Funny how time can change and shift your outlook around on things every now and then. Yes, sometimes even a week can alter things quite dramatically, especially in the sport of high school football no less. Just look at Manheim Township and McCaskey for example.
As of seven days ago, the general storyline and buzz that it appeared would have ensnared the Blue Streaks’ trip to Lancaster city to tangle with the Red Tornado this Friday was all but a layup. Granted, while Township figured to have their hands full and then some with Hempfield -the Streaks’ most bitter rival of course- one may have assumed it would remain business as usual in a series owned by Township for the better part of nearly a decade now. Instead, at the end of what by all accounts was a spectacular display of scholastic football played between two stellar squads, the Black Knights earned the last laugh last Friday on Township’s home field last week, heading home to Landisville with a key 17-14 victory for their spoils. And just like that, any preconceived notion that Township would have continued sailing right along through L-L Section One and into this week’s game against McCaskey while carrying what would have been a five-game winning streak had it come to fruition, perhaps even being able to enter next week’s highly anticipated matchup against Wilson while riding a six-game winning streak should they be able to navigate the always explosive Red Tornado this week, was quickly put to bed. Instead, the Streaks were forced to right ship the ship fast with almost no margin for error these last two weeks of the regular season after scoring their fewest points of the season thus far against their archrivals while also not allowing Hempfield to beat them twice as they prepped for McCaskey this week. Not only that, but Township also now figured to maybe even have one eye lurking on the Wilson/Hempfield score that was also ongoing nearby in terms of what they hope amounts to some sort of section title once again this year, albeit even a share if need be.
Ironically, their opponent this week also had their season narrative get changed somewhat given what they were able to do just seven days ago.
To put it mildly, it’s been a tough go of it here for McCaskey Football over the last several years with the wins being in short supply. This season, however, it appears as if the Red Tornado may have finally found something with which they can work and build upon for the future. In some ways, that’s what makes this possible turnaround all the more unique and special considering the Red Tornado were left scrambling for a head coach literally just hours before preseason camp began this year after Sam London accepted an offer to go back to the collegiate ranks. Nonetheless, McCaskey was able to weather the early storms posed this season and get out of the gates to a 2-1 start, including a season-opening win against Reading that ended a 26-game losing skid at the time. Since then, however, the flagship high school of the state’s eighth-largest city stumbled with a three-game losing streak to follow, getting no closer than within four touchdowns of the competition during that time. That said, that’s why last week’s game against Penn Manor seems to serve as a true indicator of the strides this group of Red Tornado coaches and players have been able to make. In most years, those three consecutive setbacks could have easily been parlayed and climaxed to five throughout the final two weeks of the regular season. And yes, while McCaskey was undoubtedly left heart-broken at the way in which their game against Penn Manor ended last Friday night given that the Comets were able to score the go-ahead touchdown with less than a minute remaining, the fact that McCaskey was able to give Penn Manor all they could handle -a team that just as of a few weeks ago had very real and tangible aspirations of perhaps snagging the Section One crown this season- gives credence to the positive signs that appear to be taking hold at Tornado Alley these days.
So, who would be able to get their narrative back on track by late Friday evening in Lancaster? Would Manheim Township be able to dust themselves off the matt and respond with a strong showing against their backyard counterparts? Or, would McCaskey be able to continue their upward trajectory, perhaps even coming away with what would be the program’s biggest win in a generation.
Well, while it may not have been a masterpiece for all 48 minutes, Manheim Township left the city late Friday night with a clear and undeniable pep back in their collective step.
On their first drive of the evening, it looked as if the Streaks had arrived at McCaskey on a definitive mission. Ignited by a nice swing pass from Manheim Township sophomore quarterback, Hayden Johnson, to junior running back, Jake Laubach, while running behind a no-huddle offensive attack, the visitors quickly found themselves at the midfield stripe before anyone in attendance had a chance to settle into the metal bleachers. From there, a nice handful of runs by way of senior tailback, Isaiah Jones, the Streaks’ attack had ushered itself down even further into Red Tornado territory before a key 19-yard pitch and catch from Johnson to Ethan Dansereau on a 3rd & 3 attempts from the McCaskey 29-yard line put Township right on the precipice of drawing first blood. Sure enough, they would make good on those aspirations, albeit in a unique way considering that senior offensive lineman, Alex Romano, was able to have the honors of tallying Township’s first score of the evening as the Streaks’ big man pounced on the loose pill in the end zone, effectively allowing Township to jump out in front at 7-0 with 9:34 left to play in the opening quarter.
