Buckskins Remain Barons’ Kryptonite As Conestoga Valley Returns To Manheim Central, Comes Away With Second Consecutive Victory, Makes Strong Opening Statement In Noisy Section Two Discussion

Written by: Andy Herr on December 4, 2025

While it’s true to say that all season-openers are special, there are undeniably others that are just a cut above when it comes to storylines and historical significance. And Wednesday night in Manheim could not have been any stronger indication of that notion ringing true.

But before we look forward, we must first look back.

You see, last season, Manheim Central unveiled their brand-new gymnasium for all to see, affectionately dubbed “The Derb” in honor of the Barons’ long-time athletic director, Geroge Derbyshire. Since it opened its doors last December, things couldn’t have gone much better for the Barons’ boys’ basketball team. Like, starting off the gym’s tenure with an 11-0 mark right out the chute type level of fluency.

Since then however, specifically pointing back to one game in particular, that’s when things began to change for Central and their seemingly staunch and imposing homecourt advantage.

Even taking their initial starting jaunt at home aside for just a moment, the Barons were in the midst of having one of their best regular season campaigns of all-time last winter, something best evidenced by the 20-2 overall record MC carried with them into the start of postseason play a year ago.

Then, the playoffs began.

Arguably one of the favorites to begin league championship week last February that would see their journey culminate with a potential trip down to Manheim Township for the Lancaster-Lebanon League title game on Friday night, the Barons figured to pass their first test of the league playoffs, a home date against the Section Two runner-up, Conestoga Valley, a Buckskins crew that came into that same game a mere two games above water by virtue of their 12-10 overall record.

Needless to say, with Manheim Central still being unbeaten in their new house by that point, the Section Three champ Barons figured to pass this assignment without much difficulty when simply assessing overall records and overall vibes heading into things.

Problem was, someone forgot to reiterate that same message to the Buckskins.

Instead of Manheim Central going on to potentially chase down what would have been their league crown in program history, the story itself never got off the ground as Conestoga Valley was able to pull the upset in the Barons’ new digs, winning by a thrilling 48-47 final count to stun the masses, not the least of which was the entire Central ensemble.

After that, even though Manheim Central would go on to begin the upcoming District 3-5A playoffs as the #1 overall seed, loss to CV notwithstanding, the Barons would then lose to 16h-seeded Spring Grove in the opening round, complete a frantic comeback against Middletown to preserve their season, only to then fall to archrival Cocalico inside the consolation bracket the very next game out, suddenly ending a high-flying season with an abrupt and immediate halt.

So, one could argue, seeing as how Conestoga Valley had been the first team to really throw a wrench into the Barons’ postseason plans a year ago, those in Manheim Central camp had likely been salivating at an early chance to make amends for the game that saw MC finish the 2024-25 campaign on a 1-3 final clip, all of which were contests held right there at home in Manheim.

Then, thanks to Mother Nature doing her part on Tuesday by postponing both CV and Central’s opening games on Tuesday night respectively, this one would in fact be the first chance for the Barons to flip the script from that game endured ten months ago.

Yet again though, someone forgets to keep relaying these messages of impending doom and gloom onward to Conestoga Valley.

In fact, CV started Wednesday night’s proceedings out at a relatively torrid pace.

So much so that following a Sawyer Esbenshade bucket at the cup that preceded a confident and smooth pullup mid-range jumper sunk by Jayden Conaway, the Buckskins’ senior and junior tandem respectively had prompted Manheim Central into burning an early timeout to try and stem the tide given the home team’s current 10-5 deficit with 3:59 left to play in the opening frame at the time.

But something clicked following that Barons’ timeout.

Truth be told, Central would retaliate by authoring the game’s next seven points in succession, capped off by a triple knocked down by the Barons’ leading returning scorer on the year, Chase Book, as the MC senior stud made it a 12-10 Barons’ lead, all while en route to pouring in a personal game-high 23-point scoring performance by night’s end.

