Rematches highlight next round of District 3 playoffs: 3 L-L League football facts for Nov. 4
Week 12 playoff primers. And ... go.
. Cumberland Valley at Manheim Township in a D3-6A quarterfinal clash coming up on Friday in Neffsville, and this is not a broken record. It sure feels like it. But it's not. ... Blue Streaks and the Eagles will duke it out for the eighth time since 2017, and for the third year in a row — and fifth time in the last eight years — in the D3-6A playoffs. ... Township is 6-1 vs. CV over that clip, including four wins in the D3-6A playoffs and two wins in the regular season. Streaks and Eagles met back in Week 1 this season; Township won 42-14 at Chapman Field in Mechanicsburg. ... CV's lone win over the Streaks since 2017: 31-27 in a non-con game in 2022. ... In the first meeting this season, Declan Clancy rushed for 148 yards with three TD runs and a TD catch, and Carson Weisser threw for 169 yards with two TD tosses for Township, which will get back at it after a bye week as the No. 1 seed. ... The Streaks had the week off to lick their wounds after a 34-16 Week 10 setback vs. Wilson, which gave the Bulldogs the outright Section 1 crown and snapped Township's snazzy 19-game regular season unbeaten streak. Should be plenty of motivation in Streaks' camp this week to get back to business. They'll get a familiar foe, that's for sure.
. There's another D3-6A quarterfinal showdown on Friday that features two L-L Section 1 teams: Cedar Crest at Wilson. The Bulldogs eked out a 14-7 victory over the Falcons back in Week 5 in West Lawn. In that game, Correll Akings rushed for 120 yards, and Madyx Gruber fired a pair of second-quarter TD passes to Cam Zullinger for Wilson, which forced three turnovers and held Cedar Crest off at the wire. ... Bulldogs' D will be tested in the rematch; Falcons put up 49 points and 410 yards in their first-round victory over Hempfield. Isaiah Zimmerman sparked the ground game with 182 yards and five TD runs, Jack Waranavage caught six passes for 150 yards, and Jackson Custer threw for 206 yards up top vs. the Black Knights. ... In the first meeting vs. Wilson, the Falcons had 210 yards, and the Bulldogs lassoed Zimmerman, holding the 1,400-yard rusher to 72 stripes. Cedar Crest's lone TD was Custer's 9-yard toss to Cameron Tirado, which sliced the lead to 14-7 midway through the third quarter. Wilson held on — on the way to winning the outright Section 1 title, its 30th L-L crown, tops in league history.
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. Speaking of familiar matchups, Lampeter-Strasburg and Elco have a pretty long history not only in L-L games, but also in the D3 playoffs. The top-seeded, undefeated Pioneers will welcome the upset-minded Raiders for a D3-4A quarterfinal on Friday. ... This will be the fourth time L-S and Elco square off in the D3 playoffs; they clashed three years in a row, from 2018-20, in 4A games. L-S won all three: 37-0 in the first round in 2018; 34-7 in the first round in 2019; and 20-3 in the championship game in 2020. Elco had a 3-0 halftime lead in that clash before the Pioneers rallied with a big second half to cap a 9-0 ride in the pandemic-truncated season. ... Earlier this season, L-S toppled Elco 52-7 in a Section 4 game in Week 8 in Myerstown. Stars of that show: Caileb Howse threw for 168 yards with two TD passes, and he returned an interception 25 yards for a TD; Dominic Brown rushed for 150 yards with a pair of TD runs; and Danny Weichler returned a pick 68 yards for a TD. ... Justin Smucker hauled in a 77-yard TD catch for Elco's lone score in Round 1. Round 2 is for a spot in the D3-4A semifinals, and this time the Raiders have to load up the bus and head to Lampeter.
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