Following ‘Humbling’ Exit From League Tournament, Lancaster Mennonite Gets Right Against Halifax As Blazers Set Their Sights On Trinity, District 3-3A Championship Game In Matchup That Felt ‘Inevitable’
Written by: Andy Herr on February 21, 2025
Maybe it first came at Media Day around Thanksgiving. Perhaps it was back near the July 4th holiday smack dab in the middle of their always imposing slate of competition found during the summer circuit. Shoot, maybe it can even be traced as far back as the afternoon of March 16th last year, the day in which they bowed out of the PIAA-2A state tournament after falling short to Constitution at Norristown High School in the quarterfinal round.
Yet regardless as to when exactly “it” was first spoken into existence as an outright goal that they never intended to shy away from, the fact of the matter was that the Lancaster Mennonite Blazers came into this 2024-25 season with aspirations of winning multiple championships. Yes, multiple. And quite frankly, possessing anything other than that exact mindset would’ve been selling the black and yellow short of their ultimate potential one might argue.
Now, what exactly does “multiple” mean? Well, first and foremost, if the preliminary goal on the docket was to finish off this year’s run through their fellow Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Four members with a complete white-wash of their brethren, as in a three-game margin of separation between themselves and second place as the final standings turned out, then mission accomplished for the Blazers as Mennonite was able to secure a home game by virtue of their clean 10-0 section record before then embarking on the second leg of the “multiple” journey—the league playoffs.
Part of the reason as to why Mennonite was so bullish on their prospects of perhaps snagging the ultimate white whale for a school as small in stature as theirs even before the season itself got underway? Yes, even despite the fact that a “lower section” team aside from Lancaster Catholic, if you even want to consider the Crusaders in that vernacular, has never been able to claim league supremacy known in its modern-day format? Most certainly the fact that this year’s L-L League — and in turn tournament that would follow suit — figured to contain anything but a prohibitive and overwhelming favorite that you’d like to bet your mortgage on.
With that in mind, it wasn’t all that shocking to see this Mennonite bunch, proudly carrying the banner of Section Four, knock off the far bigger Section One foe, Penn Manor, for an opening round victory in the league playoffs last Monday evening, an achievement that not even the esteemed 2023 Lancaster Mennonite crew was to cross off their checklist before eventually going on to take the state championship nonetheless.
However, that would be where the first dream of this year’s squad would then falter and fizzle out.
In their second-round league playoff affair, Mennonite took on their second consecutive 6A opponent in as many nights, Warwick, before largely running out of gas against the far deeper bench, and the far more numerous pieces that the Warriors were able to throw at the Blazers in the league’s penultimate game just eight nights ago.
Okay. So maybe the first of those three postseason berths inside a bracket format would end shy of wearing gold medals come the end of it. However, the important thing to remember from Mennonite’s perspective was that following that Warwick game, the Blazers’ only remaining competition would come against those also living inside the same 3A realm as them. Certainly a much more advantageous road to ho considering that aside from their methodology in terms of scheduling up during the nonconference alone, Mennonite on the whole is routinely punching far above their weight class in assessing that Lancaster Mennonite’s boys’ enrollment is really that of what would be considered a 1A school as opposed to that of what they play in masquerading as a 3A outfit.
So, this week, after sitting idly by and watching that same Warwick team that had knocked them out of the L-L playoffs lose to Governor Mifflin on Tuesday night in the opening round of district play and have their season come to a screeching halt with no games left to play following said defeat, Mennonite on the other hand was just getting started on their District 3 playoff journey come Thursday night — their first time competing in the 3A ranks after bumping up from a four-peat of district championships inside the 2A classification spanning from 2021 through 2024 – against a team also well-accustomed to the postseason scene in its history, Halifax, as this postseason meeting between the Wildcats and Blazers would mark the pair’s second encounter of the season as Mennonite was able to take the first round of this series by virtue of a 62-48 triumph way back on December 5th.
