Following Decisive Loss To Manheim Township, Cedar Crest Responds With Wire-To-Wire Victory At Penn Manor As Falcons’ Young Core Inches Closer To Realizing Postseason Dreams
Written by: Andy Herr on February 4, 2026
To put it rather mildly, it’d be fair to suggest that it was far from Cedar Crest’s finest hour their last time out on the floor. In fact, it was a largely atypical performance for a Falcons’ program that has grown accustomed to rightly considering itself to be the grittiest, toughest, nastiest, insert any adjective of choice here, when compared to the opposition. Granted, while Manheim Township certainly had a lot to do with the Falcons’ shortcomings last Thursday night, it was nonetheless a stunning result to see the Blue Streaks push away the reigning two-time defending league champs with relative ease, a game in which the Falcons not only never led, but never got any closer than within three, all en route to what became a mercy-rule 71-46 loss against Township.
But aside from the loss itself, there was more at stake coming into that game that they let slip by.
Instead of putting a stranglehold on the Section One race that could’ve seen the Falcons gain a considerable leg-up on their division mates while angling towards a section title, not only did Cedar Crest come back to the pack in that regard, but the defeat also sent them tumbling down the District 3-6A power rankings as well, so much so that they were seen occupying just one spot better than the absolute last ticket in coming into Tuesday night of this week.
So, after sitting idly by for the better part of nearly a week while having to sit and stew in the aftermath of that decisive loss to Manheim Township that shockwaves around the local landscape, Cedar Crest was suddenly forced to respond their next time out, also away from home and on the road against a Section One foe, as the Falcons headed south to meet up with Penn Manor with Crest suddenly entering the precarious territory known as “must-win” with their postseason hopes – both league and district-wise – sitting there on the razor’s edge.
As it turns out though, while this may be a young Falcons’ crew in terms of their age, experience, and class designation, and while there is still plenty of room left open to be consistently sound for the better part of a game’s entire 32 minutes, it would nonetheless prove to be a mature and heady win by this Cedar Crest squad while down in Millersville to conclude league play. Ironically, almost to be in the exact opposite fashion as their last game against Township, one in which Cedar Crest never trailed, and was never really threatened.
In terms of the early separation in which they were able to garner, while it wouldn’t be without its struggles with both Cedar Crest and Penn Manor having to fight against a lid that was placed over top of each one of their respective baskets, Antonio Tirado would have the early cure for what ailed the Falcons.
For that, Cedar Crest’s junior wing would rattle off his own personal spurt 7-0 spurt by way of a 3-ball and a pair of takes to the cup, all of which saw the visitors from Lebanon County find themselves up by an 11-2 score with 3:49 left in the opening stanza.
And while a junior of Penn Manor’s own, Caleb Howell, would retaliate by offering up all five of the Comets’ first quarter points up until that point, the last of which made it a 13-5 Falcons’ lead, Cedar Crest was able to get out of a somewhat choppy and unsettled first quarter relatively unscathed considering their possession of the 18-8 lead after one.
But Cedar Crest never looked back and allowed Penn Manor a chance to get within reach once the second quarter got underway and rolling in bloom.
Part of the reason, Jayden Truss checking in and off the Falcons’ bench while promptly scoring five second quarter points by himself, all while helping Cedar Crest see their advantage swell out to a commanding 22-8 cushion with Penn Manor forced into calling a timeout to try and stem the tide with 5:52 left to play in the opening half.
From there, the Falcons would see their positioning improve out to an 18-point advantage at 31-13 following back-to-back buckets in transition finished off by their shared leading scorers on the night, Jemar Pauleus and Antonio Tirado, as the sophomore and junior duo both finished with 19-point outings respectively to pace the Falcons’ charge.
Later, while both teams would yet again be besmirched by cold shooting from the field and an inability to put it in the cup throughout the final three minutes of the second quarter, Cedar Crest’s lead was able to stand sturdy and firm all the same as the Falcons were seen heading into the locker room with benefit of a 35-18 lead working in their favor.
Steadily though, while it might not have seen as if the Comets were able to make much hay in terms of getting within shouting distance of their guests up until that point, Penn Manor steadily began chipping away at the lead once the third quarter began.
