October 19-20

The Thursday night rain continued overnight into Friday morning, there were periods where it was torrential. I had a haircut appointment in the afternoon, from there I planned to spend the evening at home since both McCaskey and LCHS were on the road and more rain was in the forecast. On the Internet in the evening there were reports of a tornado in Maryland, rain started to fall in Lancaster. Later on Marty called, he was at JPM's game at Cedar Crest. It was raining there as well, the game had gone into a rain and lightning delay and was ultimately postponed to Saturday. I called Jenny around 10:00 or so, when there was no answer I figured she probably went to bed early. She called me on Saturday morning, they had a power outage in Quarryville from 8:00 Friday night until Saturday morning at 5:00. The tornado had tracked northward into her area, there were trees and power lines down and reports of building damage. After lunch we took a short trip to her sister's house, there were several trees down in her back yard but luckily everyone was OK. In the afternoon I joined Marty and Dick Myers as they made the return trip to Lebanon County, the game was picked up in progress at 7:00 (they had played fewer than three minutes on Friday before the storm hit). I've been to Cedar Crest many times for football but not for about five or six years, every time we go there it either rains or gets cold as hell. No rain on this night but temperatures were in the 40s by the time the game ended. The Red Tornado led 35-21 in the fourth quarter before CC rallied late to tie it and force overtime. In OT JPM scored on the first possession to take a seven-point lead before Crest replied on its possession to pull within one point. CC gambled on a two-point conversion for the win but the attempt went awry as JPM held on for a 42-41 triumph. Aaron Swinton scored four touchdowns (including the game-winner), Diante Cherry also found the end zone twice as Connor Zahm went six-for-six on extra points. The win evens the club's record at 4-4 and keeps them in the hunt for a district playoff berth. The boys will play at Manheim Township on the 26th before wrapping up the regular season at home on November 2nd. Take care, thanks for reading.