Weekly Rewind (Oct. 15-20)
Busy, busy week in the county.
Tennis continued to roll on in Hershey while YAIAA titles were decided in soccer and field hockey (if you haven't paid attention this week and think you know who won, you're probably wrong).
Plus, we had a full slate of football games affected by a strange late-October severe thunderstorm Friday.
Some crazy stuff this week. Let's recap it all:
1. The Dover girls' soccer team could have easily been intimidated.
In the YAIAA championship at Susquehannock on Thursday, the Eagles were matched against a Dallastown team that had won the previous four titles.
But those all came in the spring.
With the switch to the fall for girls' soccer, so came a switch in champions as Dover rolled to a 3-1 win. And, as Jim Seip reported, this was no fluke.
2. The YAIAA boys' soccer title game didn't go as expected, either.
Dallastown waltzed into Susquehannock for its game vs. South Western as the two-time defending champions. The Wildcats also won Division I by three games over the third-place Mustangs.
None of that mattered as South Western won its first boys' league soccer title with a thrilling 2-1 victory.
Lucas Small scored the winning goal on a header with 4:20 left in regulation to lift the Mustangs.
3. If the YAIAA soccer finals weren't thrilling enough for you, there was always the field hockey championship between rivals Red Lion and Dallastown.
The Lions held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 before Haylee Anders scored on a penalty stroke late in the second half.
After two scoreless overtimes, Wildcats keeper Niki Bream stopped all five penalty strokes she saw in the shootout to help Dallastown win its first YAIAA field hockey tournament title.
4. Susquehannock junior Katie Wagner backed up her YAIAA Class AAA singles tennis title with a gold medal at the District 3 Class AAA Singles Championships. Wagner had to battle just to make the final against Mechanicsburg's Nicole Coons.
Wagner advanced, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7), but it obviously wasn't easy.
"I wanted to start off strong, but I got a little behind," said Wagner, who captured gold with a 6-0, 7-5 win vs. Sruthi Kamprath of Wilson. "I just wanted to get ahead right away in the tiebreaker. I think in both of them I got up and I used that to my advantage."
In Class AA, York Catholic's Anna Spoden lost to ELCO's Madelyn Shaak, 6-0, 6-2, but rebounded to beat Lil Veronis of Lancaster Catholic, 6-2, 6-1, for third place.
Both Spoden and Wagner return to the Racquet Club on Nov. 2-3 for the PIAA Singles Championships.
The only area team to place in District 3 doubles action was Biglerville's Carlee Brumgard and Jenna Glass, who finished fourth in Class AA.
5. Keeping with the tennis theme, in the District 3 Team Championships, Susquehannock (AAA) and York Catholic (AA) advanced to state play Wednesday.
York Catholic finished as runner-up thanks to a 3-0 loss to perennial power Wyomissing. Susquehannock grabbed the district's third and final AAA bid with a narrow 3-2 win over Cedar Crest.
The Warriors travel to Legacy YTE Complex in Philadelphia on Tuesday for a 1:30 p.m. matchup with District 1 champion Wissahickon while the Fighting Irish meet District 11 champ Moravian Academy at 1 p.m. at Allentown's West End Racquet Club. The winners advance to weekend play in Hershey.
6. The ugliness that was Spring Grove's 1-9 football record in 2010 is officially long gone.
The Rockets took sole possession of first place in YAIAA Division I on Friday night with a 50-24 win over William Penn, another surprise team that was unbeaten in division play before venturing into Papermakers Stadium.
Spring Grove QB Matt Runge played his usual huge role in the team's win. The senior completed 12-of-22 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns.
7. Northeastern used two quick touchdowns in the second half to knock off Dover, 38-21, a week before the Bobcats meet perennial power West York.
Northeastern led, 10-7, at halftime before Alec Miller (1-yard run) and Daniel Adams (36-yard run) scored 1:08 apart.
The win sets up a Week 9 showdown with West York. Both teams enter Friday night's game with 3-0 records in Division II.
8. Central York hosted the YAIAA boys' and girls' cross country championships Tuesday. Kelsey Ibarra (19:04.84) ran away with the girls' race, finishing nearly 40 seconds ahead of York Suburban's Olivia Gettle (19:42.29).
The Central York runner won the YAIAA title in 2010 but missed all of last season with an injury.
The boys' race was a little closer. Dallastown's Patrick Reilly (16:19.19) clipped South Western's Ryan Hertzog (16:20.24). Reilly finished sixth at the league meet last year while Hertzog was runner-up for the second year in a row.
9. The YAIAA only had two golfers qualify for the PIAA Championships, which will be held today and tomorrow at Heritage Hills Golf Resort.
Dallastown's Brandon Greenplate placed eighth in the PIAA Class AAA East Regional on Tuesday while Fairfield's Isaiah Logue finished 14th in Class AA. Logue avoided a playoff for one of the final two state bids by one shot.
10. As always, be sure to vote for our athletes of the week and football player of the week before 5 p.m. today.