Like most every team that takes to the field in the autumnal months, there’s always that one signature win that you can center the story of your season around. For the 2026 Donegal Indians, while they most certainly hope there are many more wins left to be had out there on the remainder of their regular season slate, the green and white from Mount Joy already checked off that landmark victory last week when Leeman Baughman snagged the game-winning touchdown reception with one second remaining off fellow senior classmate, quarterback Chase Marshall, for a pulsating 26-20 triumph over their next door neighbors from Columbia last week to win the “Battle of the Rock”, a victory which saw the Indians surge out of the chute for a 2-0 start on the campaign.

Simply put, if the green-clad fans who had assembled at the Donegal Athletic Complex this Friday were expecting the same type of thrilling show to be replicated on this their home turf, that might be asking a bit too much. Then again, with Donegal’s opponent this week, Annville-Cleona, one of the prohibitive favorites to challenge for the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Five crown this year, descending upon Mount Joy, the chances of either team being able to run away and hide from the other in blowout fashion were not all that likely to say the very least. So at least that rose the potential of things perhaps.

Sure enough though, somehow, some way, once those same fans who entered hours earlier were then leaving the stadium gates once this game on Friday night had concluded, there was a sense of agreement upon the masses – this was a rare circumstance where the sequel might here have actually been better than the original version.

Then again, drama figured to be just about the very last element this game would contain given the way in which Donegal made an emphatic first impression on the visiting Dutchmen.

 In fact, it took the homestanding Indians, donning their camo colored unis on this, the 25^th anniversary of the September 11^th attacks, all of two offensive plays to score as Chase Marshall flung a pass out near the sideline to a waiting Jacir Johnson before the senior wideout made a man miss and then promptly trotted home to the endzone after free and clear for the 69-yard pitch and catch touchdown, making it a 6-0 Donegal lead a mere 2:24 into the contest.

From there, after history once again repeated itself in the form of the Donegal defensive troops holding Annville-Cleona to nothing more than three plays and a punt, a second Marshall TD toss in as many drives would follow suit, this of the 33-yard variety to tight end Colton Houck, upping the Indians’ cushion to a baker’s dozen following Houck’s PAT as the senior duo had helped the hosts zoom out to a 13-0 advantage with now 5:37 left to play in the opening stanza and the visitors from Lebanon County knocked back on their collective heels.

But it went from bad to worse as far as the Dutchmen contingent were concerned.

This time around, a punt to conclude A-C’s ensuing offensive possession would not be in the cards. Worse off, a fumble on the first play of the series instead, pounced on by Donegal’s Angel Mendez, saw the Indians’ offensive unit trot back onto the field, this time only 22 yards from paydirt.

And if you’re sensing a theme here, yes, this would indeed be another case of the Donegal offense keeping that high clip of efficiency alive and well as a nice mix of Marshall-designed QB runs, along with some untimely Annville-Cleona penalties added on top, eventually helped set up what would be Chase Marshall’s third touchdown pass of the opening quarter as the Donegal signal-caller hooked up with Nysaiah DeJesus for the 10-yard touchdown toss with DeJesus then promptly running in the subsequent two-point conversion attempt to boot, making it a surprising 21-0 Indians’ buffer in this matchup of two-evenly matched teams once the final 1:57 ticked off the first quarter clock following this latest and greatest Donegal scoring punch.

In some ways though, perhaps the final play of the opening frame was a harbinger of things yet to come.

From Annville-Cleona’s perspective, they certainly hoped so considering the Dutchmen had successfully picked up their initial first down of the entire game on said play once the police siren-style buzzer on the first quarter sounded. Finally, after perhaps just even getting a chance to exhale and breathe deep once they were able to extend a drive for the first time up until that point, the Dutchmen began to author one of their signature processions down the field.

First, a successful fourth down conversion via the legs of junior quarterback, John Ditzler, before a later third down conversion allowed the A-C offensive unit to remain on the field following a Donegal horse collar penalty, all of which preceded a wonderfully-executed option pitch from Ditzler to senior back, Devon Englehart, as the pair’s connection on 3^rd & 2 moved the ball down to the Indians’ 5-yard line. For the punctuation mark, those honors would be bestowed upon Englehart as his 2-yard touchdown plunge trimmed the Donegal lead down to a 21-7 difference following a Bennett Putt PAT with 6:52 left in the opening half.

