Falcons Turn Into ‘Dawgs’ As Cedar Crest Comes Of Age, Flips The Script, Knocks Manheim Central Off In Semifinal Round To Stalk Fourth Lancaster-Lebanon League Championship Since 2014
Written by: Andy Herr on February 15, 2024
Perhaps it’s funny. Perhaps it’s ironic. Whatever the adjective of choice, there’s something be said for not much changing in a year’s time. Or, more accurately, 364 days.
You see, back on February 15th of 2023, this was the exact same scenario. Well, sort of.
In terms of what made it similar was the stage, the setting, and the teams involved. The stage being the semifinal round of the Lancaster-Lebanon League boys’ basketball playoffs. The setting being Conestoga Valley’s cavernous Rill Gymnasium. And the two combatants being the Cedar Crest Falcons and the Manheim Central Barons pitting themselves against each other once more. Yet for all the “insert your adjective of choice” game again that we’ve seen throughout this entire season on the L-L basketball circuit, whether you label it parody, upmost competitive balance, or some form of hoops-induced cannibalism of sorts, the surprising results that poured in from all corners of the conference on a nearly nightly basis this season made everything puzzling to say the least. But, as is so often the case in these things, the cream tends to eventually find its way to the top by the time we near the finish line. Sure enough, whether it be the 2023 or the 2024 season, both the Falcons and Barons found themselves to be of that ilk.
For Cedar Crest, if the Falcons hadn’t reached this game, it probably could’ve and would’ve been labeled as a disappointment. Hard to find an argument in that regard considering how the core cast of Falcons who have started and received significant time since their sophomore seasons, guys like Fernando Marquez, Aiden Schomp, Owen Chernich, and Leo Tirado, to name a few, made this 2023-24 campaign one that you could see being constructed and rounding into form years ago. Granted, while Cedar Crest themselves weren’t exactly immune to some of those eyebrow-raising results this winter –such as four of their five losses coming by an average of nearly 22-points-per-game sticking out in particular—the road thru Section One once again proved it went up Route 72 and into Cornwall as the Falcons claimed yet another division title this season to add to an already strong franchise who’s presence has been felt at the top of the L-L League going back essentially a decade now.
On the other side, while they weren’t exactly starting over per se, there was understandably a rather large void entering this year for the team who has spent the last couple of seasons squatting at Doe Run Elementary if you will while their new gym gets built and finished.
How large of a void you ask? Well, how about a sultry 1,815 points tallied over four years? All told, that’s a mark that stands behind only Taylor Funk, currently competing for a crack to break into the NBA ranks, when it comes to the totality of Barons’ scoring in the program’s entire history. For that, the departure of one of the best sharpshooters the L-L League has ever seen to graduation this past spring, Manheim Central’s Trey Grube, now playing collegiately at Lancaster Bible College, understandably caused a bit of consternation in Barons’ camp heading into the winter. Beyond that, there was the added of element of, well, Manheim quite frankly, in the sense that it was another successful fall on the gridiron for the Barons this season with some of their key cogs potentially ending their basketball careers early after receiving college football offers. And fortunately for them, the Barons’ contingent that is, two of their key college football-bound stars did indeed come back to lace up the sneakers one more time in Aaron Enterline and Zac Hahn respectively, two Manheim Central seniors who are incredibly important to the basketball team’s success this year, albeit in two fairly different avenues with Enterline being capable of going off for 20 points or more and a ridiculous human highlight on any given night, and Hahn doing all the necessary little things that may not been totally seen to the untrained eye out on the floor. From there, pepper in the explosive capabilities in either the guard or forward matchup nightmare known as Sammy Witmer, the unbridled intensity and emotion found in floor general Jackson Tracy, and an underclassman who ironically enough had a bit of a coming out party last year in this very game as a freshman, Chase Book, it was then easy to see why some of those preseason question marks just as easily turned into exclamation points over in Manheim at the start of December.
But to tie it all back together here, this was a game that both squads probably would’ve gladly accepted when it came to a semifinal rematch against the other this season which is what the masses received on Wednesday night at CV for a dinner-hour game between Central and Crest.
For Manheim Central, it was the opportunity to do something that would put the Barons in somewhat rarified air historically when it comes to a school typically not found in the Section One ranks, or one known as Lancaster Catholic as typically the lone exception to that rule, in making it back to the league championship game in back-to-back seasons. And after last year being their maiden voyage to the league’s grand finale that was eventually derailed by a late Hempfield comeback in said title fight, it’d be easy to see why Manheim Central could’ve dubbed this year as being one with unfinished business on their collective minds to say the least.
In Cedar Crest camp, c’mon now. You know, I know, and they know there was no more perfect script that they themselves would’ve typed up if they had their druthers. Try as you might, you won’t find many more programs that relish and embrace the role of playing with chips on their shoulders better than the Falcons. Simply put, getting a chance to expel the team who ended their journey for the crown last year, albeit 364 days later, couldn’t have been a tastier appetizer before what the Falcons surely hoped would be the main entrée come Friday night at Manheim Township.
