Manheim Central Stays Patient, Waits For Dam To Burst As Barons Explode Past Lancaster Catholic Down The Stretch To Keep Unbeaten Record Intact
Written by: Andy Herr on December 17, 2024
Is it feasible to call a team that made it to the state playoffs in the 5A ranks a season ago a bit of a surprise just a couple of weeks into this brand-new season? Especially when they graduated all of four players off said team? If so, this 2024-25 Manheim Central Barons outfit might be worthy of fitting the bill here.
Granted, while it wasn’t necessarily an overwhelming large senior class that departed off last year’s squad in terms of sheer numbers, it was nonetheless an extremely important core group that the Barons saw exit stage right following the solid contributions that the likes of Jackson Tracy, Sam Witmer, Aaron Enterline, and Zac Hahn offered and then made in their own key ways.
However, it wasn’t necessarily like the Barons were exactly starting from scratch either of course.
Not when you can lean on fellas such as Landon Zeiset, Chase Book, Ryan Kenneff, and Mason Rodgers for starters. Then, couple the key returnees along with Manheim being one of the few clubs within the entire Lancaster-Lebanon League this season that received a change in mailing addresses with the Barons moving out of the Section Two neighborhood and down into Section Three against smaller schools — a Section Two residence mind you where the Barons found themselves constantly garnering league playoff bids by finishing within the top two slots — and you suddenly have reason to feel as if this might yet again end up being a year where the Barons can set their sights on another L-L tournament showing come February.
That is of course if those key returners and new faces entering the fold could carry the mantle and pick up right where the previous seniors had left things off prior to departure. And while we’re still a week away from Christmas, you’d have to go with the mantra of “So far, so good” in Barons’ camp considering that they came into Monday night’s affair at Lancaster Catholic while owning a still perfect 4-0 mark right next to their name.
Speaking of the Crusaders, their record entering the evening would be the exact opposite oddly enough.
Then again, it wasn’t as if Lancaster Catholic has simply been totally and unquestionably outclassed and overmatched in each of those four defeats thus far. In fact, half of the grouping came by single figures –not the least of which included a tough three-point setback at the hands of Wyomissing – while the other two came against Trinity and Lampeter-Strasburg respectively, a pair of clubs that will have quite a bit to say and then add to the conversation in terms of the eventual District 3 championship pictures inside each of their respective classes given all early indications posed thus far.
Yet with the section races still only just beginning, what better time for the Crusaders to inject themselves into the larger discussion than with what would have to be considered a somewhat seismic toppling of one of the few unbeatens still left standing in the conference? However, while the Crusaders would indeed look nothing if not extremely game to do the deed throughout much of the game’s duration, an eventual Manheim Central onslaught over the final quarter and changed proved to be the cold water thrown on those fiery Lancaster Catholic desires.
From the outset, it became readily apparent that the Crusaders had come onto their home floor with bad intentions. Chief among them, explosive and wiry junior point guard, Colton Hegener, as the Crusader donning the #0 jersey looked worthy of possessing such a unique numeral as his five early points in the early going helped to steer Catholic out to a 9-6 lead following the completion of an old fashioned three-point play.
But just like Hegener was able to do for the Catholic contingent, so too would Ryan Kenneff for his side.
While both teams’ guards seemed to mimic one another and largely go tit for tat inside the first few minutes, Kenneff would have the latest laugh in this makeshift one-on-one matchup as the senior guard’s five-point salvo tallied in his own right helped to push Manheim Central back in front by a 13-9 difference with just a handful of seconds left on the first period clock at the time.
That said, that was still more than enough time for Hegener to continue showing off his hot hand as the eventual leading scorer for the Crusaders on the night, tossing in a 15-point performance by the end, closed the opening frame with another tough take to the tin mere moments before the horn as a back-and-forth eight minutes eventually concluded with the Barons owning the slim 13-11 advantage.
To start the second quarter however, Lancaster Catholic started off like gangbusters.
On the Crusaders’ first offensive trip of the new period, Anthony Brody got into the act by tossing in a trifecta to get the party started. From there, of course Hegener wouldn’t be far behind, such as the case when he proceeded to follow his fellow junior classmate by pouring in a 3-ball of his own, making it what felt like a gargantuan 17-13 Catholic lead given the tight window the game had largely been played within at the time.
Undeterred though, Manheim Central just kept swinging.
Later, after successfully cutting the Catholic cushion down to just a penny at 18-17 following a patient take to the cup thanks to junior guard, Chase Book, the Barons had successfully weathered the early Catholic storm and had seemed no worse for the wear. At least Landon Zeiset certainly didn’t as the Barons’ explosive forward showed off that adjective in the most demonstrative of ways possible, rising about the fray and throwing down a two-handed jam, as Zeiset’s well-rounded performance against Catholic on both ends of the floor fittingly had its signature moment.