But if Thursday night’s semifinal round was to serve as any sort of indicator as to how the Blazers figure to fare not just this season, but for the upcoming years beyond, rest assured that they seem right at home competing in 3A. Most especially if that home eventually helps take them to their home away from home, Giant Center, as it did come the bottom of the 8 o’clock hour on this night against Halifax.
Early on however, it was evident that Halifax had come back to Lancaster County more than eager to try and make amends for the first meeting back in early December. In fact, the visiting Wildcats, the Tri-Valley champions this season it should also be mentioned, stormed out of the chute by proceeding to go out in front by a 5-0 count with the clear advantage of partisan crowd working in their favor despite the locale being more than an hour away from home.
That said, after a week layoff in between games, Lancaster Mennonite gradually started to get their sea legs back under them after this somewhat lukewarm start.
In that regard, following a 3-ball dialed up by Mennonite sophomore forward, Daulton Nolt, the homestanding Blazers found themselves working with the aid of their first lead of the night, 7-5, before a prompt follow bucket tallied by way of Halifax’s Josh Zahurak quickly followed suit to knot things back up at 7-apiece with now inside of three minutes left in the opening frame.
But that would be just about the last instance of Halifax being able to remain within any sort of reach for the remainder of the night.
Part of the reason for that? Undoubtedly the yeoman’s work of now-junior forward, Bill Rothwein, one of the consistent stalwarts on the Blazers’ roster who feels like he’s now on his 16th-year of eligibility, as four straight points chipped in by undersized, yet fearless Mennonite big man helped to make it an 11-7 LMH buffer before one final deuce added by the hosts made it a 13-7 affair heading into the second act.
Yet come the new quarter, Mennonite only continued to exert their dominance.
Hard to argue given how a rejection at one end via the handiwork of another of the Blazers’ underclassman, Chase Hurst, led to his subsequent layup in transition down on the other end of the floor as the diminutive junior’s coast-to-coast moment in the sun quickly upped the Mennonite lead to double figures, 17-7, before Halifax found it necessary to burn a timeout with 5:38 left in the opening half by that point.
For the Wildcats, they were then finally able to quench their nearly quarter-long scoring drought on their ensuing trip down the floor as a second-effort bunny at the cup registered to senior forward, Liam Himmelberger, cut the deficit down to a 17-9 margin in short order.
But again, even when Halifax was able to take some tangible steps forward, Mennonite was just as eager to push them right back away.
Case in point, a trifecta knocked down by the lone senior found on this year’s Mennonite roster, Jordan Lilly, as Lilly’s triple made it a 15-point cushion, 26-11, before a smooth pullup jumper sunk found mere moments before the second quarter horn by way talented junior wing, Brady Grau, helped propel the Blazers into the dressing room with the spoils of the sizable 29-11 buffer found at the end of the initial 16 minutes of play.
Suffice to say, having done the bulk of their damage back inside the initial stages of the first quarter before being held down to all of four points in the ensuing dozen minutes afterwards up until the halftime respite, time was of the essence if Halifax had any desires to start chipping away at this hole. The problem for the Wildcats was, even when they did just so, Mennonite was right there to restart the refurbishment project.
Sure enough, right in the aftermath of a nice pullup jumper by way of Cody Fisher which preceded a strong take to the rack via Daulton Nolt found on the Blazers’ second and third offensive trips to begin the second half respectively, the hosts’ lead had ballooned out to a 34-11 difference with the idea of a running clock being triggered not exactly a crazy thought being just seven points away with the lion’s share of the homeward half still yet to unfold.
And as mentioned, while Halifax would indeed make steady gains to chisel away at their existing hole, Mennonite was more than eager to complete the patchwork.
For the Halifax contingent, a silky-smooth Euro-step move finished off by the Wildcats’ leading scorer on the evening who tossed in a nine-point showing, Solomon Crum, cut the lead down to 20, 38-18, before a timely triple their next trip down the floor courtesy of Liam Himmelberger made it a 17-point margin with 2:45 left in the third.
