Legends Look to Stay Kings of Class AA by Avenging Orchard Park Loss

When Eric Rupp took over as head coach of the Lancaster Legends in 2016, he would have thought you were nuts if you told him by 2019, he’d be heading to his fourth straight Class AA title game as three-time defending champions.

The reality is, that’s exactly what has happened.

The Legends will seek their fourth championship in as many years and sixth in school history when they face off with Orchard Park at 8 p.m. on Nov. 8 at New Era Field in the Section VI Class AA title game.

“It’s all really happened so fast, but if you would have told me I’d be playing in four sectional championships my first four years as head coach, I probably would’ve said you were crazy,” Rupp said. “I can’t say enough about the kids. Yeah, we’ve had some talented kids, but we’ve also had some high character kids who work really hard.”

After finishing the season 5-2 and 4-2 in league play, Lancaster ended up with the short end of the stick in a three-way tiebreaker scenario and had to settle for the No. 5 seed and no home playoff games.

Despite having to play on the road, the Legends managed to pull out victories against No. 4 Clarence (23-17) in the quarterfinals and No. 1 Jamestown (28-7) in the semifinals.

Needless to say, being the underdog has this team as motivated as ever.

“I actually love being the underdog. The past three years, I still think we were the underdog no matter what,” Lancaster quarterback Jason Mansell said. “Everybody was doubting us, especially this year coming out as the five seed, but there’s always a reason for everything.”

Mansell has been phenomenal leading the Legends offense, which is averaging just over 34 points per game. He has thrown for 1,534 yards, 20 touchdowns and only two interceptions on the year.

Those two interceptions, however, came in their 21-20 loss to their championship game opponent, Orchard Park. After leading 20-7 at halftime, the Quakers scored 14 straight points to knock off the Legends on Oct. 11.

“Turning the ball over, that’s how you lose games,” Mansell said on the importance of ball security. “With both my interceptions coming against Orchard Park, you saw what happened … [preventing] turnovers is a very big thing for us, we stress that.”

On the other side of the ball, having allowed an average of 13.7 points per game this season, the stout Legends defense is ready for the challenge the Quakers present.

“It all starts up front from our d-line, they’re the ones who fill up the holes and let us linebackers make those tackles,” Legends linebacker and leading tackler Conor Mahony said. “We’ve got to cause more turnovers than them. They won the turnover battle last time, and that’s why they won.”

With game day slowly approaching, the Legends know what they need to do in order to get revenge on Orchard Park, and most importantly, bring home yet another Class AA crown.

“I think this time of year, it really comes down to fundamentals,” Rupp said. “We have to block well up front, and we need to tackle well on defense and win the turnover battle.”