Here though, inside the second quarter, the fortunes of the two squads promptly did an about face.

On the ensuing Donegal offensive drive following A-C’s first score, ironically enough the only time during the entire second quarter in which the Indians would have an offensive series as fate would have it, a quick three-and-out helped lay the groundwork for another potential Dutchmen trek with points in sight.

And a successful venture it would prove to be.

In this drive, namely aided by a pair of successful third down conversions, first via the legs of A-C junior running back, Danny Shay, who plowed his way forward to move the sticks on 3^rd & 2 at the Donegal 43-yard line, later followed up by Ditzler dropping back and finding freshman athlete, Tyler Gingrich, for the 9-yard gainer on a 3^rd & 5 down to the Indians’ 35-yard line, the visitors were rolling downhill. And fast.

So fast in fact that a mere 52 seconds would be left outstanding on the second quarter timer following a 13-yard Devon Englehart touchdown jaunt as Englehart’s second TD run of the quarter was capped off by Bennett Putt’s second PAT as well, trimming the Donegal lead down to a 21-14 difference, and an entirely different wave of momentum and energy suddenly sweeping through the stadium confines.

However, 52 seconds was more than enough time for Leeman Baughman to make a significant imprint on the game’s proceedings. Well, both here and now, but later on as well.

Here, with things beginning to tilt towards Annville-Cleona’s direction, the Donegal senior multipurpose weapon flashed his skills via the kick return game following the A-C score inside of the final minute as Baughman picked up the bounding ball and immediately scooted 70 yards for the kickoff return touchdown which not only helped the Indians’ lead balloon out to a much more comfortable 28-14 margin come the intermission, but it also threw a bucket of cold water on the Dutchmen’s collective psyche as the teams retired to their respective corners for the halftime respite following a fun first half skirmish.

Suffice to say, for as wildly different as the first two quarters had felt with both teams largely taking ownership of one quarter exclusively for themselves without any interest in sharing, the third quarter would be just as wonky in its own kind of way.

13, 9, 21. For those would the Annville-Cleona yard lines in which Donegal would either end or begin drives inside the third frame on Friday night. What’s more impressive though is the fact that the high-flying Indians’ attack found back in the first quarter would be able to net 0 points off any of that very same opportune field position as the Dutchmen defense rose up to each and every challenge, holding Donegal on downs in all three inauspicious scenarios asked of them.

And so, with nearly the entire third quarter of play taking place exclusively inside one quadrant of the field, that same 28-14 Donegal buffer stood in place come the start of the game’s final act. An act that was worth staying for and easily worth the price of admission.

Without much in the way of debate, the Leelan Baughman touchdown trot just prior to the halftime recess figured to always remain an albatross inside the game’s final 24 minutes. Sure enough, look no further than its key difference in the game’s narrative once A-C senior running back, Yama Navarro, dashed his way for a 13-yard touchdown run to make it a 28-21 ballgame with 10:33 remaining, a run which would have knotted things up had the guests not given up that aforementioned Baughman kickoff return.

Then, after once again seeing the Indians’ offense remain stuck in neutral with the hosts going three-and-out on their ensuing offensive series, the Dutchmen went back to work with that actual potential stalemate on their mind.

All told, in a drive that featured all the hallmarks of a prototypical Annville-Cleona drive, leaning on the offensive line with a series of run plays designed to either beat you up mentally and physically by either going up the gut, or expelling even more of your emotion by scheming you up outside and dashing around the ends, the exclamation mark on this eventual 86-yard scoring drive over the course of 3:08 on the game clock came via the air as spectacular play-action call while inside of a terrible situation – 4^th & 17 at the Donegal 20-yard line – resulted in John Ditzler finding a wide open Max Ortwien who had escaped all by his lonesome behind the Indians’ defense, as the pair of A-C hoopers helped knot this game up on the football field at 28-28 with 6:08 remaining.

Some call it a two-minute drive. Some call it a four-minute drive. Whatever version you fancy, rest assured that Donegal wanted this to a six-minute drive upcoming that would allow them to win this game in walk off fashion for the second consecutive week if they had their druthers about it.

Finally, after either being held on downs and/or being relegated to nothing more than three plays and out on every series since halftime, Donegal’s offense at long last showed it’s same flash and sizzle that had taken the game by storm back in the opening stanza.

