September 9

The unusually warm weather was out in force on Friday, in the evening I was at the sauna bath known as the press box at Rossmere Stadium. When the high school football schedule was released I noted three occasions when Lancaster Catholic played at home on the same night as McCaskey. In August the Royals announced an exhibition game on another night when LCHS is at home so on this night I was making both my season debut and exit at Rossmere Stadium. The Crusaders hosted Waynesboro in a non-league game, Waynesboro is about 75 miles west-southwest of Lancaster and only about two miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line. I remember going there for a basketball game with JPM back in 1993 and it was a brutally long trip, we never went back and nobody ever complained about it. The intense heat was allowed for by the officiating crew, on several changes of possession the teams were permitted extra time to re-hydrate on the sidelines. I had a wet towel around my neck for some comfort but it didn't help much, I spent as much time wiping my face as I did calling the game. When I work football I watch the game through my binoculars but this night was difficult because the heat was causing both the binoculars and the lenses of my eyeglasses to fog up, I managed to muddle through but it wasn't easy. Waynesboro scored an early TD but the Crusaders evened it on a touchdown pass from QB Brian Downey to wideout Andrew Miklos. In the second quarter Waynesboro went up 14-7 but just before halftime Downy found tight end Ricky Poillon in the end zone to tie the score. In the third quarter LCHS put ten points on the board, a field goal by Connor Engle was followed by another Downey/Mikos TD connection. Waynesboro scored a late touchdown but the Crusaders held on for the 24-21 win to even their record at 1-1. The extra breaks for water contributed to the game running later than usual, we started at 7:00 and weren't done until almost 10:00. When I arrived home I took the mother of all showers and sat down in the AC to relax. Saw on the Internet where McCaskey won their game in York, apparently there was an incident outside the stadium that caused the game to be called early. There weren't a lot of details available but maybe we'll know more in the morning. Take care, thanks for reading.