The prevailing thought is that football is the ultimate team game where all 11 players need to pull in the same direction in order to be successful. But on Friday November 25th Manheim Central found out that sometimes even when you go toe-to-toe, it may not be enough. Manheim battled Bishop McDevitt in the District 3-4A title game where the Barons were unable to slow down McDevitt's three headed monster of Stone Saunders, Marquese Williams, and Rico Scott with the QB-RB-WR trio accounting for the entirety of McDevitt's offense and a 40-0 Crusader victory.

"You never like ending the season on a loss," said head coach David Hahn, "but with a little time to reflect on it, we are happy with the strides we made during the year, the competitiveness we showed during the year, the improvement. The loss stings but we played a good program that has some talent."

The McDevitt talent that Hahn referenced was not limited to 'the big three' of Saunders, Williams, and Scott. "They had 11 dudes on offense and it was all 11 cause if they didn't then it would have been a different story," Hahn pointed out.

Those '11 dudes' as Hahn called them racked up 421 yards of offense with Saunders throwing for 144 yards and two scores, Williams rushing for 181 yards and two scores plus adding one catch for 64 yards and one of Saunders passing TDs. Scott hauled in Saunders' other passing TD and finished with four catches for 75 yards while adding 70 yards rushing and one score.

Meanwhile, Central was unable to get their offense going with their 12 possessions resulting in eight punts, two interceptions, one missed field goal and the final possession as time ran out. Add all of that up and you get just 63 yards of offense, resulting in the Barons first shutout loss since 2011.

"It was unfortunate," said Hahn. "I think defensively we held in there, unfortunately offensively we really couldn't get anything started. We were challenged up front. They were getting penetration pretty much every play and that hurt us. Not being able to get our run game going made it awfully hard to get our pass game going."

Despite the yardage discrepancy, Manheim was able to hang around through the opening quarter, but the dam broke early in the second frame with a five-yard Williams TD. A few moments later one of those two Zac Hahn interceptions was returned 67 yards for another McDevitt score. Up next was the Saunders to Scott touchdown, covering 35 yards while Williams capped the explosive second quarter with his 64-yard TD reception that gave Bishop McDevitt a 26-0 lead at the break. The final two scores came in the third stanza where Scott broke off his 70-yard run with Williams tacking on a final score from 42-yards out.

On the Central side, Brycen Armold finished with 49 yards on 17 carries with Jaden Weit adding 25 yards on five carries. Zac Hahn completed three of his 13 attempts for 23 yards with Aaron Enterline (two catches - 12 yards) and Rocco Daugherty (one catch - 11 yards) on the receiving end.

With the 2022 season officially in the books we can look back on the Barons' 11-2 run. "Our season as a whole, I think in all three areas of the game we got better as the season went on despite the last game," said Hahn.

The season stats seem to back up Hahn with Manheim outscoring their opponents 623-191 over those 13 games. "Offensively it started with our skill guys," said Hahn. "Brycen Armold did a fantastic job running the ball this year. Zac Hahn had a heck of a year throwing, and Aaron Enterline just fell short of 1000 receiving yards, that does not happen without the line and tight end, those guys had a tremendous year for us, and they came together and played well as a team and were willing to make sacrifices."

Armold, a junior, finished with the fifth best rushing season total in L-L history, racking up 2241 yards and 34 scores on the ground while adding 80 yards and another score through the air. Zach Hahn ended his junior season with 2200 passing yards while tossing 28 TDs against just five interceptions. Enterline, also a junior, finished with 994 receiving yards and 12 of those Zach Hahn TD tosses. Bode Sipel (41 catches - 619 yards, seven TDs) and Rocco Daugherty (19 catches - 231 yards, five TDs) covered the bulk of Hahn's remaining passing stats.

"I think our defense did an outstanding job," said coach Hahn. "Jaden Weit, Rocco Daugherty, Nick Hass, Landon McGallicher, Rolan Hoffer, Bode Sipel, Sonny Callahan, Xander Kolk, Yancy Turner, Wyatt Kupres and Kahlen Watt, we needed all of them, all 11, throughout the year, they played well."

Hahn passed along one final thought for the season, "Our kids will be resilient, they will work hard, they will get better, and that is all I can ask of them. We have a bunch of hard-working kids that love the game, love their teammates, and will keep working to get better and be back there next year."