring, but really that’s the same role I can have every game. This game, I just really had to take the initiative with it.”

His coach was cognizant of that as well.

“The more we saw of (Zuber) in the summer and the fall, I think that we were able to see him play in a variety of different spots…I think we’re starting to see that Zuber can play to his full potential off the ball. But when we need him on the ball, we can utilize his abilities there as well.”

And about that new piece of jewelry that L-S has in tow for this season by the way?

“My thing with the Impact Chain is, it’s going to go the guy who impacted the game the most. It’s not the scoring. It’s all the little things. Tonight, I said to the guys, ‘This can either go to Asher (Jones), or to Zuber, but we’re giving it to ‘Zube.’ We’re only to give that out after wins, but (his players) are going to wear it going out of here, out of away games too when we win those. I just think it’s impactful to the guys as well because it gives them something to play for and something for pride.”

So, that’s among some of the fresh things that the new man in charge at L-S has brought with him. And after such a topsy-turvy opening weekend to begin his tenure as mentioned off top, Austin Smucker had already taken his turn at getting off the head coaching roller coaster by Sunday.

“For me, as a coach, I literally got the highest high, then the next day got the lowest low,” Smucker mentioned of winning a hard-fought game before then losing by 30 points. “As players, we got to go out and get a close victory where we were down 15 (points) at one point and ended up leading that (South Western) game maybe a total of 45 seconds….I have a big thing in (the locker room) that says, ‘How will we respond?’ We got knocked out. Hershey is phenomenal. I think it’s good though. We get that out of the way early now to where if it comes again, we’ll be ready for it. Coming into a tight game like tonight, now we’re used to tight games. We’re just getting all the emotions of it right now.”

Speaking of which, with tonight being the home opener in leading his alma mater, Smucker is just glad that the season is now underway, and all the “newness” of the situation at large can gradually fade away.

“Getting a win on the first night was the best,” said Smucker. “You just want to get that first one out of the way, get the nerves and the jitters out of the way, but getting the win was the most important. Now, I feel like I can finally just coach basketball. Of course I’m always going to feel the pressure of winning, but everything’s out of the way now and I feel a lot more comfortable, especially going into section play.”

Section Play. The time of year where historically L-S butters their bread the best. While the names and faces may be different in some regards, the Pioneers are still the Pioneers. New or not, that’s not the most comforting of feelings for the rest of their Section Three brethren to catch wind of.