Sparked by a handful of designed quarterback runs via Chase Marshall that paired quite nicely alongside totes by Nysaiah DeJesus, whatever had recently ailed Donegal offensively became an afterthought, especially once the Indians converted a 3^rd & 4 play at the Annville-Cleona 36-yard line, from Marshall to DeJesus no less, giving the hosts a fresh set of downs and time quickly becoming the foremost factor.

Ironically, just as A-C had down on the drive previous, the shoe was on the other foot in due time as it was then Donegal’s turn to ante up and covert a critical fourth down conversion, this of the 11-yard variety, once Annville-Cleona senior interior lineman, Jaxon Speece, burst through the Indians’ offensive line and devoured the 3^rd & 4 play before it could get started, setting up a 4^th & 11 following Speece’s 7-yard tackle for loss.

And just as ironically, there too was a void left in the middle of the defense in this instance as well considering how Chase Marshall scanned his options on said 4^th & 11 play before taking off and running without much resistance in the immediacy of the moment, allowing the Indians to prolong this drive with the ball now resting at the A-C 20-yard line following Marshall’s scramble with now just a tick over one minute left in regulation.

Exactly seven days prior, a Marshall to Baughman TD toss in the game’s final minute served as the eventual difference-maker. And sure enough, probably almost eerily similar to even the time of day found seven days prior, a Chase Marshall to Leelan Baughman touchdown strike would yet again be the reason in which Donegal would end the game with more points than their opposition by the end of the night.

For this round of dramatics, a wheel route lobbed up from Marshall to Baughman in the back corner of the endzone that fluttered perfectly into Baughman’s waiting mitts from 11 yards out saw the home stands understandably erupt into a tizzy as their team had just found ownership of a 34-28 lead with all of 21 seconds remaining in this wildly dramatic contest.

Needless to say, while maybe labeling it as a “miracle” required of Annville-Cleona to try and extend this game might be a bit of much, the Dutchmen certainly had opportunities left that could only be described as few and far between given the circumstances. One option though – the hook and ladder.

However, while the Dutchmen’s best laid plans would indeed net points, it would be for the other side as Donegal senior lineman, Chase Cornelius, took the pitch that quite literally was thrown directly to him in the fracas of Annville-Cleona trying any last ditch measure of potential heroics, with Cornelius’ fumble recovery for the score on the game’s final play being the capper on a 40-28 Donegal triumph over A-C for the Indians’ second straight heart-stopping win in as many weeks at the office to vault them out to a 3-0 record.

Without much in the way of debate, absent of these three victories to begin the season, two of which came on the Indians’ final offensive play from scrimmage, the Donegal Indians are quickly becoming maybe the foremost darling of the initial stages of Lancaster-Lebanon League football story in 2026. Keep in mind, this is the same program that up until Friday night has not only failed to start a season at 3-0 in over two decades, but this is the same program that just two years ago was forced to forfeit its game against Twin Valley at halftime while down by a 49-0 count due to a lack of adequate bodies able to compete for the remainder of the contest. And while the Indians’ roster size in terms of the actual numbers still won’t make you do a double-take or anything these days, it’s what you can’t see that is making all the difference.

With first-year head coach John Manion steering the Indians’ ship these days, the same coach that turned Lampeter-Strasburg into the perennial powerhouse that it still is after 23 years at the helm of the Pioneers’ program, the size of fight, will, and sheer determination that has been instilled – along with a revamped and updated offensive scheme — is something that cannot adequately be measured when assessing Donegal. Or, perhaps it can, considering how the Indians are now off to the program’s best start since anyone currently playing for it had even been born, and how all their victories thus far have come within one possession games.

On the other side, for Annville-Cleona, a 1-2 start was most certainly not on the preseason plans for Matt Gingrich’s squad coming into the year. That said, with a new lease on life upcoming in the form of section play, which will start next week in earnest with Lancaster Catholic traveling north to tangle with these same Dutchmen, A-C nonetheless remains a key cog in that divisional discussion. With highly-talented skill position guys the likes of which are paired nicely with big bodies up front in the trenches that quite frankly most any team in any section would love to have at their disposal, there’s no reason not to believe that even despite this somewhat slow start, magnified perhaps by the way in which A-C saw its record morph into 1-2 by the end of the Friday night as opposed to what could have been 2-1,  these same Dutchmen can rightfully stake their claim as one of the L-L’s five best programs come seasons’ end — by calling itself a section champion.

