Unbeaten Scouts anxious to find out how they measure up against Barons
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Conrad Weiser football coach Alan Moyer ran into Dave Hahn over the winter. The Manheim Central coach told him he was expecting a down season.
Hahn may be right: The Barons have been putting the football on the ground at an alarming rate and have two losses heading into their league opener for the first time since 2008.
Then again, being “down” may be a matter of perspective.
“A down Manheim Central team isn’t a (like) down season for someone else,” said Moyer. “They have a great history; their kids are well-coached.”
Moyer is anxious to find out just how good his unbeaten Scouts are. He’s sure to find out Friday when the Barons arrive in Robesonia for a much-anticipated Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3 meeting.
The Barons (2-2), despite graduating some of the best players in program history, were considered a Section 3 contender before the season.
The Scouts? Not so much.
They have changed that impression over the last month with dominating wins over Elco and Fleetwood. They have the league’s second-rated defense and have allowed just one first-half touchdown.
Still, Moyer admits he isn’t sure how good his team is. He realizes the schedule hasn’t been challenging: Weiser’s four opponents have combined to go 4-12.
“This is gonna be really a true test to tell how good we are,” he said.
The jury remains out on the Barons, who graduated half the starters – including the Section 2 Offensive Back, Receiver, Defensive Lineman, and Defensive Back of the Year — from a team that went 11-2, won the Section 2 title, and reached the District 3 Class 4A championship game.
Manheim’s only wins this season have come against a pair of Philadelphia Public League teams, West Philly and Martin Luther King. Last week, against King, it needed an overtime touchdown to win.
First-year quarterback Ray Lewis is completing just half his passes and is averaging well under 100 yards per game.
The Barons’ biggest problem has been turnovers. They had four giveaways last week, have lost 11 fumbles and are a minus-10 in turnover differential.
“They’ve been making a lot of mistakes but they’re still a very good football team,” Moyer insists. “They’re solid on both sides of the ball up front and they certainly have some play-makers. We’re gonna have our hands full. It’s gonna be a physical game.”
Manheim’s strength was expected to be its line play, with three starters returning to each line. Defensively it has been tough against the run, allowing just 69 yards per game; only Twin Valley and Wyomissing have allowed less among the league’s other 36 teams.
The Scouts’ strength has also been up front, especially on defense where ends Ashton Kiebach and Mason Gechter have been outstanding, as have inside linebackers Gionni Messersmith and Davis Keppley.
Kiebach has a team-high 21 tackles and six sacks. Keppley is second with 19 tackles; Messersmith has 17.
Overall, the Scouts have 12 sacks, five interceptions, and are allowing just 151 yards per game.
“We’ve been playing as well as we have expected, especially defensively,” said Moyer, whose team opened Section 3 play last week with a 35-7 win over Fleetwood. “We’ve been holding the line of scrimmage. Hopefully we can match that and use the aggressive defense we’ve been playing. We’ll see what we’re made of Friday night.”
Manheim’s losses came to good clubs: 31-14 to Ephrata and 35-0 to Dallastown. It outgained Ephrata 288-229 and was tied 14-14 heading into the fourth quarter but hurt its chances by losing four fumbles.
The Barons were within 14 points at halftime against Dallastown before things got away against a Wildcats team that is unbeaten with a pair of shutouts.
This is the Barons’ Section 3 opener.
History tells you they will get it figured out sooner rather than later. They have averaged nine wins during Hahn’s 10 seasons as head coach. Overall, they have won a record 18 District 3 championships and own 28 Lancaster-Lebanon League section trophies.
Their only losing season in the last decade came in the COVID-truncated 2020 season, when they went 3-5.
The Scouts are coming off back-to-back losing seasons – the first time that’s happened in Robesonia since 1980. They were 0-4 at this point last year on the way to a 2-8 finish.
This is the first regular season meeting between the teams. Weiser was in Section 4 the past two years, Manheim Central in Section 2; league-wide realignment brought them together in Section 3.
