Lancaster Mennonite Leaves No Doubt As Blazers Complete Unblemished Run Through Section Four In Knocking Off Annville-Cleona, Set Sights On Postseason Bursting With Potential

Written by: Andy Herr on February 6, 2025

If you’ve been following along this season, you’re already well cognizant that the Lancaster Mennonite Blazers have big, bold aspirations not just for this season, but next year as well. Chief among them, perhaps chasing down another District 3 title, this of the 3A variety these days, while also setting their sights on accompanying Lancaster-Lebanon League and state titles to boot if they have their druthers. In that respect, a league championship being an achievement considering how the week-long tourney is not beholden to any specific classification level asked of its competitors, and a state championship being impressive because, well, yeah, that really doesn’t need any further explanation does it?

But before Mennonite gets distracted by any of those delusions of grandeur to come later on, the Blazers needed to first take care of their own backyard. That being L-L Section Four of course.

There, coming into their Wednesday regular season finale, the Blazers had the opportunity to do something that no one else in the L-L League had been able to do this season—go undefeated against their fellow section brethren. Sure, while Warwick and Manheim Central have been impressive in their own right inside the ranks of Section Two and Section Three respectively, neither the Warriors nor the Barons were able to make it through their mandated slate of competition while coming out totally unscathed.  For Mennonite, provided they could get past Annville-Cleona in the midweek, that would signify LMH making it through a loaded division with a perfect 10-0 record to show for it. Again, a recognition that would allow them to stand all by their lonesome.

Yet speaking of the Dutchmen from A-C, they too had a lot riding on this game.

First and foremost, Annville-Cleona came into their Senior Night against Mennonite on an obvious uptick.

As winners of four of their last five outings, a stretch undoubtedly critical as the Dutchmen were seen fighting an uphill battle in terms of perhaps sneaking into the backend District 3-4A playoff fold, an unfortunate assignment considering how A-C’s season had considerable upheaval within it inside the month of January when the conference’s most prolific and natural scorer of the basketball, Elisha Slabach, suffered an ankle injury which in turn led to a crucial three-game losing streak that set the Dutchmen behind the proverbial 8-ball in making that playoff push. That said, provided that Annville-Cleona could do what no other team had been able to do so far this season, knock Lancaster Mennonite off inside of Section Four play, that would almost surely usher the Dutchmen further up the pecking order in nabbing a potential seed.

So, for two teams with each having things hanging in the balance depending on the outcome, whether it be a clean sweep of their foes, or perhaps getting hot at just the right time, there was much to settle on Wednesday night inside the refurbished “Barn” on the campus of Annville-Cleona.

Yet in the end however, it would be the Blazers serving in the role of tidying things up and completing the housework by breaking out the brooms by the time the final buzzer sounded on the final night of conference play this season.

Simply stated, while it would’ve been easy to understand if Mennonite had fallen victim to an early Annville-Cleona blitzkrieg given all the emotion surrounding this night from their perspective, the visitors seemed relatively unphased by and large.

For that, while Cody Fisher was able to sink a triple from the top of the key which ushered LMH out to the early 8-0 advantage with 5:50 left in the first, the Blazers’ collective work on the defensive side of the floor was perhaps more impressive.

In that regard, had it not been for a tough fadeaway jumper knocked down by Annville-Cleona senior big man, Jon Shay, who earlier in the day had affirmed his commitment to play football for Shippensburg University in the fall, Mennonite would have pitched a shutout throughout the first portion of the first frame. Later, the Blazers’ cushion would swell out to double figures at a 13-2 difference following an easy move down Main Street while en route to the hoop by way of Mennonite junior guard, Brady Grau, as Grau’s deuce led to A-C having to call a timeout and regroup with all of 2:52 left in the opening stanza.

Finally, almost as if to be right on cue, Elisha Slabach rose to the occasion for his Dutchmen troops with things starting to teeter out of control potentially.

Specifically, a seven-point charge authored by the newest member of the A-C 1,000-point club helped to close the deficit down to a much more manageable level as the first quarter progressed. In fact, while riding on the tailwinds of their senior stalwart, the Dutchmen were able to close the first quarter on a late spurt, albeit still trailing by a 15-9 count in an opening period that largely felt dominated by their black and yellow guests even though the separation was half a dozen.

However, once the game’s second act got underway, Mennonite was there to keep A-C back to an arm’s length throughout most of it.

Case in point, following a sweet Euro-step move in the paint compiled by another in the embarrassment of Blazers’ underclassmen cogs, Daulton Nolt, the Mennonite sophomore wing was able to make it a ten-point affair, 19-9, with just a hair inside of two minutes having ticked off the quarter’s clock by that juncture.