Jordan Bowers goes up for an interception against Northern Lebanon on Friday (photo by Robbie McGrath)

MINERSVILLE — A valiant comeback attempt by Minersville was unsuccessful as they fell to Northern Lebanon on Friday night at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium 25-20.

Both teams were forced to punt on their first possessions.

It took 11 minutes for the first points to be scored as Derenzo ran one yard into the end zone for a Miners score. Jordan Bowers followed with the extra point to make it a 7-0 game.

Less than a minute into the next frame, John Lutsky had the first of two interceptions for the Miners defense. On that drive, they were stopped on fourth and one as Lutsky’s run was not enough to move the chains.

When the Vikings got the ball back, they scored thanks to freshman Markus Miller connecting with Landon Copenhaver for a 29-yard touchdown. Aaron Wanyo’s extra point was good to make the game tied at seven.

Following a Minersville punt, Northern Lebanon was driving downfield when Bowers leaped up and caught the second interception for the Miners, this one in the back of the end zone.

On the first play out of the locker room, Brady Miller started his rushing show by going 75 yards to the house for the Vikings. However, the extra point attempt was blocked by Lutsky to keep the score at 13-7.

Switching to the defense for the Vikings, they blocked a Battlin’ Miners field goal, but nothing good happened from there on the following drive. Northern Lebanon was forced to punt.

Minersville gave the ball back to the Vikings and Ryan broke off for another big run, this one for 77 yards, but the extra point was no good.

Their defense had another clutch moment, corralling Derenzo 18 yards in the backfield for a fourth down sack. Ryan did not stop scoring following that as he took a 28-yard catch to the end zone for his third score of the evening. The two-point pass attempt was no good to keep the score at 25-7.

Following a turnover on downs by the Minersville offense, they recovered a fumble with around six minutes left to kickoff the fourth quarter of fun.

31 seconds after they took possession back, Derenzo found Camden Rogers on a 20-yard pass for his first career touchdown, but the run on the two-point conversion failed.

Bowers recovered his own onside kick immediately following the score to keep the ball with Minersville with around five and a half minutes left in the contest.

With 4:36 remaining on the clock, Derenzo rushed for a 12-yard score and Bowers converted the extra point to make it a 25-20 game.

Northern Lebanon was forced to punt, however the Miners came up empty on fourth and six with around a minute and a half left as Derenzo’s pass was tipped by the Vikings defense and fell incomplete.

Looking ahead to Week Four, the Battlin’ Miners travel to Marian Catholic who fell 12-10 to Tamaqua in a renewed rivalry contest. Northern Lebanon goes to Wyomissing for their contest next week.

Game Summary

Northern Lebanon 25, Minersville 20

Min — Derenzo 1 run (Bowers kick)

NL — Copenhaver 29 pass from Miller (Wanyo kick)

NL — Ryan 75 run (kick failed)

NL — Ryan 77 run (kick failed)

NL — Ryan 28 pass from Miller (2-point conv. failed)

Min — Rogers 20 pass from Derenzo (2-point conv. failed)

Min — Derenzo 12 run (Bowers kick)

Team Statistics

NL-Min

First Downs —- 16      16

Rushes-Yards — 26-289      35-166

Passes —- 10-15-2      10-27-0

Passing Yards —- 143      77

Total Yards —- 432      243

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: Northern Lebanon — Ryan 21-258, Spencer 5-31. Minersville — Derenzo 17-70, Lutsky 15-89, Ballard 2-5, Sims 1-2.

PASSING: Northern Lebanon — Miller 10-15-2, 143. Minersville — Derenzo 10-27-0, 77.

RECEIVING: Northern Lebanon — Ryan 4-53, Copenhaver 3-44, Hilton 1-20, Bush 1-5, Clemmer 1-0. Minersville — Bowers 3-29, Rogers 3-20, Cutler 3-8, Lutsky 1-18.

INTERCEPTIONS: Minersville — Lutsky, Bowers.

At first glance, there’s a lot that these schools have in common. For starters, they even share a border with one another as their two campuses sit about five miles and change apart. Beyond that, these are two of the quote, unquote “larger” public schools that Lancaster County has in its portfolio with one being a 6A-classed outfit, with the other being towards the higher end of the 5A rank and file number situation.