Ask around, and almost anyone from within L-L football circles will tell you that McCaskey is always a dangerous foe because they always have homerun hitters at nearly all the skill positions on a perennial basis. In that respect, say hello to Red Tornado senior running back, Josiah Gray.
To say that Gray is lightning quick might be doing it a disserve given his blinding speed when left alone in the open field when he turns on the jets. So, when you have a nuclear weapon in your toolbox such as that which you can give the ball to who can absolutely go off whenever he seems to please, your game plan suddenly improves ten-fold if he is able to carry the mail on a repeated basis. True to form, that was clearly the intent on McCaskey’s opening offensive series as well. With an uncanny ability to run horizontally before deciding to cut upfield and get vertical on you, the McCaskey senior speedster showed off all of the tools in his arsenal with a steady dose of jet sweep action to wisely stretch the Township defensive out to where he could get some space out on the edge. In fact, on a jet sweep no less, Gray was able to blaze a path into the end zone for McCaskey’s immediate rebuttal to Township’s opening march with a 25-yard touchdown jaunt, knotting the score up at 7-7 following the successful PAT with 7:44 still left to go in the opening act.
Needless to say, the opening march that Township was able to put together could have easily been the wet blanket to be thrown over the McCaskey fire in the Tornado’s final home game of the season. But to their credit, the Tornado D answered the dinner bell marvelously on the Streaks’ next offensive possession by forcing Township to punt it away to McCaskey. And yes, while McCaskey would also have to punt it right back to their houseguests following a quick three and out in their own right, a bounding ball on the actual punt found its way like a magnet into the heels of an unsuspecting Manheim Township blocker, leading to a McCaskey fumble recovery which moved momentum back over to the Tornado sideline with the McCaskey offensive troops trotting back onto the field with the ball now resting just shy of the midfield stripe. From there, it appeared as if McCaskey had successfully cashed in on that momentum as a beautiful 34-yard dime thrown along the opposite sideline by Tornado junior triggerman, Ben Remash, into the waiting hands of senior wideout, Isaac Burks, gave the home side their first lead of the evening. However, yellow laundry dropped on the field quickly dashed those best-laid plans as the Tornado was whistled for an ill-timed, ineligible man downfield penalty, wiping out the McCaskey haymaker within the blink of the eye. In fact, a Red Tornado fumble shortly thereafter, recovered by Manheim Township’s Jake Laubach, effectively ended the McCaskey threat altogether. But no sooner had they taken it away did they give it right back as a tipped Township pass found inside the mitts of McCaskey senior defensive back, Zyaire Corteguera, slamming the door on this brief Township series as well. And while Corteguera’s interception late in the first quarter proceedings had stymied yet another possible Township attempt at retaking the lead, it also helped punctuate what had been a zany and wild opening 12 minutes of play between these two neighboring schools even despite the relatively tame and unassuming score with things knotted up at 7-7.
The second quarter though is where Township began to make their move.
On their first offensive possession of the second stanza, Township knew exactly what to do with it. After using a nice mix of well-designed delayed draws for Isaiah Jones to help him get going, the Streaks began methodically slicing and dicing their way via the ground to try and lean on McCaskey. That said, the plan seemed to work without much of a hitch considering Jake Laubach had the honors of toting the rock later in the drive, moving the ball all way down to the McCaskey 28-yard line following a horse-collar tackle at the end of his bruising run. Ironically, that was all the further both Township and Laubach would need to travel the rest of the way as the junior’s 28-yard touchdown sprint to the house put Township back in front at 14-7 with 7:54 left before the halftime break, capping off the man-sized, 92-yard march down the field authored by the visitors.