Remarkably though, LMH’s defensive prowess remained just as sultry inside the second quarter as it had been up until that point on Wednesday night.

To be sure, every Annville-Cleona point — much less shot attempt — felt to be a chore while having to go against the Blazers’ defensive gameplan that had been drawn up.  With that in mind, had it not been for a four-point Shay showing inside of quarter two, the hosts would’ve effectively been shut out inside of this batch of eight minutes too.

And so, as a result, with Mennonite’s comfortability on the offensive end looking far more different from an ease perspective, an additional Nolt bucket from within the lane in the waning stages helped to propel the Blazers not just into the half with ownership of the 25-13 advantage, but into the final half of the final game of the section season with a fairly decisive cushion of which to sit upon.

Then, right out of the chute to begin the third quarter, Mennonite continued to operate just as efficiently as they had back inside of the opening half as well.

In that regard, after having been shutout while battling foul trouble inside of the first 16 minutes, Mennonite’s Bill Rothwein was able to finally usher himself into the scoring column for the first time on the evening as the Blazers’ junior big man was able to chip in an easy deuce to raise the curtain on the second half of play.

That said, so too would a member of the Dutchmen contingent be able to write his name inside that ledger on the ensuing A-C trip down the floor all the same.

There, after being able to tally the first Annville-Cleona points of the evening by someone not named either Jon Shay or Elisha Slabach, a Hudson Sellers’ bucket gave a little life to the A-C bunch as an effective rebuttal in punching back to counter LMH’s early jab.

Yet even while he may not have been able to revel in the spoils of scoring the first set of A-C points inside the third quarter in particular, it would’ve been nothing if not impossible to underscore Jon Shay’s role to the collective Dutchmen effort in this the penultimate game of his high school basketball career.

Aside from his game-high 18-point outpouring on Wednesday evening, the senior multi-sport star was able to author buckets at what seemed to only be at the most crucial of times. For instance, while his elbow-extended trifecta might’ve only gotten the Dutchmen back within nine at 29-20, that was nonetheless the closest margin A-C had been working within since the initial stages of the second quarter.  

But cold water was about to be doused on any sort of Annville-Cleona charge here. In the most emphatic of ways no doubt.

Behind a pair of dunks by way of their transition game off of pilfers, the last of which came via junior wing, Cody Fisher, the Blazers were well on their way towards writing an impressive narrative to help close the third frame. In fact, while coming on the heels of a 3-ball sunk by way of Daulton Nolt not long afterwards, Mennonite was not only able to see their lead climb back into double figures, but they then carried it forward via what was a fairly comfortable 38-25 advantage in which LMH was able to possess and carry upon entering the last eight minutes.

Remember that earlier tidbit about keeping things at an arm’s length? Yeah, Lancaster Mennonite surely did based upon the way in which they played this final quarter.

There, following another wonderful offensive set that culminated in an easy bunny inside by way of Rothwein, the Blazers were able to revel in the spoils of owning their largest lead of the night at a 14-point count right then and there, 45-31, with just half of the fourth quarter left standing between them and that perfect jaunt run through like-opponents.

And while another member of the returning ensemble for Annville-Cleona come next season, Lane Peters, was able to sink a dead-eye trifecta which saw the Dutchmen sophomore help trim the gap back down inside figures at a 45-36 difference with 3:09 left to play, the hosts would get no further from there on out.

As a result, while keeping the margin within that roughly ten-point window in which the deficit had largely been throughout most of the evening up until that point in time, it seemed only apropos that the game climax in such a fashion as the dust eventually settled upon a 48-38 Lancaster Mennonite victory over Annville-Cleona on Wednesday night by the time the final buzzer sounded. Yes, a verdict that not just signified a perfect 10-0 Lancaster Mennonite performance against all of Section Four over the course of this season, but a year so strong in totality that no one was able to get within three games of the Blazers inside the divisional standings altogether considering how Lancaster Country Day, the second-place finisher, wrapped things up with a 7-3 mark respectively.  

So, what does a perfect record in L-L Section Four in 2024-25 necessarily mean moving forward? Hard to say really. Guess we’ll all find out in due time. However, what can be stated without any shadow of a doubt is that Lancaster Mennonite was unquestionably the class of this group this season. And when you consider that this season was arguably the strongest that Section Four has been in quite some time, perhaps so strong that it carried more “street cred” and overall attractiveness compared to that of Section One in particular, this is at the very least a year-long showing that is certainly worthy of its kudos.

Now, aside from not just carrying the flag of Section Four throughout the remainder of this year, fate will later determine as to whether or the Blazers can do so for the entire Lancaster-Lebanon League overall in the ensuing weeks to follow. Throughout the regular season at least, they have every right to feel they are more than capable in performing such obligations.   

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