However, in terms of their most recent history comparatively speaking, for as much as both Conestoga Valley and McCaskey may seem to have in common with each other, if the topic shifts to varsity football, that five-mile distance on the map between them might as well be five galaxies.

For Conestoga Valley, while it’d be hard to truly define these last couple of seasons as the Buckskins’ golden age per se– after all, this is the same program that made it to a state championship in 1991 that also had its annual matchup with Manheim Central in the 90’s become something akin to that of a religious experience for anyone so fortunate to attend one of those legendary Buckskins versus Barons battle royales–these Buckskins of late under the direction of head man Jon Scepanski ain’t that far behind.

Back-to-back 10-0 regular seasons? Check that off. Back-to-back section championships? While inherently implied considering two perfect regular season campaigns, check those boxes off as well in CV’s favor. In fact, there has only been one obstacle standing exclusively in the Bucks’ pathway the last two years, the Exeter Eagles, with the group from Berks County being the ones to upend Conestoga Valley in the pair’s playoff meeting after having lost to CV in the section title game just a couple of weeks prior ironically enough. And truth be told, but the Buckskins have been so prolific in totality that they just so happened to come into this weekend as the proud owners of a 23-game regular season winning streak, albeit it one that required a bit of good fortune in the form of a last-minute touchdown to prevail against Dover in Week 1 to continue onward into this Labor Day weekend.

On the side, for the McCaskey Red Tornado, it’s admittedly been a bit of an arduous climb these past couple of seasons.

The bad news? McCaskey came into this game on Friday night at nearby Conestoga Valley almost on an entirely different flight path compared to their opposition given the city’s flagship public high school entering with an 18-game losing streak. The good news? The school tabbed one of the best and brightest minds (literally) around in head coach turned multiple-time author and historian, Dr. Todd Mealy, to lead the squad prior to the 2025 campaign with Mealy’s resume in leading high school football squads at stops along the way at Penn Manor and Lancaster Catholic being considered nothing but successful ventures while in charge.

The other bit of good news you ask? While yes, McCaskey did drop their opener last week to Columbia, this is still Week 2 of the season we’re in here. This still being a time where optimism should still be pulsating inside of each team’s camp in spades.

And hey, what better way to demonstrate that things are indeed improving and in the process of turning themselves around than by authoring what would arguably be one of the biggest wins for this proud program in more than a decade should they able to topple one of the hottest outfits around, these same CV Buckskins from just up the road.

Truthfully, the best and most accurate forecast of how this one figured to play itself out was largely written within the game’s first handful of plays.

Case in point, once CV senior trigger man, Camryn Bair, one of the Lancaster Lebanon League’s best multisport athletes, called his own number on a quarterback draw to move the chains on CV’s opening possession on a 3^rd & 1 play to push the hosts’ attack near the midfield stripe, Bair then used his trusty right arm on the ensuing play from scrimmage before connecting with fellow senior, Jayden Conaway, as the pair of Buckskins’ hoopers come the winter time ushered the CV surge down to Tornado 15-yard line in earnest following their fruitful 40-yard pitch and catch. From there, after Jaziah Ramos jolted for a 10-yard gainer from his tailback spot to put the Buckskins on the precipice of kicking the door in, Bair did the honors by finishing what he himself had largely started as his 5-yard TD run up the gut made it a 7-0 Conestoga Valley lead following a Mason Andrews PAT with 9:36 still left to play in the opening frame.

Then, after holding the visitors from Lancaster city to nothing more than a three-and-out on the Tornado’s opening series of the contest, the hosts’ offensive troops promptly went right back to work.

In the drive previous, while Conaway had flashed his skill set as a back coming out of the backfield with receiver-like qualities, his true bread and butter, toting the rock, couldn’t have been more demonstrable than by his relentless, refusing to go down, 15-yard scamper with Tornado players draped around him like a cape, which had suddenly put CV right back on the doorstep of tallying another score in relatively short order. Fittingly, it would be Conaway crowning himself here as his 4-yard touchdown plunge quickly upped the Buckskins’ cushion out to a 14-0 difference with 6:56 remaining in the first period still.

Needless to say, while the dam hadn’t yet burst and totally flooded McCaskey’s fortunes by this point, it was equally fair to say that it was getting late early for the Tornado. Fortunately, they began scripting a promising attack down the field the next time they possessed the football.

