When the fall sports season ended at McCaskey I thought I was done with football for the year but as the old expression goes: Not So Fast. Earlier in the week I had a call from our old friends at Lancaster Catholic, they were hosting a district playoff game on the 10th and in need of my services. LCHS has a new athletic director who is a former assistant football coach at McCaskey, he told me my contact info was on file and he was accustomed to hearing me on the mic. High school athletics in Pennsylvania are divided by enrollment into six classes ("6A" for the largest schools down to "1A" for the smallest), LCHS is in the "3A" bracket. This was a rematch of a 2022 district semifinal, the Crusaders hosted West Perry (from Perry County, about seventy miles northwest of Lancaster). LCHS was seeking revenge for a defeat the previous year but WP had other ideas, they scored early and often on the way to a 49-20 win. I was around LCHS on a somewhat regular basis from 1996 to 2017, not so much anymore but I'm always open to filling in when needed. Saturday night was hockey night on Penn Street, the Royals hosted Norfolk in the back end of the two-game set. The club's early-season struggles continued on this night with a 2-1 loss in regulation, Yvan Mongo scored the lone goal with Will Cranley taking the tough-luck loss. The Royals stand at 2-6-2 overall which is obviously not what anyone would like but the season is still young, it's often said that how you finish matters more than how you start. Case in point: a few years back a team in our league started 16-2-1, they went 18-32-3 the rest of the way and missed the playoffs entirely. The homestand continues with the Newfoundland Growlers visiting on the 17th and 18th. Sunday morning was clear and chilly for the last week of the regular season at Lions Park in Rothsville, a planned nine-week schedule was chopped down to seven thanks to the weather. These were makeup games having the most bearing on the standings, Warwick defeated Hillside and Ephrata beat Township. As it shakes out we will have the same matchups on the 19th, Warwick-Hillside in the Third-Place Game and Ephrata-Township for the championship. Take care, thanks for reading.
