Skip to main content

These 3 surprises rocked YAIAA football in Week 4 (column)


play
Show Caption

Days like this past Friday are the reason people love high school football.

You just never know what to expect.

A team that nobody expects to win can come back from a 20-point halftime deficit to do it. A team can snap a 14-year losing streak against a division foe. A team with no history of success can do something it's never done before.

All three of those things happened Friday, and those fan bases have every reason to feel jubilant this weekend.

Central York is the team that came back from a 20-point deficit to win, shocking a Northeastern crowd that had probably already started thinking about next week's game at Red Lion by halftime. The Bobcats entered the season considered by most — including yours truly — to be the favorite in YAIAA Division I, but the Panthers scored with four minutes left in the game to take a 28-27 lead, then forced a fumble to make that score stand as the final.

The Panthers are now 3-1 with gut-wrenching wins in back-to-back weeks to put the Josh Oswalt era off to a heck of a start.

Eastern York is the team that snapped a 14-year losing streak to an opponent, scoring three touchdowns in the last four minutes of the first half to beat West York, 27-10. The Bulldogs have been the class of YAIAA Division II for much of the last decade, but are now off to an 0-4 start. The Golden Knights started the season 0-3, but Jeff Mesich's first win as coach will be one Eastern York fans should remember.

Just like that, it's time to think of Eastern York as a Division II title contender. No team in the league has more than two wins on the season, and the Golden Knights are right alongside Gettysburg and York Suburban as the three teams with a 1-0 record in division play right now.

Fairfield is the team that did something its never done before. Fairfield founded a football program 12 years ago, with its success limited to a couple 5-5 seasons. But the Green Knights beat Biglerville, 29-14, on Friday night to start a season 4-0 for the first time ever, and they've done it by outscoring their opponents by 117 points.

As the league's only Class A team, the Green Knights are on the brink of a major accomplishment. The top two Class A teams — out of just four — in District 3 go straight to the district championship game. Based on how the other Class A teams have started, Fairfield probably only needs one more win to lock up a spot in their first district championship game.

What a week.

I can't wait to see what next week will bring.