Yet whether they were motivated by seeing the maroon-colored jerseys that read “Manheim Central” across the front standing across from them or not, the fact of the matter was more so that Cedar Crest wanted to get past whomever was standing in their pathway in order to get to Friday. And while they may not have many fingernails left considering how Wednesday night’s semifinal went down to the very last tenth of a second, that’s precisely where the Falcons will be found at 7pm Friday evening at Manheim Township for the league title game.
Without much in the way of debate, the margin for separation generated between these was slim to nil in the early going. Yet if there was any to be found, it largely stemmed from the work of Cedar Crest’s 6’2 bruising lead guard, Fernando Marquez, as the future college football player in his own right rattled off his own personal 5-0 jaunt both inside and outside of the arc to give his side the 9-4 advantage just a tick past the halfway mark of the opening frame. Then, throughout the latter half of the final three minutes and change of the first quarter, that is largely where the window remained as Lebanon County’s lone representative left standing charged into the second stanza with ownership of the 11-6 lead over their Manheim Central counterparts.
But in the early portion of the second quarter in particular, it seemed as if Cedar Crest was well on their way towards perhaps running away and hiding from the Barons.
Case in point, a pair of takes to the cup authored by one of the more underrated juniors found in all the conference, Cedar Crest’s 6’0 guard, Danny Speaks, as the Speaks-led charge made it a commanding 15-6 Falcons’ cushion with the game clock rapidly winding down in relatively fast-moving game in general.
Yet just when Cedar Crest may have started to feel good about themselves, here came Manheim Central right back to the fight.
In this instance, the Barons leaned on their outside shooting prowess as a pair of Aaron Enterline trifectas that sandwiched a Sammy Witmer long-ball in between suddenly made it a 19-17 affair, with Cedar Crest still in front, but with momentum clearly riding with Manheim Central with 2:40 left to play in the opening half by that point.
And while momentum may have started to tilt in the other direction at that moment in time, was there really any doubt as to the Cedar Crest senior class taking things over when it mattered most?
For that, a Marquez bucket on the ensuing Falcons’ trip following Enterline’s latest 3-ball upped the Cedar Crest lead to four at 21-17 which is exactly where the difference remained once 6’1 senior guard, Owen Chernich, tallied his only bucket of the entire contest. True, but it would be a bucket whose value could not be understated as the deuce tallied by the Falcons’ maestro of the show offensively that came mere moments before the second quarter horn blared allowed Cedar Crest to own the 23-19 advantage at the halftime recess.
But even once in the third frame, many of the same narratives that enveloped the first half were on display yet again.
Here, while Cedar Crest would see their lead swell upwards to six at 25-19 following a silky-smooth floater in the lane chipped in by another member of the soon-to-be Falcons’ graduating class, 5’9 Leo Tirado, a Manheim Central triple cashed in by way of 6’1 sophomore guard, Chase Book, cut the margin back down to five at 27-22 not long afterwards. And despite Tirado coming up with another floater in the paint which later made it 31-24 Cedar Crest gap with all of 1:45 left to play in the third, the Falcons were anything but out of the woods.
Specifically speaking, while a Barons’ bucket in the immediate aftermath of Tirado’s latest score by way of Manheim Central 6’0 junior guard, Ryan Kenneff, got the “visitors” back within shouting distance, a pair of gargantuan 3-balls sunk in the waning stages of the third quarter by way of Book –who suddenly has become an L-L semifinal round centerpiece of sorts thru his very early career– ushered Central into the final frame not just well within reach, but with the lead in totality as the Barons rolled into the final eight minutes with the 32-31 lead.
Fittingly, back-and-forth were the jabs that either side would continue to throw against one another inside the last stanza.
While Manheim Central’s #1 in uniform, Aaron Enterline, would contribute a bucket which gave his side the 34-33 lead with five minutes left en route to his 10-point outing, Cedar Crest’s #1, Fernando Marquez, would come up with a timely steal and finish for his club, making it a 35-34 Falcons’ lead with 3:40 left to play with the Barons taking precious air out of the ball which made every possession, particularly inside of the fourth quarter, worth its weight in gold. And speaking of Marquez, he continued to be his ol’ reliable self as the battle-tested Falcon finished the evening tying with team-high scoring honors by posting 10 points next to his name in the scorebook.
Suffice to say, with Manheim Central trying to dictate terms and not let Cedar Crest turn this into some sort of a track meet on top of a hardwood floor by slowing the game’s tempo down to a snail’s pace, everyone needed to be locked in without fail. And perhaps that is why Cedar Crest’s next bucket, a point-blank, wide-open bunny out of a baseline out-of-bounds play by 6’7 junior forward, RJ Young, made it so back-breaking as the other member of the Falcons’ 10-point duo on Wednesday evening made it a 37-34 Cedar Crest lead with just 2:15 left to go. From there, the other element of the Falcons’ physically imposing twin towers rotation, 6’6 senior big man, Aiden Schomp, proceeded to toe the line with 1:24 left to play and knock down both in the offering, making it a 39-34 Cedar Crest lead with time running out on the Barons by and large.