The key cog within the McCaskey series? Amauri Paula most certainly as the Tornado junior multipurpose back hauled three key receptions on the drive, two of which came on third and fourth downs respectively to prolong things, with the white and gray clad guests suddenly flirting with entering the CV redzone following Paula’s third snag of the bunch.

Well, that was until Talon Young-Bennett decided to insert himself into the mix, however.

There, after seeing he and his fellow defensive mates surrender precious chunks of real estate to McCaskey over the course of the previous plays, the Buckskins’ senior lineman rose up and pounced on the loose pill following an untimely Tornado fumble, successfully thwarting the Tornado’s most promising journey yet to date.

Then, like a finely tuned machine, the Conestoga Valley offense continued to purr.

Sure enough, on the very first play of the second stanza no less, would CV find paydirt once again as Camryn Bair notched his second TD jaunt of the evening, this of the 13-yard variety, as the Bucks appeared well on their way towards putting this game away and on ice considering the 21-0 difference up on the scoreboard with 11:53 left in the opening half following Mason Andrews’ third consecutive PAT.

And while CV would surprisingly be forced to punt it away their next time with it following this most recent score, they simply made up for lost time when talking about their fifth offensive drive of the opening half as fate would have it.

For the specifics here, the key elements remained largely the same. Bair using his wheels to evade pressure and find the escape hatch – twice — from inside the confines of the pocket as a pair of Bair strolls had ushered the Buckskins down to the McCaskey 19-yard line. Turns out, 19 yards is all that was required before crossing the chalk for the fourth time in the opening half as the potent Bair to Conaway tandem provided dividends once more following this TD toss as Bair and Conaway found themselves as the owners of 24 of Conestoga Valley’s 28 first half points when accounting for the four offered via Mason Andrews by way of PATs, with the junior kicker’s most recent in the assortment making it a 28-0 affair, the same margin that remained once the final 4:10 bled off of the first half clock with the Buckskins comfortably out front and in command come intermission.

Even still, while the halftime deficit staring right back at McCaskey might’ve seemed like this was a hill far too steep to even try and climb upward from, the Tornado’s wherewithal and grit coming out of the dressing room to begin the second half appeared to be anything but fragile and shaken.

 In fact, the Tornado took all of two plays to cross the midfield stripe inside the game’s third act courtesy of a pair of runs tallied by senior Jahsier Reeves and sophomore Wesley Ray respectively, as the pair’s 11-yard and 10-yard chunks put the ball on the CV 45. Then, the latter of two, Ray, who demonstrated his ability to both willingly meet would-be tacklers in the hole while also choosing to evade them if the opportunity presented itself consistently throughout Friday night’s affair, proceeded to rattle off a signature, cut-back against the grain type of highlight run that certainly would’ve made the season cut-up reel. Unfortunately, for both he and his teammates, a holding call would make that all showmanship for naught.

Then, it went from bad to worse.

Cruelly, certainly from a McCaskey backer’s perspective most of all, as if the negation of Ray’s TD jaunt wasn’t enough salt in the open wound, how about witnessing the ensuing play, a trick play which featured a pass thrown from receiver, Michael Mellinger, that was hauled in by fellow wideout, Robert Anderson, moving the ball down to the Buckskins’ 3-yard line, end in immediate heartbreak as a fumble recovery courtesy of CV’s Perry Boyd on the very next play promptly ended this McCaskey attack with absolutely nothing to show for it in the aftermath of the junior DB’s takeaway.

Turns out, not in that brief stoppage in the action called halftime did all that much to stymie what the Conestoga Valley starters had cooking on Friday night.

How’s 97 yards sound? Well, even that too might’ve been labeled as child’s play to this group of Buckskins considering that’s precisely how far the home team marched themselves down the field following the Tornado fumble, a drive that was capped off by Camryn Bair’s fourth touchdown of the contest, his second through the air, as his 6-yard touchdown pass to fellow senior classmate, Anthony Rodriguez, invoked the mercy rule given the 35-0 score that CV carried with them into the final frame once the final 2:13 ticked off the third quarter timer.

Then, come the onset of the fourth quarter, McCaskey was able to reap some tangible benefits to their night’s worth of work.

Chief among them, a 2-yard TD run standing up courtesy of junior fullback, Brusavion Baisch, which got McCaskey on the scoreboard, 35-7, with 10:42 remaining, albeit in a running clock situation.

