Surprising Muhls find themselves playing for championship no one saw coming
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Freddy Lacey and his Muhlenberg teammates were too wrapped up in the moment to look at the big picture.
They had just completed a huge comeback and scored their biggest win in years when the announcement came over the public address system:
“That makes next week’s game against CV for the section title. . . ”
Mic drop.
“Our kids went crazy,” said Muhls coach Rob Flowers.
Back in August no one was thinking about Muhlenberg being in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 championship game in the final week of the season.
The Muhls gained a lot of momentum late last season with an Eastern Conference playoff win and had the core of their team returning, most notably All-State tailback Cameron Small. They were expected to make a big step forward and challenge for a district playoff spot.
But a section title?
In a section that includes Conestoga Valley and Exeter, each of which has resided in the state rankings the past two seasons? Seemed a bit of a stretch.
The Muhls (5-1, 8-1) were routed by Exeter 42-12 in Week 7. In the minutes after that game Flowers was focusing on holding his team together and regrouping to make a run at the District 3 Tournament, not about a section title.
Making districts, something the Muhls haven’t experienced in over a decade, was no gimme, what with Ephrata and Academy Park – teams that routed them a year ago – up next.
“If we drop (the) Ephrata (game) this isn’t even a conversation,” Flowers said of Friday’s showdown with the Buckskins (6-0, 9-0), one that would earn the Muhls a share of the Section 2 title should they win. “(After the Exeter loss) we’re fighting for our district lives at that point.”
To beat Ephrata they needed a 7-yard TD run by Small with 4:29 remaining to take the lead and an interception by Chase Zona with 1:26 left to seal the 33-28 win.
To beat Academy Park they needed to rally from a 37-26 deficit in the fourth quarter and did so with a pair of TDs in the final 5 ½ minutes, the game-winner Lacey’s 18-yard reception with 28 seconds remaining.
That gave the Muhls their best nine-game start since 2007 and a chance for their first section title since 2005.
That opportunity fell into place when Conestoga Valley came up with a miracle rally of its own, recovering an onside kick, then scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 51 seconds left to beat Exeter 21-17.
“What happened with CV and Exeter last week (was) out of our hands,” Flowers said, “but we at least wanted to put ourselves in position to be available for a championship game.”
They’ll there Friday at 7 at Muhlenberg Stadium. So will the Buckskins, who offer a sizeable challenge.
Conestoga Valley has won 21 straight regular season games, with a pair of tight wins over state-ranked Exeter teams during that streak.
It has the league’s best quarterback in Sawyer Esbenshade and one of the league’s stingiest defenses. The Bucks are allowing 8.8 points per game, rank No. 4 in the league in total defense and No. 9 against the rush.
Their defense was No. 2 in the league against the rush before Exeter’s Leo Brown dented it with his career-high 305 yards last week.
| SECTION 2 | League | Overall | PF | PA |
| Conestoga Valley | 5-0 | 9-0 | 339 | 80 |
| Muhlenberg | 4-1 | 8-1 | 356 | 180 |
| Exeter | 4-1 | 7-2 | 352 | 101 |
| Ephrata | 2-3 | 5-4 | 235 | 190 |
| Elizabethtown | 2-3 | 5-4 | 222 | 151 |
| Gov. Mifflin | 1-4 | 3-6 | 196 | 296 |
| Lebanon | 0-6 | 0-9 | 74 | 412 |
That production by Brown certainly gives some hope to the Muhls because Small is every bit as dangerous. He’s second in the league with 1,547 rushing yards and leads the league with 25 TDs. A year ago the Bucks couldn’t stop him: He went for 290 yards and three TDs, a good chunk of that out of the Wildcat after quarterback Ariel Baez was hurt and came out of the game in the second half.
The game was never close – Conestoga Valley led 31-6 at the half and won it 52-22. The Muhls are a whole lot better now, and they’ll have to be to compete with Esbenshade and the Bucks.
Esbenshade leads the league with 1,941 passing yards and 27 touchdowns. He’s completing 73.4 percent of his passes and has been picked off just three times in 173 throws. Last week he carved up the Eagles, completing 21-of-24 passes for 219 yards and three touchdowns.
“It’s very impressive what they do,” Flowers said of the Bucks’ pass-heavy offense. “CV’s a good football team. They’re physical. They play within the framework of what they want to do. Obviously they have a very good quarterback; they have good pieces around him.”
If Muhlenberg wins Friday it will share the section title with Conestoga Valley and Exeter. No one saw that coming.
“It would be something special for our young men, for our program,” said Flowers, in just his second season as Muhlenberg’s head coach. “It would be great.”
