November 17-18

The rain was gone by daybreak on Thursday, it turned chilly and windy in the morning. Had my usual Thursday lunch with Jenny at the pizza parlor, in the evening we were at the rink for the start of each division's Finals. The East game got the night started at 6:30, it took an hour and ten minutes to play it (thirty minutes of actual play and forty minutes of whining about every call). The West game was much more sensible, no less intense but with a different mindset. As a rule the teams in that division come to play the game, some of the East boys are just there to bitch about every little thing. With it all we were done by 8:45 or so, with a sharp wind and temperatures in the low 40s it was a good time to call it a night. On Friday it was another football night at Rossmere as the Crusaders of Lancaster Catholic hosted Trinity (from suburban Harrisburg) in a district semifinal. The teams met back on September 2, on that night LCHS prevailed in overtime. Many were predicting a similar contest this time around but it was not to be as the Crusaders took control early and won in resounding fashion 60-7. It was 39-7 at the half, the mercy rule was invoked midway through the third quarter. LCHS scored seven rushing touchdowns, three by Roman Clay and two each by Brandon Hollister and Carmelo Cruz. Andrew Dzurik passed for two touchdowns, one to Cruz and the other to Charles Sweigart. Amid predictions of a tight game (and perhaps an LCHS loss) nobody could have expected it to be so utterly one-sided especially when Trinity was the defending district champion. For the Crusaders the victory means a trip to Hershey on the 25th for the district championship game and a shot at a berth in the state playoffs. Take care, thanks for reading.