Then, after seeing a second TD run of his go up in smoke following yet another holding call being tagged against his side, Wesley Ray finally got his much-deserved touchdown for good in the form of a 3-yard TD run on the ensuing McCaskey series, now making it a 35-14 CV lead with 4:14 left to play.

And while that same 35-14 score would become the eventual final tally emblazoned up on the scoreboard once the clock hit triple zeroes just a few minutes later, the end result and overall narrative coming out of this game was that two things really can be true at once.

Firstly, any signs of a potential Conestoga Valley fall from grace desired by their adversaries looks something if not totally premature at this stage, but perhaps outright incorrect entirely as these Buckskins look like they will yet again be one of the loudest voices in saying who makes off with the L-L Section Two title this season.

Secondly, while it might be easy to scoff and jeer at McCaskey’s losing streak sitting right on the verge on hitting 20 consecutive games, it’s easy to see from even the most naked of eyes that this program is on the right trajectory and improving right there in plain sight.

So yes, sometimes historical trends can be bucked. And McCaskey seems poised to do that in due time. But for the here and now, at least when talking about these two clubs, altering their recent historical trends will be a task best saved for a date in the future. For Conestoga Valley, that’s quite alright with them.

Now Murray is returning the favor as Ilgenfritz, a sophomore quarterback, enters the varsity stage.

In his second varsity start Friday against reigning District 1 champion North Penn, Ilgenfritz completed 16-of-21 passes for 231 yards and six touchdowns in a 42-33 victory. Five of those touchdown tosses went to Murray, who has emerged as his top target early in the season. Murray finished with seven catches, 113 yards and five touchdowns on the night.

“We have an amazing connection,” Murray told EasternPaFootball. “When I came here, he was the one who really helped me get into the school because last year was my first year. I’ve had a good connection with him since last year when we were both younger and he really helped me get into the program.”

Ilgenfritz, who already holds Power 5 offers from Maryland, Virginia Tech, Rutgers and Syracuse, had a rough start to his first game as QB1 last week against State College, opening with a three-and-out and an interception on the team’s first two drives.

He rallied to finish 18-of-29 for 228 yards and three total touchdowns, including two touchdown tosses to Murray, in a 35-28 season opening loss. The strong finish continued into Friday’s game against North Penn (1-1).

Central York (1-1) jumped on North Penn early, taking a 14-0 lead by the 7:24 mark of the first quarter. Ilgenfritz tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass to junior Deuce Johnson Jr. on the Panthers’ first drive. After a Hunter Fogle interception gave Central York good field position, Ilgenfritz tossed a 37-yard TD strike to Murray.

“(The interception against State College) kind of calmed me down a little bit,” Ilgenfritz said. “During the second half against State College, I started tearing it up a little bit. … Week 2 I just came out firing. Two passing touchdowns in a row, and it just went on from there.”

It wasn’t just the Central York passing game moving the ball up and down the field. The Panthers combined for 431 yards offense, also rushing for 200 yards.

Senior running back Legend Johnson, coming off a junior campaign with 1,300 yards and 22 touchdowns, carried the ball 27 times for 182 yards behind senior Hayden “Tank” Quinn and juniors Kadin Noor, AJ Baker, Amarion Mitchell and Demetri Shelley up front. Noor is the only returning starter on the line from last season’s 11-2 District 3 runner-up squad.

“What Legend does is amazing,” Murray said. “He’s a hard runner. He forces teams to put people in the box and open up the passing game for us. Teams have to go man-to-man because they have to put people in the box. They have to go one high because they have to put people in the box.”

“Our o-line stepped up tonight really well,” Central York coach Gerry Yonchiuk said.

North Penn senior Rylei Gray ran 18 times for 100 yards and a touchdown and added two receiving scores. Knights’ junior Ziyon Smith hauled in three catches for 106 yards and two total touchdowns. They helped North Penn even the score after it looked like an early Central York rout.

Gray caught a four-yard touchdown pass from senior London Evans on 4th-and-goal to cap a 13-play, 65-yard scoring drive with 51 seconds left in the first. After the Knights’ defense forced a three-and-out, Smith took a punt return 61 yards to even the score 14-14 on the final play of the first quarter. Murray and Igenfritz connected on a four-yard touchdown toss and Gray ran in a 15-yard score early in the second quarter to send the teams into half tied 21-21.

