Mechanicsburg Does Not Buckle As Wildcats Upend Warwick, Surge Into District 3-5A Semifinal Round Thanks To Frantic Late-Game Rally And Assistance From A Knowledgeable Source
Written by: Andy Herr on February 24, 2023
Before we begin, is there a word for déjà vu that doesn’t exactly come to completion? Say, kinda vu? Either way, that likely had to be the feeling that the Warwick Warriors possessed when they loaded up the bus in Lititz on Thursday afternoon before coming across the Susquehanna to meet up with the Mechanicsburg Wildcats.
You see, while the circumstances may have been a tad bit different –most notably the actual school along with the classification system itself no less – this was precisely the location where in which the Warriors’ postseason began a steep incline upward in the positive last year. For it was here in Mechanicsburg, yes, albeit at Cumberland Valley and in the 6A realm, where Warwick began to light the world, at least the local world on fire. There, just 363 days ago, the underdog Warriors rose up and promptly chopped down the second-seeded Eagles of Cumberland Valley by a 58-51 final count in overtime in the quarterfinal round before eventually making it all the way to the 6A finale in Hershey opposite of the behemoth known as Reading High. And wouldn’t you know it, but here came Warwick onto the west shore inside the quarterfinal round yet again looking to make good on a second consecutive trip to the semifinal round of the District 3 playoffs.
However, while there would be similarities, there would also be some key differences. Chief among being that it wouldn’t be the Eagles of CV that Warwick had to get past. Oh no. This would instead be a formidable foe just as challenging under the direction of first-year head man Mike Gaffey who certainly wouldn’t let his new squad back down from a good old-fashioned tussle in a do-or-die scenario. Not only that, but while CV’s “Dome” is splendid in its own right, there is simply no equating the tangible effect that Mechanicsburg’s sixth man had right from the jump on Thursday night, effectively making the decibel level rise so loud inside the Wildcats’ fancy new den that you would’ve sworn your eardrums were about to burst.
And as fate would have it, this would prove to be a night by the end of it where while the trip home to Lancaster County might’ve been just as long in actual reality for Warwick, rest assured that it felt much, much longer this time around. Well, that was if Justin Bardo and his Mechanicsburg teammates had anything to say about it of course.
Right from the opening tip in this one, it was evident as to why the power rankings had correctly tabulated both Mechanicsburg and Warwick as #4 and #5 seeds respectively seeing as how they appeared to be so evenly matched all game long, but particularly throughout the initial few minutes of play.
Case in point, while Warwick’s Trevor Evans was able to sink a triple which knotted things up a 5-apeice near the 4:30 mark of the opening frame, a trifecta sunk down on the other end, this from the handiwork of Mechanicsburg’s Chance Yanoski, propelled the Wildcats out to the 8-5 advantage before a floater by way of 6’1 senior guard Spencer Nolan helped the hosts double up their adversaries at 10-5 with three minutes and change still yet to tick off the first quarter clock. From there, while Warwick would indeed be able to answer back in the face of the current 5-0 salvo being leveraged against them, the opening eight minutes eventually concluded with Mechanicsburg holding serve by virtue of a 12-9 count.
In the second though, unlike the quarter before where it had seemed as if Mechanicsburg had been the ones to leave crumbs on the table given the volume of turnovers which had plagued the Warriors, Warwick would instead be the ones to settle down and promptly work themselves into a groove.
Sure enough, with most of the kudos to the Warwick charge having to be extended in the direction of Carter Horst, the 6’1 junior wing was able to not only tally a second-chance bunny inside which clipped the Wildcats’ lead down to one at 12-11, but his freebie at the charity stripe a shade over a minute later put the visitors out in front, 15-14, with just inside of four minutes yet to go before the intermission.
And if you’re sensing by this now that the points on this night, but most specifically inside the second stanza would be hard to come by, you wouldn’t be all that far out of pocket seeing as how just one field goal remained unaccounted at that point. For those honors would be bestowed upon Cody Ryan as the Warwick 6’0 junior guard traded in his usual peskiness on the defensive end for a moment of glory offensively as Ryan’s bucket inside made it a 17-14 lead with 1:20 then left to tick away. Ironically, that was precisely where things would remain the rest of the way as both teams headed off to their respective dressing rooms with Warwick owning the modest three-point lead at the break.
