Manheim Township Shakes Free From Early Season Doldrums As Streaks Notch Resounding Road Victory Over E-Town To Tally First Win
Written by: Andy Herr on December 9, 2022
First off, is it okay to say this out loud? Is it okay to say that Thursday night’s Manheim Township and E-Town game was a bit of a “crossroads” type game?
Granted, even though the 2022-23 campaign isn’t even a week-old yet, the initial premise of the original question may not be all that farfetched when you think about. After all, if you were to look at both the Blue Streaks’ and Bears’ seasons up until the latter part of this initial first week, it may not be all that hard to argue with.
For E-Town, while there was certainly plenty to be proud of and celebrate when it came to the results of last weekend that culminated in the Bears’ going west and taking the Boiling Springs tipoff tourney all their own after a pair of victories over East Pennsboro and New Oxford respectively, it was a 40-point loss at the hands of Dallastown last time out, a Dallastown team coached by a Bears’ alum ironically enough, in the form of a 64-24 setback on Tuesday night that might have understandably given the masses just a tad bit of pause even though E-Town had rightfully earned the undisputed title of being coined a champion coming out of Boiling Springs.
On the other bench, for Manheim Township, it’s already an early stretch that has come with enough emotional swings through the first couple of days that could fit the definition of being a season in and of itself in a way.
Talk about jumping in the deep end of the pool here. For the Streaks, it seems they have done nothing but play games out of the chute to begin the season. Sure enough, even though Township had yet to leave their own friendly confines of their own facility thus far, the net result has been an 0-3 record to start the season, including an excruciating 51-48 defeat at the hands of Northeastern, also on Tuesday night, it would be nothing if not understandable had anyone in Streaks’ camp been questioning as to if and when things would finally start falling in their direction.
Well, although they had to wait six days longer than what they surely would’ve preferred, Thursday night would finally be the night where Manheim Township would exercise all of their early season demons and put forth a 32-minute display that should they be able to replicate more often times than not this season, the Blue Streaks will prove to be a headache for the rest of Lancaster-Lebanon League Section One to try and contend with over the next two months.
In all reality, things couldn’t have been drawn up much better for the Streaks had they been granted exclusive rights to determine how the first few minutes of the game would go. In fact, before E-Town even touched the ball for their first offensive trip down the floor, the Streaks had suddenly roared out to a quick 5-0 advantage following a dead-eye triple knocked down by 5’11 junior guard, Caden Young, before anyone had the opportunity to sit back down following the final strains of the national anthem.
From there, Township as a whole continued to have the hot hand shooting touch from deep given the pair of trifectas then sunk by even more 11th graders found in the Streaks’ starting rotation, Sebastian Henson and Will King respectively, with King’s triple prompting an early Bears’ timeout in order to stem the tide given the early 13-2 hole they found themselves inside of at the 5:27 mark of the opening frame.
To their credit though, although rather innocently, E-Town began chipping away.
Case in point, a smooth pullup jumper at the foul line dialed up by junior forward, Caleb Garcia, making it a 13-4 contest, a bucket which preceded a timely 5-0 run of the personal variety courtesy of sophomore guard, Brandon Andrews, as the Bears were able to keep it within shouting distance at 19-9 once the quarter concluded even despite the fact that Township had largely owned the vast majority of the opening eight minutes of play.
In the second stanza however, Township only continued to pounce.
After connecting on yet another bucket from beyond the arc to start the quarter, this one thanks to Will King’s second such longball of the opening half, the Streaks were able to take their act inside as well considering that following after a pair of buckets from point-blank range by way of Bennett Parmer and Gavin Glass respectively, another E-Town timeout would have to be burnt while looking up at a 28-13 gap with 4:26 still to play before intermission.
This time though, unlike the aforementioned timeout taken in the first quarter as a means to try and halt the Blue Streaks’ current momentum, Township would remain relatively undeterred in this scenario.
For that, it’d be easy to look at the beautiful poke away and subsequent runout layup by Gavin Glass, a deuce which allowed the Streaks to double-up their hosts, 32-16, in the aftermath of said stoppage. And from there, one of the most smooth and well-rounded players in all the conference, Township’s Sebastian Henson, was able to finish the opening half off on his own personal 5-0 flurry to help usher the Streaks into the dressing room with ownership of the 39-18 advantage as Henson was well on his way to an impressive 22-point evening once all was said and done, sharing in those honors with fellow junior, Caden Young.
Speaking of hot shooting, Manheim Township continued with those escapades right from the get-go in the third period too.
Perhaps it was the benefit of his late second quarter rally, but Sebastian Henson continued to pick up right where had left off just moments earlier, promptly sinking another Township 3-ball to help begin the third frame, a bucket which allowed the Streaks to go up by two dozen, 44-20.
However, almost rather innocuously, E-Town silently began to trudge forward and offer a legitmate threat.