Now, for Mennonite, a just as prompt 4-0 personal jaunt authored by Bill Rothwein followed suit, with Rothwein well on his way towards finishing in double figures as his four-point addition here culminated in a 10-point bucketing, helping to push the lead back up to 44-21 difference before the curtain would lower on the third period with Mennonite continuing to hold serve by virtue of their 44-22 lead.
Yet to their credit, even here when the hill seemed far too step to climb, Halifax just continued swinging all the same.
In fact, the Wildcats steadily chipped away at things so much throughout the final stanza that the margin decreased down to as few as 15 following a 3-ball nailed by Crum with still upwards of three minutes outstanding if the visitors from the upper regions of Dauphin County had enough fuel left to proceed on one final push.
But that push would prove arduous once Cody Fisher put his fingerprints on things.
Here, with momentum starting to tilt ever so slightly back in Halifax’s favor even despite being up against it in terms of the game clock, Fisher had other intentions as to how this game would eventually play out. And as a result, thanks to a big-time triple on the Blazers’ next trip following the prior Crum trey, the rangy Mennonite junior forward’s trifecta felt as if it put this one out of reach once and for all considering the margin then stood at 49-31 with all of 2:40 left to play.
And while Halifax junior big man, Elijah Paul, would tally one final bucket for the Wildcats — and receive the loudest ovation of the entire night to boot — within the final few minutes, it would be too little, too late from their perspective in terms of the eventual outcome.
So, once push eventually did come to shove regarding the final verdict not long afterwards, aside from what the history books will forever read as a 52-37 triumph for Lancaster Mennonite over Halifax, the underlying story at the play was the fact that the Blazers will make a go of it for what would be a fifth-consecutive district title come Wednesday at a place they know all too well. So much so in fact that they only know the feeling of heading out the arena’s doors with gold medals in tow four successive times dating back to 2022 with three of those being of the District 3 variety, and one being of the PIAA variety. The fifth, however? Yeah, they acknowledge that will be quite the assignment even though their eventual meeting seemed to be a foregone conclusion throughout this entire winter.
“That’s a team that does everything well,” Mennonite second-year head coach, Jeff Hartenstine, mentioned of his team’s next opponent waiting for them in the 3A title fight, the Trinity Shamrocks. “They are up there and everyone else is just kind of chasing them. We moved up to 3A to try and get on their level,” he stated. “I think that’s an exciting challenge that has (his players) excited and gets their energy perked up….They play a drastically different style than Halifax plays. They have drastically different athletes. They play a drastically different schedule to where they’re used to competing against those big boy teams,” Hartenstine continued in lauding the ‘Rocks.
And to be frank, even though there was work to be done from late November up until this coming week, to a man, both Lancaster Mennonite and Trinity probably figured this game was that of destiny.
“It’s bizarre, but like the things we did over the summer, whether we went to Philly or wherever, we’d be playing our game at noon, and (Trinity) would be the game right after us at 1 o’clock. They are watching us, we are watching them. Their coach is dapping me up, I’m dapping their coach up,” Hartenstine remarked of this intersection of fate dating back to the offseason. “Like, we even go up to Allentown and play outside in the sun against Lower Merion at 3 o’clock and they’re playing right after us on the same stinking court. It was inevitable,” he quipped. “But there’s mutual respect there. There’s certain things (Trinity) does that I’m totally just in awe of that I just want to learn from because we’re trying to get our program up to that level where they’re already a powerhouse,” said Hartenstine.
But to their own credit, Mennonite themselves is not exactly a program lost wandering in the wilderness here. As mentioned, they had lofty goals coming into the season. And while it was apparent that the Blazers’ head coach was excited for this next goal at hand, even he too admitted it took a little while longer than normal for he and his team to get out of their collective funk following their departure from last week’s league tournament which they had desires of winning.