That said, even despite finding themselves down and having only been able to muster a pair of points in the game’s second round of eight minutes, Mechanicsburg certainly figured to have liked their current positioning given how they were still within one possession all things considered. Even still, having possibly gotten out of dodge unscathed or not, starting off on the right foot to begin the third period was certainly the most advantageous of options at the Wildcats’ disposal. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the case as far those in maroon would come to see.
While the wave may have started off gradually, something best seen by a triple knocked down Warwick’s Ya’Majesty Washington that upped the Warriors’ cushion to four at 20-16 a little under two minutes into the third frame, another Warwick trademark triple, this via Carter Horst, made it a 23-18 Warwick lead with nearly half of the third period having gone by and Mechanicsburg still trying to get it going offensively.
To their credit though, the Wildcats would respond.
Ignited by a nice reverse finish at the cup by way of 6’3 senior forward Seth Brubaker which preceded a Josh Smith trifecta, the Wildcats had suddenly gotten themselves back within a deuce, 28-26, even despite whatever hardships they may have faced up until that point in time. And here again, with their defense being able to hold down the fort by and large, Warwick was still well within Mechanicsburg’s sightline at 30-26 once the start of the fourth quarter finally rolled around.
In some ways, it’s funny. Frustrating to a certain degree for a coach no doubt, but it comes with a hint of humor nonetheless. Sometimes, the best offense doesn’t come from plays drawn up on a whiteboard inside of a timeout huddle. No, sometimes the game can change on a dime just from players simply making plays. And with that in mind, Mechanicsburg’s Josh Smith would figure to have his picture placed right beside the definition of that on this night.
Granted, the Wildcats probably couldn’t have cared one iota as far as for how or where the points came from inside of the final frame on Thursday, especially once they found themselves down by seven at 33-26 following a triple splashed home by Trevor Evans with 6:44 left to play. But if Smith is accurately listed as a sophomore in the game program, rest assured he certainly didn’t look like no ordinary 10th grader with the game hanging in the balance.
In fact, the tidal wave of what felt to be insurmountable momentum promptly swung in Mechanicsburg’s favor once the 6’1 fearless guard came down the floor and rifled in a pair of consecutive cold-blooded 3-balls in transition to not only get the Wildcats back within one at 33-32 roughly 40 seconds later, but it also sent the crowd into some sort of fever dream. And as if that wasn’t already enough damage he had inflicted, Smith would then follow that up with a man-sized take to the rack to complete the comeback effort officially as this two-point addition to his game-high 18-point outing made it a 34-33 count in Mechanicsburg’s favor with what figured to still be five frantic minutes yet in store.
To their credit though, Warwick did not blink.
Not only that, but the Warriors responded to the task at hand by going back out in front at 37-34 following an old-fashioned Ya’Majesty Washington three-point play as he too, only a freshman, played so far above his youth in this cauldron of a pressure-packed environment throughout nearly the entirety of this night. From there, those who had taken the turnpike or another highway of their choosing from Lititz had to like their chances of prevailing once they went up 39-35 following a tough take inside from one Caleb Johnsen with just 1:39 left showing on the scoreboard lights.
But that would effectively be the end of Warwick’s mojo the rest of the way.
Sure enough, it took Mechanicsburg all of 24 seconds to draw back on level footing as a take to the tin by, you guessed it, Josh Smith, knotted things back up at 39-39 with 1:15 left to go. Then, with Warwick coming up empty offensively on their ensuing trip down the floor, the stage was set for some late-game, dare we say walk-off heroics.
In the official pamphlet provided by District 3, his jersey number is listed as #23. However, don’t be surprised if he may have to negotiate with teammate Josh Smith moving forward as far as getting his jersey numeral switched over to #1. After all, he certainly has a sound case to make for himself considering the shot he was about to hit.