All told, while Zeiset’s dunk not only awarded the Barons a 22-20 lead at the time, it would also serve as the last instance of Lancaster Catholic even being able to tie the Barons the rest of the way home.
Here, with the third quarter now getting underway with Central cradling a 24-20 lead over Catholic, the nip and tuck narrative that had enveloped the first two periods seemed to be on display once more come the kickoff of the second half as well.
As if to be right on cue, Colton Hegener was amongst the first to the scene to offer help for the Catholic crew as his hoop plus the harm cut the Manheim Central lead down to its slimmest of margins, 28-27, with 4:05 left to play in the third. And while a strong bucket inside tallied by Lancaster Catholic 6’3 senior forward, Tyler Humphrey, wouldn’t be far behind to make it a 31-29 ballgame, the tough resistance that the Crusaders had posed up until that point was starting to show its first initial signs of puncturing.
Following that Humphrey deuce down on the other end, Manheim Central’s Mason Rodgers responded in kind by canning a key triple on the Barons’ ensuing offensive trip to push the margin back up five within a flash. From there, with Rodgers bombing away from the outside, Ryan Kenneff was taking things inside as two buckets by Kenneff in transition right before the closure on the third quarter action helped to propel the Barons out to a 38-29 lead, the largest such instance of a lead possessed all game long by either club.
But that cushion would only swell as the final act got underway.
Once more, fearlessly going inside and finishing amongst heavy traffic seemed to be Ryan Kenneff’s modus operandi for the evening as yet another bucket compiled from point-blank range not only helped to usher the Manheim Central senior out to an eventual 16-point showing once the dust had settled, but it more importantly pushed his team’s lead into double digits, 40-29, just 34 seconds into the fourth.
All game long, it seemed as if Manheim Central was opting to employ a three-headed monster approach if you will. To be sure, it’d be hard to dispel any such notion seeing as how Ryan Kenneff would finish with 16, Landon Zeiset would conclude with 17 points, and Mason Rodgers would finish as the game-high scorer with a 19-point offering. Fittingly, both of the latter equally had their shining moments down the final stretch to eventually help put this game out of reach once and for all.
For Zeiset, after already having the game’s signature play with that aforementioned two-handed dunk found back in the first half, his entire repertoire remained on display as the rangy 6’3 matchup nightmare for the opposition tossed in a triple to later make it a 48-31 difference with 5:30 left. For Rodgers, while it’s hard to consider a game-high scoring performance as something along the lines of “quiet” it did at times appear that way, perhaps due to the constant and solid contributions found in the work of the other Barons. Rest assured though, Rodgers spoke loudly and clearly inside the waning moments, but no such instance more emphatic than with his take to the rack which helped to push this existing Manheim Central lead out to a 20-point threshold at 53-33, a notion that seemed implausible if posed earlier in the night given how close Lancaster Catholic had kept things up until this final Barons’ flurry.
Speaking of that exact same margin though, thanks to what would eventually culminate in a 26-8 Manheim Central jaunt down the final 11 minutes and change on Monday night at Lancaster Catholic, the Barons were not only able to keep Lancaster Catholic at bay with that 20-point threshold, but they were also able to keep their (still) perfect record alive and well following a workmanlike 57-37 triumph over the Crusaders once the final buzzer rang out.
For Central, with more wins understandably comes more expectations. And perhaps nothing personifies that notion more than with their next outing here just 24 hours hour later against their arguably their fiercest of rivals –ironically enough the school they happened to swap sections with – Cocalico, in a matchup between two old foes who have desires not just of making it to the league playoffs potentially, but also chasing down a prohibitive favorite in each of their respective sections found in the likes of Warwick and L-S respectively, in hopes of perhaps taking the crown and finishing as the division champ.
On the other side, all is not lost for Lancaster Catholic. Yes, while the Crusaders currently sit with an 0-5 resume in the early week, this is the Crusaders we’re talking about here. Do we really think their early games are going to be the truest indicator of how their season will actually end up? Simply put, there is perhaps no program inside the entire L-L that consistently gets better and better as the year goes on more than Lancaster Catholic. And as long as Joe Klazas continues to occupy the top spot on the bench, you have to like their chances even more as the now 19th-year head man at Catholic is arguably the sharpest mind X’s and O’s-wise that the conference has to offer. While they might be down now, don’t count out Lancaster Catholic before Christmas even takes place. For if they can package up and stymie opposing teams the way they did against Manheim Central throughout most of the night, the Crusaders will continue to remain nothing if not an extremely hard out for the rest of their adversaries to try and contend with. Yes, that would include this same Manheim Central bunch in the return trip later on.
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