York-Adams League spring teams forced to adapt as rainouts pepper schedule

The local high school spring sports season is officially in full swing. After nearly every local team in baseball, softball, lacrosse, boys’ tennis and boys’ volleyball began its campaign last week, plenty more rivalry games are on the schedule for the coming days.

As is so often the case with outdoor sports in late March, though, weather can force plans to change and teams to adapt.

Dallastown and Susquehannock baseball were slated to play one of the more anticipated games of the early season Monday at Dallastown, but rain throughout the day forced the teams to reschedule to Tuesday afternoon. A slew of other high school baseball and softball games were also pushed back.

Several contests still took place Monday — including the softball game at Dallastown, in which the Wildcats dispatched Susquehannock, 11-0. Last week, events in multiple sports were actually moved forward on the calendar due to forecasted rain. As the season continues, postponements figure to remain part of the show, and teams who best handle that adversity and uncertainty will have an advantage.

Tuesday is now set to feature several makeup games, and Wednesday will be another busy day on local diamonds. Notable simultaneous baseball and softball games include Red Lion at Susquehannock, South Western at New Oxford and Delone Catholic at Eastern York. Dallastown will visit Red Lion in baseball and Northeastern in softball. Rain is (currently) not in the forecast for either day.

Here are some other things to watch for in local sports this week.

Emotions and electricity: Central York and York Suburban have been among the area’s premier boys’ volleyball programs for years, and they’ll collide for a massive early-season league match Tuesday night at Central York. It will be the Panthers’ first contest since the death of head coach Todd Goodling in January, and co-coaches Landon Shorts and John Feldmann will lead the way.

Central York, ranked No. 5 in Class 3A by PVCA coaches, has not yet played an official match this spring. York Suburban has a 3-0 home win over Susquehannock under its belt.

Back on track: Also Tuesday, local track and field teams begin their dual meet season with a full slate of division matchups. Reigning Division I boys’ and girls’ champion South Western will open its season at home against Northeastern, and while D-II and D-III winners Susquehannock and Bermudian Springs are both idle, nine matchups make for a full slate.

Dallastown’s teams are in a unique position, as the Wildcats will not compete at home this year due to a construction project at the school’s stadium. The league meet, normally held at Dallastown, will instead take place at Central York. The Wildcats will look to start their road-only campaign strong with wins Tuesday at York High.

Early statements: Last Thursday and Friday marked the opening round of division games in boys’ and girls’ lacrosse, which gave plenty of teams chances to make an early statement. Dallastown’s boys did so with a narrow 7-6 win over Central York, while the Red Lion and Susquehannock boys earned blowout wins over York Suburban and Eastern York, respectively. The South Western-New Oxford rivalry game lived up to the hype, with the Mustangs winning 11-10 in overtime.

On the girls’ side, Susquehannock certainly looks good so far after thumping Eastern York 17-1. Dallastown, Red Lion and South Western are among the other early leaders in the standings. Only reigning league champion York Catholic has yet to play a division game, and it’s been a mixed bag for the Irish so far, with two wins preceding Saturday’s 14-2 loss to Wyomissing.

Boys’ games to watch this week include Red Lion at South Western on Tuesday and Susquehannock at New Oxford on Thursday. The girls will have the same matchups at opposite venues.

Wildcats’ wild swing: Dallastown boys’ tennis took an undefeated record into the state semifinals last spring, and the Wildcats are expected to contend for more titles this year. They’ve met their match twice already, though, falling 3-0 to Cedar Crest and 5-0 Lancaster Country Day last week. Dallastown is 2-2 with sweeps against Red Lion and Altoona.

The losses have been close; last Tuesday’s loss to Cedar Crest came down to a three-set No. 3 singles match, while three matches against reigning Class 2A district champ were split through two sets at Friday’s Dallastown invitational (the visitors won all three 10-point tiebreaks).

The Wildcats’ Monday match at York Suburban was rescheduled to 4 p.m. Tuesday. Dallastown will host Central York for a D-I tilt Wednesday before visiting New Oxford on Friday for its third contest in four days.

HOOPS HARDWARE

While the last York-Adams League basketball teams left standing — Central York’s girls and Eastern York’s boys — were knocked out of the state tournament in the quarterfinals, four District 3 squads returned to Hershey for PIAA championship games last week, with two taking home gold medals.

Reading’s boys captured the PIAA Class 6A title with a 63-56 overtime win over Roman Catholic on Saturday, capping off a 32-1 season that started with a win over Central York and included no losses to teams in Pennsylvania. Lancaster Mennonite’s boys won the Class 2A title on Friday, rolling to a 60-44 victory over District 7’s Aliquippa.

Cedar Cliff’s girls, who took down Central York for the district crown on March 2, were undefeated before falling to Archbishop Carroll, 43-37, in Friday’s state final. And the D3 Class 5A champion Exeter Township boys couldn’t keep up with Imhotep Charter in a 78-40 loss Friday.

Other state champions included Archbishop Wood (5A girls), Lincoln Park (4A boys), Lansdale Catholic (4A girls), West Catholic (3A boys), Dunmore (3A girls), Kennedy Catholic (2A girls), Imani Christian (1A boys) and Union Area (1A girls).