Weekly Rewind (Oct. 29-Nov. 3)
The first two days of this week were wiped out by Superstorm Sandy. But, by Wednesday, District 3 and the YAIAA were mostly back to business as usual. We had teams advance and fall at the district level, plus the football regular season drew to a close.
Let's start the recap:
1. Where have we seen this before? The Delone Catholic girls' volleyball team dropping its first two games of a championship match? That's right, it happened to the Squirettes in the YAIAA tournament final vs. South Western.
Saturday night at Dallastown in the District 3 Class AA final, it happened again.
And just like the match vs. South Western, Delone, the defending champion, staged an epic rally to clip Berks Catholic, 3-2 (16-25, 19-25, 25-17, 25-15, 15-13) for its ninth District 3 girls' volleyball title.
The Squirettes open PIAA play Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. vs. District 12 runner-up Masterman at Wilson in suburban Reading.
2. West York took another step in solidifying itself as one of the more consistent football programs in the YAIAA on Friday night by polishing off a perfect regular season with a 35-0 whitewash of visiting New Oxford.
The Bulldogs, who already had wrapped up at least a share of Division II but won the outright title Friday, gave coach Ron Miller his first 10-0 regular season. It is the first time since 1991 that West York did not lose a game in the regular season.
The Bulldogs open District 3 Class AAA play at home Friday vs. Division II rival Northeastern at 7 p.m.
3. And now for our weekly check on Spring Grove.
The Rockets had a shot to incredibly win YAIAA Division I outright on Friday night by beating rival South Western. But, the Rockets lost, 19-17, and were forced to share the title with Central York, which blasted William Penn, 44-7.
Regardless, it was still a season to remember for Spring Grove. And it's not over. The Rockets travel to Mid-Penn Colonial Division champion Shippensburg on Friday at 7 p.m. for a District 3 Class AAA first-round game. Central York hosts Chambersburg in the District 3-AAAA playoffs.
4. Bermudian Springs also polished off a perfect regular season Friday night and, in the process, won the YAIAA Division III title outright.
It was anything but easy against visiting Biglerville, but the Eagles prevailed, 37-21. Both teams enter the deep and difficult District 3 Class AA playoffs this weekend.
5. Speaking of the football playoffs, the York-Adams area had 11 teams make the cut. Here's a look at the brackets and the area teams that qualified:
Class AAAA (Central York, Dallastown, South Western)
Class AAA (Northeastern, Red Land, Spring Grove, West York)
Class AA (Bermudian, Biglerville, Littlestown)
Class A (Delone Catholic)
6. The Biglerville boys' soccer team's thrilling run through the District 3 Class A tournament was going to end one way another Saturday.
Unfortunately for the Canners, it ended in disappointment with a 3-1 loss to Greenwood at Hersheypark Stadium.
The silver lining for Biglerville is the fact that it qualified for the PIAA Class A tournament and made it to Hershey for the third time in five years by beating perennial powers York Catholic and Trinity.
The Canners head to Somerset on Tuesday at 7 p.m. to meet District 5 champion Windber.
The York Catholic girls' soccer team also qualified for the PIAA Class A field Saturday. The Fighting Irish beat Halifax, 3-1, to finish third in District 3 and have a lengthy trip Tuesday as well. York Catholic will travel to Johnstown to meet District 6 champion Bishop McCort at Richland.
7. The cross country season came to an end Saturday in Hershey.
On the girls' side, York Suburban finished fifth in the team standings behind PIAA Class AA champion Palmyra while the YAIAA was well-represented in terms of individual boys' finishers.