“I’d say it was at least a couple of days where, as a leader, you want to put on an energetic approach to practice, but I would say that (the Warwick loss) stung and hung around until we scrimmaged York Catholic on Monday,” Hartenstine admitted of this past week while being stored away from a competitive game where the score counts for real. “I’d say that scrimmage finally gave us something different to think about and look forward to before we dove right into Halifax prep.”
“I will say that it didn’t help (morale) when we saw the final score of that league final because I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I thought Warwick had been playing at a high level,” he remarked. “To see Cedar Crest come in and win a game that was like the game we played against Warwick where the score is low, it’s ugly, it’s back and forth…That kind of stung a little bit more because you’re hoping in some weird way that (Warwick) wins by like 20. Not that it helps at all, but then it sort of justifies what they did to us,” he said in keeping upbeat.
But initial pain aside, with nearly the entire band coming back together to play again come next season, last week offered a learning lesson for he and the Blazers to take hold of moving forward.
“It was super humbling,” Hartenstine then said on what he personally gleaned from last week’s rendezvous. “It’s no secret. We’re very reliant upon two scorers. In a game like that where the opponent has bigger, stronger, faster defenders, it’s humbling because everything was just so hard for us to try and score,” the Blazers’ coach said in offering high-level praise of Warwick. “I have not been in a situation like that before this season where I look down at our bench in the early part of the fourth quarter when it’s still a game and our guys are just completely exhausted after giving me everything they had. It made me realize, ‘Holy mackerel. Offensively, I’m doing something wrong, so thank goodness we now have so much off-time here before districts to where I have a chance to try and change it,’ he said candidly.
Now, after righting the ship in their next game out against Halifax following a setback which could have caused some sort of internal identity crisis perhaps, the Lancaster Mennonite Blazers are heading back to the palatial Giant Center for the fifth time in the last four seasons. But to them, not to have them come across as sounding grossly self-centered necessarily, but that achievement is old news. Instead, no matter where this next game would be played, huge arena or at a local park all the same, they would much rather just want that shot in going up against one of the best programs that the mid-state has to offer. Fortunately for them, they’ll get the best of both worlds come next Wednesday.
“I’m spoiled. I’m well-aware that’s a problem that a lot of people would love to have,” Hartenstine said in jest regarding the program’s almost birthright of playing at Hershey at some point during every season of late. “But that’s actually one of the biggest challenges with this group. Getting them excited to go back. It’s just kind of workmanlike. It’s like, ‘Guys, you can be excited. It’s really kind of cool,’ Hartenstine said of his team’s no frills mental makeup and what he sees.
“For us, the stage is cool and all, but the biggest thing is who we’re getting to play there,” Hartenstine said in circling back to Trinity. “We’d like to think that we’re a pretty good team and that we do things well. But again, that’s a program that does a lot of things well, and they do it consistently….That’s driving our excitement factor. I feel rude saying this and I don’t want it come across and taken some type of way, but the guys are kind of numb to all that now,” he stated of playing at the Giant Center. “The awesome opponent is the focus, not the awesome stage that we get to play on.”
“I’ll say this. There’s a lot of talk out there and we hear it. We aren’t numb to it. When we win (districts), a lot of people out of the side of their mouth say, ‘Yeah, but it’s 2A. Yeah, but it’s 3A. If you were a 6A or a 5A, you’d probably be a lower qualifier.’ That sticks to you,” Hartenstine said of the general outside chatter regarding his program that even predates his tenure. “We know now that’s not super impressive to the eyes of the outside community. Fine. What is super impressive though is making a run in states. What is super impressive is winning a league championship, or getting there for the first time in 30 years or however long it’s been for our program. So yeah, maybe we are 2A, now 3A. But I’ll tell you this, Trinity, going up against most teams, they’re going to come out on top.”
For Hartenstine and his Lancaster Mennonite troops, they just hope that they are not one of “most” come Wednesday evening at 6:15 inside their unofficial home away from home for the District 3-3A championship game.
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