All told, thanks in no small part to the Barons’ other piece of the senior class equation who tossed in double figures to the scoring ledger with an 12-point showing, Maddix Whitman, who completed a hoop plus the harm inside of the final minute of the first quarter, the Manheim Central lead of a pair would hold serve prior to the start of the second stanza as the Barons led, 15-13.

However, that would just about the last time that Central was able to play with the lead for the remainder of the night. At least if Toby Schaub had any input on the matter of course.

A year ago, the Buckskins’ now senior sniper was able to compile an average of two makes per game from beyond the arc to help aid in the collective CV cause in 2024-25, not the least of which was highlighted by a staggering eight, yes, eight of them chipped in against Dallastown last December. And while Schaub wouldn’t exactly flirt with double digit treys in this game against Manheim Central perhaps, his shooting impact was nonetheless felt in spades.

On this night, the CV upperclassman would instead go back-to-back-to-back in terms of sinking shots from bonus distance over the span of three straight Buckskins’ possessions inside the second act against the Manheim Central 1-3-1 zone, all of which helped to catapult CV into ownership of the 24-20 lead with 4:42 left to play in the opening frame following Schaub’s sudden nine-point explosion.

In reality though, that would prove to be an ownership title which the Buckskins would not relinquish for the remainder of the evening.

Speaking of “spurtability,” there were plenty in the Buckskins’ camp that demonstrated such propensity at times throughout Wednesday evening.

Not the least of which, Camryn Bair, finishing alongside Esbenshade with both sharing in 18-point outings to lead the team-high charge, as the Bucks’ junior guard came away with a pair of consecutive buckets in his own right down the waning stages of the second quarter, these two in particular helping to extend the CV margin out to a 33-28 difference with a hair inside of two minutes remaining in the opening half.

From there, while Central would be able to cut into that lead following another bucket plus the foul by way of Whitman, CV was still out in front come the halftime break all the same by virtue of their 36-33 advantage at the intermission.

Yet if his antics back in the first half weren’t already troublesome enough for the Barons, Toby Schaub would just as promptly re-insert himself back into the storyline come the start of the second half as well.

Like, how about on the very first possession out of the gate type quickly as the Bucks’ marksman fired in his fourth triple of evening to conclude CV’s initial offensive trip down the floor, taking any wind out of the Barons’ sails they may have thought to have had come following the game’s recess.

And while Manheim Central’s Chase Book would certainly do yeoman’s work in terms of coming up with big bucket after big bucket that helped to keep the Barons in the fight throughout, such as his triple here which trimmed the CV lead down to a 39-37 difference, a steal and finish by, you guessed it, Toby Schaub, would later up the Buckskins’ cushion out to a 46-37  clip with five minutes left in the third, CV’s largest lead of the night at the time.

But here again, while Central would creep back closer, CV would just as quickly help turn them back on the way from which they came.

Here, with Book completing a three-point play of the old-fashioned variety that made it a 49-45 CV lead with inside of two minutes left to go, an immediate trifecta splashed in the next time down the floor by Sawyer Esbenshade made it a touchdown-sized Buckskins’ lead once more, 52-45, a fitting occasion given that Esbenshade was named Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Two Back of the Year on this very night following his quarterbacking efforts this year out on football field for CV during the fall.  

And while it may have felt as if CV was emphatically on top and in command by a sizable difference, that really couldn’t have been much further from the truth seeing as how Manheim Central still maintained more than a puncher’s chance heading into the fourth despite their current 52-47 shortcoming with the final eight minutes getting set to commence.  

Instead, that’s when Conestoga Valley decided to put their foot down. For good.

While Toby Schaub certainly had a starring role offensively as evidenced by his 14 points tallied come the game’s conclusion, his defensive effort was equally as valuable against Manheim on this night, especially here as his deflection in the early stages of the final stanza would later culminate in a Barons’ turnover that ended in an Esbenshade bucket at cup on the other end, making it a 59-48 Bucks’ lead with all of two minutes having evaporated off the fourth quarter clock.

