If the old football saying, 'offense wins games and defense wins championships' has any truth then the version of Manheim Central football on display Friday, November 18th should be considered championship caliber. The Barons held the typically potent Lampeter-Strasburg rushing attack to a meager 34 yards, roughly 160 yards below their season average and surrendered only 225 total yards. Meanwhile, the offense collected 415 yards, 284 coming on the ground, leading to a 42-6 shellacking of the Pioneers and a 23rd appearance in a District 3 title game.

"We played well in all three facets of the game. It was all around a great effort by these guys, great team win," was the simple way head coach David Hahn summed up his team's 61st district playoff victory.

"I think the big thing for us defensively, we were able to stop the run...that was key to our success," continued Hahn. "Defensively they challenged us a little bit in the secondary but I think our guys held their own, we gave up a couple of big plays but we didn't really break."

The only one of those big plays that did any real damage came in the third quarter when Trent Wagner hooked up with Dean Herr (eight catches - 138 yards) for L-S's lone score, a 26 yarder that made it 21-6 after Central blocked the PAT attempt.

Of course, by the time Lampeter-Strasburg found the endzone, Manheim was already firmly in control and that process started on the Barons' opening eight play, 78-yard drive. That momentum stealing drive ended with a 43-yard Zac Hahn to Aaron Enterline (six catches - 81 yards) touchdown.

"Early in the first series we got things rolling, a little bit with the run, setup play action and we kind of broke the pocket and threw that long touchdown pass," stated coach Hahn adding, "I think we knew we could win. I think we knew it would be a three or four score game but we needed that momentum piece to kick start us and we got it early in the game and that really helped us."

Despite momentum squarely on their side, Manheim Central was only able to post one more score in the opening half, this one a 12-yard Bryce Armold scamper, taking a 14-0 lead into intermission. Lampeter-Strasburg found the going just as difficult coming out of the halftime break with their initial possession lasting only five plays before punting to Manheim. Central effectively iced the game with a 12 play, 75-yard drive that ended with a three-yard Armold score that made it 21-0.

L-S did answer with their lone TD strike but the Barons snuffed out any budding Pioneer momentum by blocking the extra point attempt. Manheim continued their push, answering the Lampeter-Strasburg score with a nine-play, 64-yard drive that ended with Armold's third TD run of the game. This one was from 19-yards out and served as an exclamation point to his 233-yard evening.

Manheim Central finished the scoring with two Jaden Weit (eight carries - 46 yards) touchdowns, one from three yards and one from four yards. Those scores were set up by the suffocating Baron defense that held Lampeter-Strasburg to a total of two yards and seven plays over those two drives.

Hahn the quarterback finished with 131 yards and that one TD on 11 of 16 passing while Armold's big game pushed his season tally to 2,203 yards, making him the eighth Lancaster-Lebanon League and second Manheim Central back to hit the 2K mark.