The night started to look like a truly special one for Igenfritz and Murray on Central York’s first second-half possession. Their third touchdown connection — a 40-yard bomb after Murray beat his defender with a double move — gave the Panthers a 28-21 lead with 7:35 left in the third, and they never gave it up again, scoring on their first three second half possessions.

Murray went up and hauled in a 20-yard touchdown toss from Ilgenfritz with 2:53 left in the third, then caught a 13-yard touchdown pass at the 9:40 mark in the fourth to make it 21 unanswered points for Central York and give the Panthers a 42-21 lead.

“It started in the summer, when I saw it every day at the field,” Ilgenfritz said of his connection with Murray. “Just working on his routes, working on my placement of the ball and timing, and we just connected from there.”

Quarterback Brooklyn Nace (2,793 yards, 36 TDs, 2 INT), now at Old Dominion, and wide receiver Brendyn Smith (1,202 yards, 22 TDs), now at Kent State, left some big shoes to fill in the Panthers’ passing game.

After catching 43 passes for 721 yards and seven touchdowns last season, Murray is up to 13 catches, 239 yards and seven touchdowns through two weeks of his junior campaign. Ilgenfritz, who came into the season with 21 career varsity passing attempts, has completed 67 percent of his passes (34-of-51) for 459 yards and eight touchdowns with just one interception.

“It’s very impressive,” Murray said of Ilgenfritz. “I know how good of a QB he is, how good of a player he is, and I know he can do that every week if he really wants to.”

Central York gave up 184 yards of offense in the first half, including 101 yards rushing. The Panthers’ defense found itself at the start of the second half, holding the Knights to just 17 yards on their first three second-half possessions.

Smith saved what looked to be another three-and-out when he took a swing pass on fourth-down 75 yards to the house with 7:05 left in the game. The Knights got the ball back down 15 with 2:23 to play. They went 76 yards in four plays, getting into the end zone on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Evans to Gray, but a failed two-point conversion kept it a two-possession game with 1:10 to go.

Evans completed 11-of-19 passes for 217 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Senior William Rittenhouse caught four passes for 86 yards.

“We have some young guys, so there were some big pass plays, but if we’re evenly matched up in the interior parts then I really like what (defensive coordinator Mike Cessarano) does and how we shut down the run,” Yonchiuk said. “If he doesn’t make those stops, I don’t know if we win.”

Central York 14 7 14 7-42
North Penn 14 7 0 12-33
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
CY: Deuce Johnson 24 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 9:54
CY: Demarcus Murray 37 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 7:24
NP: Rylei Gray 4 pass from London Evans (kick), 0:51
NP: Ziyon Smith 61 punt return (kick), 0:00
Second Quarter
CY: Demarcus Murray 3 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 8:40
NP: Rylei Gray 15 run (kick), 3:51
Third Quarter
CY: Demarcus Murray 40 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 7:35
CY: Demarcus Murray 20 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 2:35
Fourth Quarter
CY: Demarcus Murray 13 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick),9:40
NP: Ziyon Smith 75 pass from London Evans (kick miss), 7:05
NP: Rylei Gray 15 pass from London Evans (pass fail), 1:10

Team Statistics
……………… …CY………………..NP
1st downs………..21…………………16
rush-yds……….32-200……………31-143
comp-att-int….16-21-0…………..11-20-2
pass yds……….231………………217
total yds…………431……………….360
fumb-lost……..0-0………………3-0
pen-yds…………7-77…………..3-20

Individual Statistics
Rushing:
Central York: Legend Johnson 27-182; Jamin Ilgenfritz 5-18.
North Penn: Rylei Gray 18-100, TD; Ziyon Smith 6-19; London Evans 4-18; Jake Weidenmiller 3-6.

Passing:
Central York: Jamin Ilgenfritz 16-21, 231 yards, 6 TDs.
North Penn: London Evans 11-19, 217 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs.

Receiving:
Central York: Demarcus Murray 7-113, 5 TDs; Deuce Johnson Jr. 6-64, TD; Savien Venable 1-36; Ben Zeigler 2-18.
North Penn: Ziyon Smith 3-106, TD; William Rittenhouse 4-86; Rylei Gray 3-19, 2 TDs; Duke Horgan 1-6.