Manheim has district football championships. That’s just the way it is.


Manheim Central’s Barons won the District 3 Class AAA title for the 15th time in 17 seasons Friday by handling Muhlenberg 48-21 in a ... .


Yada, yada, yada.


Just because it’s getting monotonous to us doesn’t mean it is to them.


“To hear our fans screaming for us is the greatest feeling in the world,’’ Nate Mast of the Barons said after the game. “I don’t think winning can ever get old.’’


Mast and his mates are just passing through, of course, writing their volume of an epic story.


Head coach Mike Williams has seen them all, had a hand on all 15 district trophies in Central’s overloaded case. He knows that kind of hardware has more than one kind of value.


“For us, this was no big deal,’’ Williams said. “I wasn’t coming over here in the bus worried about what our attitude was or anything.


“Our kids look at that trophy case, and they want to live up to it. It’s something’s that’s developed over time that we have on our side now.’’


Things the Barons don’t seem to have on their side now are excessive size, speed or strength.


You’ve heard about speed and size issues before. But somehow the Barons have managed to push people around. This year, not so much. Central has somehow won 12 straight, none of them close, without generally dominating the line of scrimmage.


You’re, uh, not supposed to be able to do that, but for some reason the football rules that apply to the rest of Earth get suspended at the Manheim borough limits.


“People can play with us,’’ Williams acknowledged. “They can physically match up with us.


“It’s certainly an issue.’’


If you count kick returns, Muhlenberg gained well over 400 yards Friday, and had 14 first downs.


With the opening kickoff, the Muhls put together a 16-play, 84-yard, eight-minute-plus touchdown drive.


So it’s an issue. Just not a big issue.


Central’s first play-call was mid-line option, a play that comes right after the table of contents in the Baron playbook.


On it, quarterback Brandon Miller’s read is simple: If the strong-side defensive tackle pushes outside, Miller hands it to the fullback. If the tackle pushes inside, Miller keeps it.


Muhlenberg’s tackles pushed inside until they were blue (or red) in the face.


On that first play, Miller went 44 yards. For the game he ran for 191, almost all of them on the mid-line option with one exception.


Muhlenberg tweaked its defensive front at halftime to combat the mid-line option. The Central coaches figured they’d do that, and so called for a variation, a veer-option, on the first snap of the second half.


And Miller went 69 yards for a touchdown.


“Give the guys upstairs credit for that,’’ Williams said, meaning his assistants in the press box, not the almighty.


Here’s another perennially interesting/inexplicable thing about Central: When the gods give Williams a quarterback from Central Casting, he turns him into Jeff Smoker or Matt Nagy and rides him for two or three years.


When they don’t, Williams annually takes a tough, smart kid with relatively normal dimensions and gifts and turns him into, well, Miller.


Miller ran 17 times for 191 Friday. He threw nine times, completing eight, all dangerous (to the opponent), defense-stretching throws downfield, for 132 yards.


That’s just over 11 yards per run, and over 14 yards per pass. And no turnovers.


You could say the kid’s optimizing his chance.


So the Barons are again two wins from a state title. Next up is Pottsville here Friday.


Pottsville is supposedly big and physical. It is 12-1, but the loss is to ...


Muhlenberg.


“Everyone knows what our goals are,’’ Miller said.


Meaning a state championship?


“Well,’’ Miller smiled, “districts and states.’’


Yada, yada, yada.


Mike Gross is a Sunday News sports writer. E-mail him at mgross@lnpnews.com.