Case in point, a 3-ball sunk by the game-high scorer on the night, Elijah Fisher, as the Comets’ senior marksman was able to not only help get his squad within a baker’s dozen at 40-27 at this moment in time, but Fisher would lead the pack in totality by pouring in a 21-point showing in this, his penultimate game playing inside his home gym.
Yet speaking of shooting from beyond the arc, Cedar Crest would have a man of their own to accomplish such a task.
While he is essentially the lone senior on the Falcons’ roster that is a member of the regular rotation, Cam Tirado is an undeniable piece that helps make this entire Cedar Crest collective hum. And while the game might not have necessarily be teetering in a precarious situation for he and his team with Penn Manor in the midst of this most recent charge, Tirado’s pension for the big moment, such as sinking a trio of treys inside the third frame, helped to keep a lid on any possible Comets’ surge regardless, especially with the final in the bunch coming right before the third quarter horn, a perfect bookend to the one he let fly to begin the period, as this latest Tirado triple helped to usher the Falcons into the final quarter while working with a sizable 50-32 lead.
The good thing was, Cedar Crest had plenty of room left open for error in the event that Penn Manor would be able to claw back and make things somewhat interesting late. Well, you can probably sense where this is going.
Quietly, the Comets yet again went right back to work in trying to trim down the Falcons’ large cushion seen before them. And suddenly, following on the heels of a 5-0 swing authored by Elijah Fisher, Penn Manor was back within ten, 56-46, with 2:10 still left showing on the game clock. From there however, while Cedar Crest was able to keep their hosts at bay somewhat over the course of the ensuing few possessions, a successive pair of Logan Barnes’ triples on back-to-back Penn Manor trips later cut the deficit into single figures, 60-52, with all of 40.3 seconds remaining.
That said, while they would indeed admirably fight and try mightily to come back with time running out, the hill that the Comets were forced to trudge and work uphill against would prove to be too steep in the end as Cedar Crest was able to complete its business trip to Penn Manor and head home victorious following this 63-52 final decision once the clock hit zeroes.
And while this game still left open the room for Cedar Crest’s upwards ascension, the fact at hand was that this needed to be a game in which the Falcons showed what their character was truly about following that aforementioned defeat to Manheim Township.
“Yeah, we got back to competitive practices,” Cedar Crest head coach and 200+ winner during his tenure with the Falcons, Tommy Smith, said following the Penn Manor verdict Tuesday night. “I thought Township played one of their better games that night, at least from what I saw on film of them, and I watched a lot of them. (Township) shot the ball well, but we just didn’t compete. That’s what I was most upset about,” Smith said bluntly while rehashing. “I thought we did a better job tonight. Still didn’t play clean, but did a better job.”
As a result, because they didn’t let the loss to Township spiral into anything more than that, Cedar Crest now sits (somewhat) comfortably in terms of making both the Lancaster-Lebanon League and District 3-6A playoffs with the Falcons entering Wednesday morning as the #15 seed while needing to finish above 16th-seeded Manheim Township in those same rankings come Friday morning when determining the last slot in the league playoffs between those two. For such a young cast and crew with their best days still well out there in front of them, Smith knows that reaching postseason play would be invaluable for this group as they continue to get their feet wet in all forms found at the varsity level.
“It’s huge,” the Falcons’ boss said of the opportunity to play beyond their regular season finale on Wednesday night against Central York. “We knew coming in that we’d be talented. What we didn’t know though was if we could put it together night in and night out just because of how young we are. But getting the chance at extra basketball, you’re looking at an extra two, three weeks of touching the ball every day, doing what we do. That’s as important as anything,” Smith added.
“But getting yourself into a tournament, giving yourself a chance, anything can happen,” he continued. “I do think that when the lights come on and they’re at their brightest, these guys do tend to show up.”
On Tuesday night, because they needed to, Cedar Crest did indeed show up and arrived at an opposing house with bad intentions. In that regard, it looked like the days of old when talking about the Falcons. And while this group still has a ways to go in terms of living up to some of those more storied and romanticized Cedar Crest teams that we’ve seen over the course of the last decade and change, the upside and potential is there without question. If nothing else, perhaps starting later this week with a berth in the league playoffs while gunning for what would be three-straight conference crowns, it will certainly be an incredibly fascinating story to watch unfold in south Lebanon over the next few seasons.
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