Sure, it may have seemed rather tame at the time given that it remained a sizable 48-30 Manheim Township lead but following a pair of buckets authored by Bears’ junior guard, Caiden Zeager, momentum was finally starting to tilt in the Bears’ direction. From there, following another pair of E-Town buckets, these coming by way of Braden Cummings and Caleb Garcia each, the Bears had worked themselves to within a manageable 48-34 difference with the third quarter now starting to wind down.
In fact, even while Henson would retaliate right back for his fellow Township troops with another of his six triples on the evening to punctuate the Streaks’ ensuing trip down the floor, the Bears would be able to keep the deficit at a baker’s dozen, 53-39, with the final period now getting set to commence.
In the final quarter however, Manheim Township would finally put their foot down once and for all.
Throughout much of the contest, aside from the simple fact that the Streaks were able to knock down shots on this night, the ball movement for Township on the offensive end could only be described as crisp. As a result, with the orange pill constantly being peppered around the floor, easy baskets were largely plentiful for the blue-clad guests. For proof of that, look to the magnificent two-man game shared between two of the Streaks’ diminutive guards underneath the cup, Caden Young and Bennett Parmer, as the Young to Parmer bucket inside made it a 60-41 difference with five minutes and change still left to bleed off the clock.
And while the Bears would certainly do their best at attempting one final push over the last few minutes, something best evidenced by a pair of triples down the final furlong coming via Brandon Andrews which helped the young sophomore net a team-high 21-point outing to his name, the hill which Township had been able to ascend to up until that point was far too high for the Bears to try and summit as Manheim Township was able to finally quench their week-long thirst by tasting the sweet nectar that can only be provided by victory, a final 72-53 verdict which ended in their favor in E-Town’s Daubert Gymnasium on Thursday evening.
“I thought we were much more connected offensively,” Township skipper Matt Johns said just prior to boarding the victorious team bus back home to Neffsville. “We talked about playing through the post more, getting more paint touches, and I thought we did that. We had more assists in the first half tonight than we did all of Tuesday and we had more assists in the first quarter tonight than we did all of Friday,” Johns remarked.
“I just think there was more trust and more sharing,” he added. “Those are two words that I’ve been using a head coach for ten years. Pass the ball, trust the ball, find the right shot. Our guys who are shooters knocked down shots tonight, but our other guys really crashed the boards, and we were really connected better defensively tonight than we were at any other point so far this season.”
And while it may seem simple, sometimes picking yourself back up off the matt is something easier said than done. Especially when it feels like the world may be spinning against you before the season even gains it’s sea legs no doubt.
“We want to stay positive even though we’re frustrated,” said Johns of his team’s first week. “We also knew that we played a tough first three games. Those are not easy games…We were looking at things saying maybe we could’ve, should’ve been 1-2, maybe 2-1 if we came back with a little bit more experience and just shot the ball better. But it was more the way we were playing that we weren’t happy with. We’re never happy starting 0-3, but it was moreso we didn’t like the way we were playing,” he said. “Today, we played closer to the way I know we can and want to play.”
Speaking of playing, when you take Sunday out of the equation, Township has done basically nothing but literally that. Hard to refute when you consider that the Streaks have already played four games on the first six nights of the year.
“The coach in me says it’s a negative,” Johns candidly remarked of the early season gauntlet. “We keep telling ourselves right now that this whole ‘two week and play’ experiment will allow us to stretch our games out across the season a little bit more once we hit the holidays. After the holidays, we play maybe one three-game week the rest of the way. As it gets more and more important, we’ll be able to have more practices there too. We’ll see if it pays off. I know there are some Berks County teams that haven’t even played yet at all and there’s some schools that only just started earlier this week. They are getting their practices in now, we’ll get ours later. It kind of balances out in the end, but it’ll be a little bit different for us this year.”
NEXT UP: One night. One night is all Township gets to relish in their triumph over E-Town. Come Saturday, it’s right back to the grind as Township makes another roadie, this time to Governor Mifflin, a Mifflin team that fell to fellow divisional foe Cedar Crest on Monday night, as the Streaks begin another odd quirk in their early season slate, a three-game slate against Berks Section One clubs in Mifflin, Wilson and Exeter back-to-back-to-back, before jumping into their own Section One tests when the Streaks tangle with Lebanon next Friday night.
For the Bears, while these last two outings certainly did not go the way anyone in their camp had hoped for, there are both positives and negatives to the situation. The positive of course being that opportunity comes knocking at nearly every turn, such as the case when E-Town will lace the sneakers back up on Tuesday night. If there is a negative to it all however, it’s that the tests come fast and furious. Case in point, an upcoming stretch that features the likes of squaring off against last season’s league and District 3-5A champion, Lampeter-Strasburg, before a matchup against one of the best teams in the division in Manheim Central to follow suit, all of which culminate in another Section One test against what appears to be an improving Penn Manor club right after that. But no matter how you slice it, you have to give credit to Elizabethtown head man Lee Eckert for putting together a schedule that will most certainly make his club all the more better for having gone through it. And with quite a few talented pieces already in tow, the Bears could prove to be a force to be reckoned with not just this season, but well into the future as well.
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