Then, after forcing McCaskey to punt at the end of the Red Tornado’s ensuing offensive possession, Manheim Township went into the bag of tricks.
After getting McCaskey lathered up and probably feeling a little bit greedy given the way in the Streaks had been able to pound the rock at them on their previous series, a perfectly executed flea-flicker play caught the Tornado sucking up trying to stop the run, only for the McCaskey defensive unit to turn their heads around and a see a nicely thrown ball over the top by Isaiah Jones to sophomore wide receiver, Landon Kennel, steamrolling this new Blue Streak drive into McCaskey territory with the attack all the way down to the Tornado 24-yard line. From there, Jones went back to one of his more traditional ways of inflicting pain on the opposition by taking another well-designed play, this time a swing pass out the backfield, en route to the 18-yard TD reception thrown from Johnson for a touchdown connection which put Township in charge at 21-7 with 4:44 left to play before the recess.
Speaking of tricks, Township continued to ride with that idea on the ensuing kickoff as the Streaks were able to pick up the onside kick following the Jones touchdown reception. And while the surprise series would eventually result in a punt back to McCaskey, it had largely flipped field position in the Streaks’ favor.
The only thing was, McCaskey was up to the challenge of flipping it right back.
After getting off to a somewhat ragged start after taking over at their own 9-yard line following the aforementioned punt just moments earlier, a pop pass to Basir Epps who came roaring down the line in motion gave the McCaskey senior athlete all the juice he needed as Epps’ long jaunt down the Tornado sideline set the hosts up at the Township 20-yard line within a flash. Fortunately, as far as Township was most concerned, that would largely prove to be all the threat would amount to as key sack on a McCaskey 4th & 17 while located within no man’s land between a field goal and punting range thanks to Streaks’ senior defensive lineman, Tyrese Washington, slammed the door on this particular Red Tornado advance.
And while time was running out of the opening half of at play at that point, there was still an ample opportunity for Township to cash in once more. Sure enough, they would.
Sparked in this instance by a long bomb thrown from Johnson to Kennel, the Streaks went back to the hurry-up game and found themselves already owning real estate inside McCaskey territory after the quick connection between the pair. Then, Johnson went back to attacking via the method of an aerial assault as the sophomore’s second TD toss of the opening half, this time of the 30-yard variety to senior wideout, Michael Heckman, allowed the Streaks to saunter into the dressing room with ownership of the 28-7 advantage once the final 37 seconds evaporated off the second-quarter clock.
While it may have been a new half of football, it largely looked like the same Manheim Township team had emerged to play the final 24 minutes of football on Friday night as well.
Case in point, Michael Heckman pouncing on the loose pill following McCaskey’s opening offensive play of the third frame, setting the Streaks’ offense up with yet another golden opportunity to cash in on the matter following the fumble recovery. And with their offensive now starting to hum akin to that a finely-tuned machine, it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise to see Hayden Johnson and the Township offense pick up right where they had left off at the conclusion of the second quarter as a sweet 13-yard fade route to Landon Kennel made it a 35-7 Blue Streaks’ lead following the successful PAT with 9:57 left in the third.
Granted, while the McCaskey had largely been stymied by various fits and starts throughout the opening first half of play on Friday night, it was evident at times that the Red Tornado offense could pose a lethal threat from anywhere on the field. With that in mind, seeing Ben Remash hook up with senior wideout, Will Almeyda, probably shouldn’t have been much of a surprise at the onset of the ensuing McCaskey offensive series, a strike between the junior and senior tandem which put the Tornado march at the Township 33-yard line. From there, it was Basir Epps’ opportunity to finally make good on another one of his blinding runs that he had been able to display earlier in the contest as the Red Tornado senior was able to navigate his way into the end zone from 33-yards out to cut the Manheim Township lead back down to a much more modest 35-14 count just 37 seconds later.
