Once again, Manheim Township sees season end in Harrisburg
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(This story was produced by LNP/Lancasteronline, and published in partnership with MikeDragoSports.com.)
By Jeff Reinhart — LNP/Lancasteronline
HARRISBURG — If you just look at the numbers, you’d swear Manheim Township was very much in the game.
The Blue Streaks held Harrisburg to 238 yards and eight first downs, picked off a pair of passes, and recovered a fumble Saturday afternoon in a District 3 Class 6A semifinal at venerable Severance Field.
| Final | |
| Harrisburg | 34 |
| Manheim Twp. | 7 |
Heck, the host Cougars even had 12 penalties for 105 yards and helped Township’s cause by continually shooting themselves in the foot.
Turns out Harrisburg’s defense was the difference. The opportunistic and hard-charging Cougars registered six sacks, held Township to 36 rushing yards, forced four turnovers and — the back-breaker — returned a pair of interceptions for touchdowns in a dizzying 12-second sequence to earn a 34-7 victory.
“It’s not the outcome we wanted,” Township coach Mark Evans said, “but we still love our kids. Unconditionally. You just can’t make mistakes in big-time football games against good teams like that.”
Harrisburg, the top-ranked Class 6A team in the state, is very much in that category. The second-seeded Cougars (12-0) will go for their fifth district title in a row, and eighth overall, Friday against top-seeded Central York (11-1).
Third-seeded Township, the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 champ, bowed out at 10-2 and saw its glittering nine-game winning streak snapped here Saturday.
It was the fourth agonizing year in a row that Harrisburg eliminated Township in a district playoff game. The last two have been in the semifinals, after the Cougars conquered the Streaks in back-to-back championship games.
“How do we close the gap?” Evans said. “I’m not quite sure how we close the gap. We start by going to work. We have a championship program, and our kids have committed to a lot of things. (Saturday) you tip your cap. And when you’re in a big game like this, everything is magnified.”
With both teams struggling to move the ball early on, Harrisburg’s cat-quick, backfield-crashing defense flexed its muscles late in the first quarter. First, electric edge Messiah Mickens picked off Township quarterback Jack Kenneff on a quick out, and he zoomed 29 yards for a Pick-6 and a 7-0 lead.
On the Streaks’ next play from scrimmage, Cougars linebacker Jeremy Beroa jumped a route, picked off Kenneff and raced 19 yards for Harrisburg’s second Pick-6 in 12 seconds.
“We still felt good,” said Township’s Daryus Dixon, who had six catches for 89 yards, plus an interception on defense. “We wanted to return the favor. We tried. We just didn’t succeed. We made a couple of mental mistakes there early on, and we just didn’t play up to our full capabilities.”
“At the end of the day, it was two high school football teams playing against each other,” said Township two-way standout Taylor Veilleux. “We were trying to worry about what we were doing, not getting caught up about them, and just focusing on them.”
Harrisburg’s third interception — linebacker Noah Ewell pirated a pass on Township’s first drive of the third quarter — set up the Cougars’ third TD, when Mikal Shank floated a 40-yard TD toss to Elias Coke, and it was 21-0 with 11:24 to go in the third.
Later, Ewell scooped up a Township fumble, setting up Mickens’ 1-yard plunge and Harrisburg was ahead 28-0 midway through the third quarter.
That’s when Township’s offense finally broke through. Kenneff, who threw for 144 yards, fired a 23-yard TD strike to Chase Fletcher with 1:21 to go in the third quarter. That was a positive. Fletcher also recovered a fumble. And Dixon and Zach Bomberger had interceptions for the Streaks.
“Our defense played their tails off,” Evans said. “Our energy was high. We had a good week of preparation. We just made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes. Offsides. Missed blocks. Not the right protection. All teaching moments. But we just didn’t execute.”
Township had just 35 yards at halftime — 34 of those were through the air. In the end, the turnovers were killers.
“I’m proud of how everyone stepped up and led the team,” said Veilleux, who played in his program-record 50th game.
“It wasn’t just one guy being the leader,” he said. “I’m very proud of our leadership as a whole. It’s been an unreal ride for us. It’s really crazy how we’ve developed this connection and the friendships as a senior class.”
A senior class that went 41-9 with two section championships, four district playoff trips, two district title games and, at the end of the day, four matchups against Harrisburg in win-or-go-home clashes.
