Just flew back from Manheim Central’s scrimmage against Becahi in Manheim, and man, are my arms killing me.

That will be my final attempt at humor – in this post, at least.

Bethlehem Catholic made the trip to Manheim on Thursday evening – in a shiny chartered bus, no less — to scrimmage the Barons, and I have to tell you … Central looked really, really good gang.

During the controlled scrimmage, the Barons scored two touchdowns – both on TD grabs by bullish running back Dakota Royer, one thrown by senior Jeremy Knosp, the second by junior Justin Gorman.

Both came on perfectly executed wheel routes by Royer, who snuck out of the backfield on both occasions and got open down the field. Knosp and Gorman – who split the duties all evening – both threw perfect passes.

Then it was on to the timed, two-quarter scrimmage, and once again, Central did some serious damage through the air.

Knosp, who missed a good chunk of last season because of injury, tossed a TD to up-and-coming sophomore Derek Hart – who hauled in a sweet feed on a fade pattern — Gorman threw a TD pass to Royer, who was everywhere; and senior LB Alex Shenk picked off a pass and returned it for a score as Central won the two quarters 21-7.

Royer and senior LB Travis Ebersole also played well defensively, and Central’s o-line was tough. Royer chased Becahi’s quarterback unmercifully – and made a nice bat-down of a pass – and Ebersole had a pair of bone-crunching hits, including a key block to spring Shenk on his interception and ensuing return for a score.

I thought Central looked a heckuva lot more organized than a year ago, when the Barons were all over the charts in a 6-4 regular season, before falling to Red Land in the first round of the District 3 Triple-A playoffs for an ultra rare 6-5 campaign.

I know it was just a scrimmage. But in live game action, with the clock rolling, a chain gang hauling first-down markers and officials throwing flags, Central was all business – which is probably the last thing everyone else in Section 2 wanted to hear, right? Hey, I call it like I see it. And from what I saw, Central looked pretty darn good.

Up next for the Barons is the season opener, next Friday at home against Susquehannock, which has been in Districts the last two years in a row. After that is the mother of all back-to-back non-league games, with a Week 2 trip to Section 1 favorite Wilson, followed by a home date against Section 3 favorite Lancaster Catholic. How great are those two weeks going to be, by the way?

Yeah, I’ll probably have the hype machine cranked up to 11 for those two games.

Central’s Section 2 opener in Week 4 is at Cocalico, followed by a rematch against Solanco, which knocked off the Barons for the first time since 1991 last season.

That’s a heck of a five-week gauntlet. Central coach Mike Williams said it just might be one of the toughest five-week gauntlets to open the season in the state. Tough to argue with him.

But if Central plays like it did against Becahi, I like the Barons’ chances. This team looks absolutely nothing like it did in stretches last season. And for Central, that’s a very good thing. For everyone else, it could be a very scary thing.