If you’re starting to think there’s a theme at play here that would amount to each team seeming to score each and every time they possessed the football inside the second half, you wouldn’t be wrong. In fact, on Township’s ensuing offensive series, the Streaks wasted little to no time in their own right as a 48-yard touchdown lob thrown to a senior all-state receiver, Anthony Ivey, was arguably the best play of the entire evening. Not so much for the pitch and catch mind you, but for the utmost courage in which Hayden Johnson was able to display for all to witness after standing in and delivering a magnificent pass after possibly getting a filling or two knocked loose given how hard he was hit once he ultimately did release it, all of which amounted a timely score that upped the Township cushion to a 42-14 difference with 8:44 left in the third.
From there, it was rather evident that the Manheim Township defensive unit didn’t want to get left out of the mix given the way in which their offensive counterparts had started to flex their muscle. In that regard, seeing Township junior defensive back, Shaddy Girgis, come up with a diving interception to thwart the ensuing McCaskey drive seemed apropos. So, with the Streaks’ offense returning back onto the field what felt like almost immediately, the Township offensive lean began to lean on their opposition. Case in point, a series of hard and determined runs by way of freshman running back, Declan Clancy, methodically helping power the Streaks’ attack down the field. A series of events that ultimately culminated in a 1-yard Jesus Perez touchdown jaunt as the Township senior running back helped make it a 49-14 Blue Streaks’ lead once the game finally entered its final dozen minutes.
Speaking of Perez, he was able to pick up right where he left on the previous series as his second touchdown run in as many drives, this one from 10-yards out on the first play of the final stanza, made it a 56-14 Streaks’ lead with 11:47 left.
But back and forth jabs by both of these offenses only continued to rage on the rest of the way home.
Shortly following Perez’s second TD run, it was Josiah Gray’s turn to show off once again as yet another blinding run via the sweep action resulted in a dizzying, toe-tapping 51-yard touchdown scamper down the Red Tornado sideline, as the Gray TD run made it a 56-21 affair just 1:58 later.
Of course, given all the fireworks and volleys back and forth that these two sides had thrown at each other in a contest that ended after a grand total of three hours and nine minutes in real-time, it seemed only fitting that we would have at least one more score tallied on the night, yes? In that regard, the final offensive honors of the evening went to Manheim Township quarterback, Eli Rodriguez, as the Streaks’ sophomore quarterback was able to call his own number and rumble in for the 36-yard touchdown run, making it a 62-21 Township lead with 7:20 left to go.
And while the two respective defenses largely weren’t the stars of the show, it was nothing if not rewarding to see them both rise up and end things in style late in the game on Friday night, particularly in the case of the Manheim Township defense given the punishing licks laid out on the final few minutes by way of Yonathan Bekele and Cooper Ankney from their linebacker spots respectively, efforts which helped close the curtain on a wild and long night of football played between Manheim Township and McCaskey in a game which ended in a 62-21 final decision in favor of the Blue Streaks.
NEXT UP: With Wilson’s late-game heroics on the road at Hempfield on Friday night, the stage has now been set for what most folks were clamoring for before the season itself even began -a Manheim Township & Wilson heavyweight brawl in the final week of the regular season to help decide some semblance of the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section One title next Friday night in Berks County. And sure, while there is certainly plenty of things to brush up and address in the next six days ahead in Blue Streaks’ camp, rest assured that this is one that will have their undivided and full attention. Typically, when Manheim Township and Wilson get together, it has turned into appointment-viewing. This year figures to be no different.
For McCaskey, while Friday night’s loss to Township will certainly get skewed by the naked eye that just looks at the final score and doesn’t do any digging, it’s worth reiterating that the Red Tornado more than held their own at times against one of District 3’s most premier franchises. Personally, as someone who has seen the Red Tornado play over the course of the last few years, this group does indeed seem to be head and shoulders above some of the recent McCaskey squads of the last couple of seasons in various areas. If nothing else, the appetite for this thing to get back on track is clearly evident given how full the stands were on McCaskey’s side on Friday night, along with a jam-packed Red Tornado student section, something not even all that prominent during the golden years of McCaskey success. In short, McCaskey has always been labeled as the “sleeping giant.” Well, it seems as if the giant may have finally had enough shut-eye.