But it probably didn’t feel that way for the LebCo contingent once Ryan Kenneff buried a gigantic triple for his troops to get Central back within a pair, 39-37, with just inside of one minute left immediately following the Schomp freebies.
Yet speaking of free throw shooting down the stretch, with Fernando Marquez proceeding to knock down one more with 31 seconds remaining which upped the Falcons’ lead to three at 40-37, the assignment was clear as to what Manheim Central needed to do in order to extend the game into an extra session.
However, even with the Barons advancing the ball into the frontcourt in using some of their final timeouts, the Falcons’ halfcourt defense rose to the occasion when it mattered most.
Sure enough, while Manheim Central would indeed knock down a triple that would have sent the contest into an overtime period, the Barons’ final shot came after the buzzer had sounded, vaulting Cedar Crest into their first league title game in five long years it had to feel by their new standards.
Afterwards, while understandably dejected in coming so agonizingly close to getting to the league final for what would have been two years in a row, Manheim Central head coach Charlie Fisher was nonetheless his same gracious self, even here in defeat.
“We did not want to get into a running match with them,” Fisher said of the gameplan to try and take away Cedar Crest’s fastball. “They excel in a running game. And they don’t just run down the floor in transition, they have designed transition movement. Designed screens, designed cuts,” he added in assessing the Falcons going in. “Our thought process was if we got into a running game with them and if we’re missing shots, we might’ve found ourselves in a tough spot,” Fisher acknowledged. “What dictated some of the tempo early was we couldn’t throw it in the ocean. From there, it was all about possessions.”
“I thought the game defensively was exactly how we wanted to play it. I was totally cool with the game being played in the 40’s,” said Fisher of a much more subdued tempo compared to the alternative. “I didn’t want us to score only 37 points, but I was good with the tempo being played at the way it was.”
Yet whether it was helter-skelter, or a style that was a bit more of a rock fight, Cedar Crest couldn’t have cared less. They just wanted to get the job done by any means necessary.
“They’ve absolutely grown up,” Cedar Crest head coach Tommy Smith said beaming with pride about his group who has been building towards this L-L title game crescendo the last few years in earning plenty of battle scars along the journey. “Every year just taking baby steps forward, baby steps forward, to now finally getting over the hump. They’re dawgs, man.”
“I’ll be honest, I’m sure in the back of their minds they had little bit of that revenge thing, but we’ve talking for two months, ‘Let’s get to Friday,’” said Smith about his team’s mental makeup heading into a league semifinal rematch that came with drawing Manheim Central in this exact same spot as one year ago. “These guys have not experienced that yet and it’s been one of the major goals that they’ve wanted to do since they got here with us (on varsity). Getting to Friday is big for them. That is mission accomplished, but now we have to go win it.”
But for Smith, someone who’s climbed the ladder both literally and figuratively at Manheim Township in the league’s grand finale three times previous, there’s nothing that can come close to replicating the magic of this week.
“A lot of sleepless nights,” the Falcons’ former player during his high school days said when asked what league championship week involves for someone in his role now in being a head coach. “You can’t possibly prepare for everything teams might throw at you. You just have to put your best scout out there. Little time in the gym to be honest with you. We get some shots up and we do some game tests, but we have to save legs,” Smith added of the three-game gauntlet for teams that are so fortunate to make it the whole way through.
“But our schedule down the stretch prepared us for this,” he said in closing. “We played I think five games in eight days or something like that, so we’re prepared. But it’s such a fun week. So awesome. The best week there is.”
And for this group, while perhaps there isn’t necessarily the star power that envelopes them such as the likes of an Evan Horn or an Ileri Ayo-Faleye, two of the more prominent Falcons who have taken the program to the top of L-L summit before in this recent stretch, maybe that’s what makes this ride even more special for Cedar Crest. In its truest sense, this is a team from top-to-bottom. For that reason, while it may be possible to gloss over his name in the scoring column any given night, such as Wednesday evening while tallying only two points, make no mistake about it. Owen Chernich is an integral a piece of the Cedar Crest team whose presence would be sorely missed if he weren’t out there stirring the drink and setting the Falcons’ table.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to win,” Chernich said following his team’s victory against Manheim Central in advancing to he and his fellow castmates’ first league final during their time while at Cedar Crest. “Today, only two points and like two shots? But I don’t care if I’m scoring. I don’t care about the stats. I just want to win. Setting my teammates up, getting steals, whatever it is that I can do, that’s what I’m going to do for us.”
“This means everything,” the 6’1 senior guard then chimed in while sporting a smile that probably won’t come off until Friday night prior to tip-off about making it to the pinnacle of the conference slate. “Being younger, coming to these championship games watching them, it’s just so special. Now, we’re just focused on Friday and getting that win.”
And if they do, if they haven’t planned for this moment that seems to have been in the works for the last couple years now, whether it be the responsibility of the Cedar Crest custodial staff or the athletic administration in general, it might be time to start thinking about rearranging that already cramped trophy case as there could be some additional hardware coming back northward into Lebanon County on the Falcons’ team bus late on Friday evening.
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