SHENANDOAH - Only the strong shall survive.

In this case, one of the smallest players on the basketball floor may have been the strongest of all.Noah Stauffer, all of 5-foot-7 inches of him, did it once more for Marian.Earlier this week, Stauffer poured in a huge basket late in the game to help the Colts to a sensational come-from-behind win over Jim Thorpe.Friday night, the gutty guard, who was called a warrior by his head coach John Patton, did it again.With the Colts trailing Shenandoah by a point and just over a minute remaining, Stauffer sank a runner that lifted the Colts to a lead that they wouldn't relinquish en route to a thrilling 56-51 victory.The win gave the Colts (17-2, 11-0) their first Schuylkill Boys' Basketball League Division III championship since 2010."Noah Stauffer is a warrior. He did everything we asked him to do," said Patton. "Everybody did a great job ... Ryan Karchner, Jarod Paisley, and Anthony Collevechio's defense was unbelievable."Shenandoah (12-3, 8-3) has two of the league's best players in Joel Santana and Isiah McNeil and they lived up to their hype as Santana poured in 23 pointswhile McNeil hammered in 16. But the Colts shut down the other players as Shenandoah managed just 12 points from seven others who had playing time."They did a great job of defending us," said Shenandoah coach Robbie Miller. "We were forced into a lot of turnovers at critical times and they capitalized. They're kids kept getting loose balls and kept hustling to get those loose balls."The tall and short of it came down to foul shooting. Marian sank 20 of 27 tries while the three-point reliant Blue Devils were just 2-for-3."I told the team if you look at the Lehighton Times News you will see that we have three of the top foul shooters and that's how you win games," said Patton.The Blue Devils looked to be in charge as they opened up a 49-43 lead at the outset of the fourth quarter.But the Colts turned up the defense and fought back. When Brandon Mohammad sank two huge free throws with 1:24 to play, the Colts pulled to within 51-50.That set the stage for "Noah's Express" as Stauffer's sank his runner to put the Colts ahead and pointed toward a division championship."I thought we had everything in our favor going tonight," said Miller. "It was our senior night, and Marian had kids who were hurting and sick. But they fought through the adversity."John (Patton) and his kids deserved the win."TOP COLTS ... Paisley led Marian with 16 points and Karchner had 15. Brandon Mohammad, the Colts' top scorer, had a quiet night with just eight points while ailing freshman Tyler Fritz (flu) also added seven.CROWD PLEASERS: A large crowd was on hand as the game had the feel of a championship game.MARIANPaisley 4-7-11-16, Karchner 5-5-7-15, Mohammad 3-2-2-8, Fritz 1-4-5-7, Stauffer 2-2-2-6, Collevechio 1-0-0-2, Mummey 1-0-0-2, Poluck 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-20-27-56.SHENANDOAH VALLEYSantana 9-0-0-23, McNeil 6-0-0-16, Uholick 1-0-0-3, Alvarez 1-1-1-3, Rasiner 1-0-0-2, Shenoster 0-1-2-1, Creasey 0-0-0-0-0, Allegretta 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-2-3-51.Marian 14 17 12 13 - 56Shenandoah 18 13 14 6 - 51Three-pointers: Marian - Paisley 1, Fritz 1; Shenandoah Valley - Santana 4, McNeil 4, Uholick 1.