Dream season: Central York beats defending state champs to punch ticket to title game
Central York head coach Jeff Hoke lives two miles from Hershey's Giant Center. He looks at the stadium every day while walking his dog.
His goal was to compete for a District 3 title there on March 1. When his team was upset by Red Lion in the quarterfinals, he started taking a different route in the morning.
Now Hoke and the Panthers will go to the Giant Center for a more important championship game. And the head coach has learned his superstitions have nothing to do with it.
Central York beat defending state champion Reading, 79-65, in the PIAA Class 6A semifinals at Warwick High School Tuesday night. The Panthers will play District 11 champion Parkland for a state title 8 p.m. Saturday in Hershey.
“This isn’t about me,” Hoke said. “These kids deserve this. They bring me to tears every day. They deserve to win a state championship. They’re so young and inexperienced, but they work so hard.”
A dream season
Central York will be the third YAIAA team to play for a state title in the largest classification. York High boys reached the Class 3A final in 1949 and the Class 4A final in 2009. The Bearcats lost to Aliquippa and Penn Wood, respectively, in those games. York Catholic and Delone Catholic have won boys' and girls' state titles, but they weren't in the biggest classification.
The Panthers are now 28-3 this season.
Central York lost just twice in the regular season and wasn’t at full strength in either game. But the Panthers were stunned by the rival Lions by one point in their first District 3 playoff game.
That night, Hoke said it was still the team’s goal to reach the Giant Center. And his players have responded with six consecutive wins, including a payback win over Red Lion and definitive wins over Pittsburgh champion Upper St. Clair and now state powerhouse Reading.
Now the Panthers face a Parkland squad that just beat Philadelphia’s Archbishop Wood, 59-51, Tuesday night. Parkland is led by 2,000-point scorer and Davidson commit Nick Coval.
“Losing in districts was super tough on us,” Central York junior Ben Rill said. “We knew we had the chip on our shoulder then. We knew we had the guys, the talent, the coaches. We just had to persevere.
“This is reality now. We’re going to Hershey.”
The key moments
Central York’s season came full circle Tuesday, but the Panthers knew what happened on opening night didn’t matter.
The Panthers stormed past Reading, 90-73, on Dec. 5. But that was an inexperienced Red Knights team that had graduated four starters from a state championship squad.
The Reading team that showed up Tuesday had stunningly won three state playoff games after losing to Red Lion in the District 3 third-place contest. The Red Knights (22-12) clearly believed the championship belt was theirs until someone pried it from their hands.
They played like it early. Reading got off to a hot start before Central answered to take a one-point lead at the end of the first quarter. But every time the Panthers began to pull away, the Red Knights would get to the free throw line and hit both shots.
Central’s 10-point lead was trimmed to three before star senior Greg Guidinger drew a foul on a 3-point attempt and nailed all three shots to give the Panthers a six-point lead at the break.
“They’re just relentless,” Hoke said. “But so are we.”
Known for their size and shooting, the Panthers proved again they can win with toughness. Rill and Guidinger came up with key buckets in the paint, and Saxton Suchanic grabbed rebounds in traffic. Ben Natal hit three clutch 3-pointers — each seeming to come when Central needed a spark.
The Panthers led by double digits for most of the third until Reading cut the deficit to eight points late in the frame. Central York freshman Doug Layer scored consecutive key buckets and assisted on a Natal 3 to give the Panthers a 14-point lead entering the fourth.
“That is a kid who started (early on) and now doesn’t start but handled it like a champ,” Hoke said about Layer. “We had no worries with him. He’s fearless. He’s not afraid of anything. My fear was the lights would be too big, and these kids don’t see it. They’re so locked in and just want to win. They’ve taken ownership.”
Stars of the game
Guidinger scored 22 points and hit three big 3-pointers early to halt Reading’s hot start. Natal scored 13 despite spending most of the fourth quarter on the bench with cramps. Hoke said the star junior guard will be OK for Saturday’s title game.
But it was the 6-foot-8 Rill who led the Panthers with 28 points. He was often double-teamed and missed one dunk attempt in the third quarter, but Rill kept attacking the basket and played with a physicality that seemed to wear down the Red Knights.
The fourth quarter was prolonged as the Red Knights made it their strategy to constantly foul Rill. The junior went 10-of-14 from the strip and bounced back from one 0-for-2 trip to go 7-for-8 the rest of the way.
“My coaches have been on me all tournament long about being more aggressive and embracing contact,” Rill said. “I’ve been working on it for weeks on end. I’m used to it now.”
Senior Yadiel Cruz led Reading with 21 points to reach 1,000 for his career. Nick Chapman added 16 for the Red Knights.
What was the real score?
Tuesday night’s game was a PIAA semifinal, but was not immune to technical gaffes. With the Panthers up by 10 midway through the third quarter, the scoreboard was briefly changed to show Reading down by just two. It took multiple attempts to get the score fixed.
The score should’ve been Central York 45, Reading 35. But it appeared the Panthers were given two additional points after the fix was made. No one corrected the error.
The final score likely should’ve been Central York 77, Reading 65.
Regardless, Central led by double digits throughout the second half. The Panthers led by 18 late in the fourth quarter before Reading scored six more points.
They said it
“I came back because of this group. This group is special. We have so much talent in the starting five and the rotation. I knew that we could do it. We had belief the whole year. I’m just super proud of these guys. We’ve got one last 32 minutes with this group.” — Ben Rill on reaching the state final after returning to Central York from a prep school last season.
“It’s been a roller coaster building the culture and having the maturity. People forget we’re such a young team. I’m the only senior except for (reserve) Boden (Pease) who does a lot of work behind the scenes. The realization we had after the loss to Red Lion was so, so, so important. We realized if we didn’t work hard we will lose games. The second we realized we just need to outwork everybody? The talent will take care of the rest.” — Greg Guidinger
“I’m going to walk home if we win. I can guarantee you that. I will run home. It’s 2.1 miles, and I'm not the fastest or in the best shape. But it will be like following mama goose home. We’re all going to my house. I’ll open up the pool, and we’ll all jump in.” — Jeff Hoke on his reaction if the Panthers beat Parkland Saturday.
Matt Allibone is a sports reporter for GameTimePA. He can be reached at 717-881-8221, mallibone@ydr.com or on X at @bad2theallibone.