Turnovers Doom Northern Lebanon As Vikings Fall To Tri-Valley In Season Opener, Await Key Game With Solanco On Wednesday Night
Written by: Andy Herr on December 5, 2023
It’s early December which in the high school basketball corner of the universe means that hope always springs eternal. Yes, just as sure as when the temperatures outside start to plummet, so too do the aspirations and dreams of the teams found competing inside of local gyms during those cold winter months at such a level that are never hotter than what they are right now at the onset of a brand-new season. But perhaps no boys’ basketball program inside of the entire Lancaster-Lebanon League was a living, breathing example of that notion more than the Northern Lebanon Vikings.
Suffice to say, the 2023-24 campaign had to be viewed as a welcomed breath of fresh air in Fredericksburg seeing how the Vikings were able to find themselves with more points than the opposition at the end of a game only once during all last season. As you then are right to expect following such a 1-21 year, that turning of the page to this newest chapter in the here and now would be far more preferable as opposed to rehashing what did or didn’t transpire last winter. But if you subscribe to the thought that you only get one shot at a real first impression, let’s just say that the opening assignment for Northern Lebanon this year would be a head-turner in and of itself.
Talk about scheduling anything but a layup to start the season, eh? Indeed, after sitting the opening weekend of the season out without playing a game, Northern Lebanon began their season against the Tri-Valley Bulldogs by way of District 11 on Monday night at home. Okay, maybe Tri-Valley isn’t a name that is immediately synonymous to hoop heads down here District 3 way, but those in the know are keenly aware of what Tri-Valley brings to the table. In fact, in harkening back to last season, Tri-Valley encountered this very same Northern Lebanon bunch and handed them a 50-36 verdict for their troubles in having visited them up inside the town limits of Hegins, Pennsylvania last December. Truthfully though, that’d be selling this Bulldogs crew woefully short and then some. In fact, Tri-Valley went on to post a 20-win season overall, ultimately finishing with the silver medal in the District 11-2A ranks while looking up at Mahanoy –the same Mahanoy team that oh by the way Lancaster Mennonite was able to vanquish in the quarterfinal round of the state tournament last March en route to their eventual summit –before Tri-Valley would then succumb to the Philadelphia-based juggernaut known as Sankofa Freedom Academy by just six points in the opening round of the state playoffs last season.
Needless to say, while one team in this particular matchup was looking to start anew and wipe away the sting from last season, it’d be hard to find fault with the other contingent if they didn’t have a burning desire to continue reveling in the same level of success they had been able to enjoy one year ago with only one of those two narratives being able to win the proverbial tug of war battle. Well, as would become readily apparent on Monday evening at least, the eventual victor would be those representing the latter theme as opposed to the former.
At least in the early going of this matchup on Monday night, a back-and-forth affair seemed to be afoot. Easy to surmise such a notion seeing as how Tri-Valley would take their first lead of the contest following a 3-ball knocked down by shooting guard, Luke Wehry, making it a 5-4 count in the Bulldogs’ favor before eventually surrendering that penny-sized advantage on Northern Lebanon’s ensuing trip down the floor offensively as a tough take to the tin courtesy of 6’1 senior guard, Riley Clinger, put the Vikings back in front at the 3:40 mark of the opening quarter. And while Wehry would try his darndest at being the fly in NL’s ointment given his own personal 4-0 run over the span of the next minute, a much-needed triple knocked down at the first quarter buzzer by another of the Vikings’ senior guards, Kade Erdman, helped to slice Tri-Valley’s down to a much more modest two-point difference at 11-9 following the opening eight minutes.
That said, the hosts would not be able to regain control of the scoreboard for the remainder of the night.
Now yes, while Northern Lebanon was able to tie things back up at 11-apeice during the initial stages of the second stanza, a prompt 4-0 blitz entirely authored by Tri-Valley’s Layne Yoder made it a 15-11 Bulldogs’ lead before that cushion would later swell up to five following a trifecta sunk by Owen Miller with Miller then following up those antics not long afterwards with a steal and finish in transition to put the guests up by double digits, 23-13, with Northern Lebanon having to burn a timeout with 4:31 left in the opening half.
But not even that brief stoppage appeared to slow down Tri-Valley’s ongoing onslaught.
In fact, the Bulldogs would be able to increase their lead out to a baker’s dozen at 26-13 thanks to Dawsyn Manning then taking his turn at firing one in from bonus distance with two minutes and change left before recess. Then, after having struggled in trying to negotiate against the Tri-Valley press and overall pressure defense for what felt like the entirety of the first half that in turn led to an inopportune amount of Vikings’ hospitality instances shall we say, another Erdman buzzer-beating bucket, this of the two-point variety, helped cut the Tri-Valley lead back down to size somewhat at 30-18 with both teams walking off the floor following 16 minutes that largely as if the Bulldogs had dictated almost all the terms of engagement.
That said, it was only a harbinger of things to come once the second half rolled around on Monday evening in the nether regions of Lebanon County.
Steadily, yet somehow also in a way that felt incredibly immediate given how fast it seemed to occur, Tri-Valley was able to look up at the scoreboard despite wading in the aftermath of a tough Kade Erdman take to the rack near the midway point of the third frame and still see themselves up by more than 20 points, 43-22, with Northern Lebanon continuing to have an extreme bout with the turnover bug. Then, while continuing to lean on the Vikings throughout much of the third quarter, Tri-Valley was able to up their differential by more than the opponent had yet to score once another Bulldogs’ trey was dialed up, this time courtesy of Caden Leonard, making it a 49-24 Tri-Valley lead which is exactly where things would remain following the final minute of the quarter being zapped off the clock with the last of the game’s eight minutes finally coming into view.
Yet even the fourth quarter would continue to be bathed in the black and red of Tri-Valley’s school colors.
In that regard, TV’s Trey Porter checked himself into the contest for the first time all night long and appropriately lived up to his namesake by burying a triple in front of the Northern Lebanon student section, making it a 52-24 Tri-Valley advantage which preceded the Bulldogs eventually triggering the mercy-rule into effect for the remainder of the contest in relatively short order.
And while the Vikings would still nonetheless have their moments down the final stretch, perhaps nothing better evidenced than with 6’4 sophomore big man, Brady Krall, stepping outside and finding an eventual outcome that was nothing but cotton for three more points tallied in what became team-high scoring honors in a 9-point outing, it was unfortunately far too little and far too late for what the home patrons were most concerned with as Tri-Valley was able to head back home near coal country with an emphatic 55-27 in this year’s edition of their series against Northern Lebanon.
Okay, fair to say that the first game of the season did not go the way in which anyone found inside of Vikings’ camp had been hoping for coming into the night. Even still, it must be taken as a lesson learned. Yes, while Northern Lebanon will have to solve the turnover woes which cruelly befuddled them throughout much of Monday night, it’s rather evident that there are some nice pieces in which the Vikings can work with as this season begins to take shape. And as we know all to well, sometimes that tiny flicker of belief can just as quickly turn into an all-out raging fire once you are able to pocket some wins in your favor. In that respect, Wednesday night back at home inside the friendly confines against Solanco would certainly go a long way in helping to bolster some of that Vikings’ belief collectively once the Golden Mules roll in to town fresh off the very routine and mundane hour-and-a-half one-way drive for a game within the same conference in a matchup that pits two squads on remarkably similar trajectories with each trying to find a jolt of momentum in the nonconference portion of their respective slates before tough roads ahead in both Section Two and Section Three between them. From there, who’s to say? Perhaps the eventual victor in that one on Wednesday can in turn parlay that into something more as the season grows and evolves. Or, in other words, an early December reason for hope springing eternal.
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