Northern York keeps raising the bar

The stated goal before the season for Northern York's football team was to "Restore the Roar."

The Polar Bears had T-shirts with the slogan printed on them, and the coaching staff wore hats with it on the back.

And while their season ended with a 49-21 loss to Bishop McDevitt in the District 3 Class AAA quarterfinals Friday night, they feel they've brought the program back.

"We decided after we beat York Suburban last week that we had restored the roar," first-year Northern head coach Greg Bowman said. "We played for a division title, and we won a district game. We had a really nice season, and its up to our underclassmen to keep raising the bar."

Bowman, a long-time assistant at Lower Dauphin, took over a program that had gone 6-14 in its previous two seasons and hadn't won a district playoff game since 2007.

All four of the team's losses in 2015 came against teams that qualified for the district playoffs: McDevitt, Middletown, Lower Dauphin and East Pennsboro. Lower Dauphin and East Pennsboro also reached the district quarterfinals, and Middletown lost to East Pennsboro in Week 11.

The loss to Middletown in Week 2 was followed by a six-game winning streak.

"I'm not going to say that I expected us to reach the district quarterfinals, but I was optimistic coming into the season," Bowman said. "Last year at Lower Dauphin, we played Northern in Week 9. So I knew there was talent here and if the players worked hard that we could become a good team."