YORK, Pa. — The District 3 Class 4A playoffs get underway Friday with a pair of first-round matchups, as Eastern York, Milton Hershey, Big Spring and Elco will battle for the right to join the top six seeds in the quarterfinals.
Top-seeded Bishop McDevitt awaits the winner of Friday's matchup between Eastern York and Milton Hershey, while No. 2 Twin Valley will take on the winner of the Big Spring-Elco showdown.
The other quarterfinal matchups are already set for November 10. No. 5 Lampeter-Strasburg will visit No. 4 East Pennsboro, while No. 6 Susquehanna Township will travel to No. 3 Manheim Central.
Here's a look at Friday night's two first-round showdowns.
No. 9 Eastern York (7-3) at No. 8 Milton Hershey (5-5)
Winner faces No. 1 Bishop McDevitt
ABOUT MILTON HERSHEY: It's been an up-and-down season for the Spartans, who have wins over District 3 playoff qualifiers Susquehanna Township and Lower Dauphin on their resume but also lost four games in a brutal five-week stretch and are coming off a 54-18 blowout loss to Cedar Cliff last Friday. Milton Hershey wound up finishing a distant sixth in the Mid-Penn Keystone division race behind McDevitt, Cedar Cliff, Lower Dauphin, Mifflin County and Hershey.
Milton Hershey has a high-flying offense paced by its passing game. QB Jason Burney has thrown for 2,121 yards and 27 touchdowns on 147-of-246 passing and has yet to throw an interception this season. Mohamad Koroma is Burney's top target, with 54 catches for 718 yards and six scores. RB Elijah Johnson has rushed for 900 yards and 8 scores on 144 carries, but did not appear to see action in the Spartans' Week 10 loss to Cedar Cliff.
ABOUT EASTERN YORK: The Golden Knights finished third in the York-Adams Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 race behind champion New Oxford (9-1) and runner-up Dover (7-3), both of whom defeated Eastern by double digits in the regular season. The Knights' other loss was a 55-7 blowout against Spring Grove, which managed just three wins all year. The Knights did not beat one team with a winning record in the regular season.
Eastern is a young team; its top three offensive players are all underclassmen. QB Quinn Bramble, a sophomore, has completed 115 of 210 passes for 1,308 yards and 12 touchdowns, but he's also been picked off 16 times. RB Nushi Valenti has 788 yards and 14 touchdowns on 159 carries to lead the ground attack. Junior Quez Robinson has a team-high 28 catches for 330 yards and four scores.
No. 10 Big Spring (6-4) at No. 7 Elco (7-3)
Winner faces No. 2 Twin Valley
ABOUT ELCO: One of four playoff teams to come out of Section 4 in the Lancaster-Lebanon League, the Raiders' three regular-season losses all came against the teams that finished ahead of them in the section race -- Cocalico (56-7), Wyomissing (28-14), and Lampeter-Strasburg (49-0). Elco's most-impressive win is a 49-7 rout of Class 2A top seed Annville-Cleona, which came back in Week 2.
The Raiders are almost exclusively a running team, averaging just 34.5 passing yards per game. Elco's ground attack, which accounts for 287.4 yards per game, is paced by L-L League rushing leader Jake Williams, who has 1,982 yards and 26 touchdowns on just 116 carries.
Williams is one of 12 L-L League rushers to eclipse the 1,000-yard plateau, but he has outdistanced the league's second-leading rusher, Lancaster Catholic's Elijah Cunningham, by more than 300 yards (though Cunningham's league-leading 27 TDs on the ground is one up on Williams).
ABOUT BIG SPRING: The Bulldogs finished fourth in the Mid-Penn Capital race behind defending Class A state champ Steelton-Highspire and district playoff qualifiers West Perry and Trinity, all of whom defeated Big Spring in the regular season. If you throw out a 46-7 blowout against Steel-High, Big Spring's other three losses came by a combined total of 12 points (the Bulldogs also fell to 5A qualifier Greencastle-Antrim 17-14 in Week 1). Big Spring's most noteworthy victory is a 29-28 overtime win over Class 2A qualifier Camp Hill in Week 4.
Big Spring enters the postseason on a three-game winning streak. The Bulldog offense averages 308 yards per game, most of which comes on the ground. They have a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in the backfield in senior Connor Green (179-1,075, 12 TDs) and junior Grant Hall (118-1,025, 10 TDs).
Like Elco, Big Spring has never won a district title.