Without delving into the scouting reports too deeply, it certainly seemed as if Mechanicsburg would have the ball in Smith’s hands inside of this final minute. Well, true to form, the pill would indeed find its way back into Smith’s hands just beyond the timeline with the seconds melting off the clock like hot butter. And while the game-altering plays he himself had authored up until that point in the evening were large in their own right, he would save his best for last as Smith proceeded to drive down the right side of the lane where he met two Warrior defenders standing pat before promptly kicking out to a wide-open Justin Bardo standing all by his lonesome in front of the Wildcats’ bench. There, with ice water pulsating throughout his bloodstream, the Mechanicsburg sophomore fired up a rainbow over the outstretched fingertips of a defender which inevitably met nothing but pure cotton on the way down as Bardo’s heroics with no time left on the clock cued up a sea of humanity to charge the floor as Mechanicsburg somehow, some way suddenly found itself with a ticket punched into the semifinal round of the district playoffs following their incredible, frantic, at times impossible 42-39 triumph over Warwick on Thursday night.
“It was a weird game,” Mechanicsburg head man Mike Gaffey admitted afterwards with sweat beads still trickling down. “Warwick was just sort of hanging on, hanging on, hanging on. We felt like once it got tied, the apple cart might get pushed over with just one push and that’s what happened.”
“Warwick scores 62 points a game and they score 18 points in the first quarter every game,” the veteran coach went on to add of the club his squad had just prevailed over. “At halftime, we said, ‘Fellas, they’ve only scored 17 (points). If we make a couple shots down here, we’re okay.’ In big games, if someone misses a switch or you’re not happy with a call, you can’t let that get to you. You have to weather that. We almost tilted on the verge of losing our marbles there at times, but we didn’t,” Gaffey surmised with pride.
Of course, when the jury is still out on you, that’s not necessarily always a bad thing either. Rest assured in that regard that the Wildcats hear the naysayers’ chatter outside of their locker room too.
“We definitely play that way,” Gaffey added of his squad’s mental moxie. “What helps us here is playing in this gym. (The crowd) is definitely a sixth- or seventh-man advantage. But we relish this underdog thing where people are like, ‘Oh, the Mid-Penn Keystone must not be any good if Mechanicsburg wins it.’ That’s fine because as a coach, it’s an easy button to push.”
And if we’re talking about what buttons to push against this Warwick crew specifically, Gaffey’s chore was made all the more easier on Thursday by an advantage that most other coaches don’t have at their disposal – their family tree.
You see, Mike’s son Scott is currently in the midst of rebuilding the Ephrata Mounts’ program back up –doing an admirable job too we may add – and wouldn’t you know it, but Warwick is arguably Ephrata’s chief rival.
“Listen, I’m indebted to my son because he helped us win with this gameplan tonight,” said Gaffey of the family business at work. “It’s the little things that other teams might not know, like what they run out of timeouts, tendencies of some of the players, who you can help off of and things like that. We had all of that, so it certainly helps. I mean look at this thing. It’s like a book,” he said taking the blue scouting report out from his pants pocket.
“From there, it was a matter of us picking the players. (Scott) has seen our team play, so he can kind of help me pick which guy was gonna guard who. We didn’t have a matchup for our big guy, Seth Brubaker. It was (Scott’s) suggestion to put him on him on Ya’Majesty (Washington) who can hit 3’s. (Washington) hit a couple, and he can, but he’s more of a driver, so that seemed to work out pretty well for us. There aren’t many Warwick guys you can help off of because they all shoot it so well from 3, so that was huge. And probably, at this time of the season, it’s a little bit of an unfair advantage because of the short turnarounds,” he continued in regard to being able to rely on his next of kin for assistance. “The report was already done Tuesday coming into practice, so we had two really good days of getting ready.”
And speaking of books, whether it be of the metaphorical sense or a very detailed scout on the opposition, the narrative still rings true for this Mechanicsburg bunch.
“We’ve been writing a book,” Gaffey said in closing. “This was a new chapter added tonight and the book just keeps getting better and better.” So, with that in mind, don’t be surprised if the Wildcats also come into Monday night’s scrap with Manheim Central in the semifinal round with a report so detailed that it potentially lists the eye color of each member of the Barons’ starting five. After all, while Ephrata sees Warwick twice a year with both competing in Section Two of the L-L League, the undisputed champs of the division were, yep, Manheim Central, a team Ephrata is more than familiar with as well. Guess it’s true what they say. Sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know.
Follow LLhoops on Twitter @LLhoops
