We'll get the most important information out first: Hempfield won their game on Friday evening, that sets up a playoff game for the division championship scheduled for Tuesday the 23rd at neutral-site Manheim Township HS. The Thursday precipitation amounted to about four inches overnight into Friday, Jenny had been in town at her friend's house since Wednesday night. As is usually the case she had no other way home and we had planned on Friday lunch anyway, the drive to her place was not bad since most of the main roads were reasonably clear. In the evening we were at JPM for the front end of a back-to-back league-crossover set, Warwick was the opponent. Warwick is one of the league's better teams, they and Lebanon tied for the Section Two title. Although meaningless in the league standings this figured to be a tough test and it was all that plus a lot more. Warwick came out strong and absolutely COULD NOT MISS, at halftime we trailed by sixteen. The second half was more competitive but the hole was too deep to crawl out of, the final score was 83-69. Hasan Williams scored 23 points, Jonathan Byrd and Kevin Bell had 14 each, Sam Hershey added 13, Javonzee Washington had three points and Jayon Burnside had a field goal. We were right back at it on Saturday afternoon, Ephrata visited with the JV game tipoff at 1:30. It was Senior Day for the players (the senior cheerleaders had been recognized on Friday night), before the varsity game we spotlighted Jayon Burnside, Jyzel Mitchell, Javonzee Washington, Sam Hershey, Kevin Bell and Keyon Stewart as members of the Class of 2021. The game itself was more competitive than most might have expected, Ephrata entered with only two wins but played a competitive game, in the end JPM prevailed 80-63. Hasan Williams had another big day with 26, Sam Hershey had 17 and Kevin Bell had 13. Jonathan Byrd scored nine points, Jyzel Mitchell added five, Jared Kumah had four, Javonzee Washington and Grady Bachman had three each. The weekend split evens the overall record at 7-7. On Sunday we got word that the game at Elizabethtown on the 22nd was switched to the 24th, that gave the team an opportunity for one decent practice before the playoff game on the 23rd. If we win that game the next round of league playoffs would be on the 25th and the championship game on the 27th, how far we go will dictate how many of the leftover crossover games may still be played. Only the top twelve teams qualify for district playoffs and at last look we were ranked 18th so realistically the league playoffs are the only postseason we have to play for. On Monday a quick-moving storm blew through in the morning and dumped a few more inches of the Dirty White Stuff, in the afternoon it was announced that the Wednesday game at E-town was being canceled completely. Take care, thanks for reading.