From there, another personal 5-0 swing authored by a Buckskin, Jayden Conaway in this instance, made it a sizable 66-51 CV lead following a Conaway triple with 3:50 left to play.

Fittingly, especially how CV’s defensive and offensive effort paired nothing if not nicely alongside one another all throughout Wednesday evening’s proceedings, a Sawyer Esbenshade theft and layup help to truly put this game on ice at 72-54 before the final buzzer sounded with CV walking away and out of Manheim with yet another win for their troubles for the second straight occasion, this time being a 74-56 final verdict to truly springboard them out of the starting blocks to begin this 2025-26 season-long journey.

“That group of kids, people look at it two different ways where they say, ‘Oh, they’re young and there’s a lot of juniors on the floor.’ But we look at it as, ‘They’re experienced. They’ve been in these games as sophomores,’” Conestoga Valley head coach, Jim Shipper, said regarding his bunch after coming out of his team’s winning locker room postgame. “Sawyer (Eshbenshade) and Toby (Schaub), they lead us as seniors, but those juniors out there played as sophomores down the stretch last year,” said Shipper. “I just feel that (the underclassmen) are experienced and while not many may know their names yet, they’ve played two years of summer league and two years of fall league at the varsity level along with JV action. Yeah, you can’t gauge everything off summer league, but they’re certainly not afraid of the moment and to play in these big spots.”

And if Wednesday, one game sample size as it may be is any sort of precursor of what’s to potentially come from here on out, there’s isn’t necessarily a primary scout where taking one singular Buckskin out of the equation means that CV is then suddenly dead to rights.

“I think we almost had five guys end up in double figures in scoring tonight,” Shipper said of his team’s balance shown against Central. “A bucket here, a bucket there, that’s five, six guys scoring in double figures without having to rely on someone to score like 25, 26 points by himself. Even without that, we still scored over 70,” he added of his club’s 74-point clip achieved. “I’m just happy with the balanced scoring because I do think it makes us a little trickier to scout. Especially for a team that I don’t think many expected to be very deep. I think we’re deeper than most people expect or realize. Tonight, we went about seven and a half, but I think we can go eight, nine deep at times,” he added of his team’s potential participation chart on any given night.

And not to bury the lede any further, but for a game that Manheim Central likely had circled internally for quite some time, coming out of dodge with a victory in their back pocket certainly made this lid-lifter even sweeter inside CV camp.

“Coming off a snow day, you never really know what to expect,” the Bucks’ head man said of the impromptu change of plans following yesterday’s postponement with their anticipated first game against Penn Manor that was shelved which then made Manheim Central first on the to-do list. “You didn’t have practice. You didn’t have a game. You just wonder then where everyone’s head space will be and if they’re ready to play. We really couldn’t gameplan (for Manheim Central) in advance either because we’re always focused on the man ahead of you which for us was Penn Manor. Our focus on Friday, Saturday, and Monday was all on them,” Shipper remarked of the Comets. “But yeah, we figured there might be some paybacks since we were their first loss in this arena and all that, so we knew (Manheim Central) would be ready to play against us. I thought they played great and hard throughout the first three quarters, but then we were able to just pull away in the fourth with our legs.”

So, what now?

Section Two in the L-L seems to be incredibly crowded. Warwick, always a prohibitive favorite, lost at home to Manheim Township on Wednesday night. Cocalico, another darling of the preseason chatter, went on the road and knocked off 6A Governor Mifflin on Wednesday night as well. Solanco and E-town, both perhaps rightly viewed as extremely dangerous sleeper cells in the mix, have yet to play a game this season. CV? Well, they just went into a potential hornet’s nest and came out unscathed to begin their season here on this night.

“That’s okay,” Shipper quipped with a smile when asked if perhaps the masses may have been caught asleep at the switch when assessing his team’s chances prior to the start of the season and their long-term viability in the divisional race. “They never do talk about us.”  

Maybe “they” don’t. But make no mistake. In Manheim, they certainly know all too well what the Buckskins are capable of. Wednesday night was just further proof of that.

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