District 3 football roundup: Exeter pulls out thrilling win over Spring Grove, sets up rematch with Twin Valley
· Yahoo Sports
Exeter scored with under two minutes to play to pull off a thrilling 13-12 win over Spring Grove in the District 3 Class 5A football quarterfinals and set up a rematch with Twin Valley.
Visit palladian.co.za for more information.
Trailing 12-7, Eagles quarterback Aidan Gerhart scored on a one-yard run with 1:43 remaining to put Exeter up 13-12. The two-point conversion failed.
No. 5 Exeter (10-2) will play top-seeded Twin Valley (11-0), an easy 42-0 win over Cocalico, in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday at Twin Valley High School in Elverson.
The two teams met in a “non-league” game on Oct. 23 with Twin Valley winning 56-29.
After a scoreless first half, fourth-seeded Spring Grove made it 6-0 on Kade Gibbs’ 32-yard touchdown run with 10:15 left in the third quarter.
The Eagles responded with a Donovyn Alvarez 2-yard scoring run and Austin Williams’ extra point kick made it 7-6 with 7:12 left in the third quarter.
Spring Grove regained the lead when Jordan Eisenhart picked off a pass and ran it back 37 yards for a touchdown and a 12-7 lead with 1:18 left in the third quarter.
Alvarez gained 204 yards on 17 carries and the one touchdown. Gerhart completed 6 of 12 passes for 44 yards.
Exeter, the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 5 champions, had 16 first downs to 4 for Spring Grove and had a 268-168 edge in total yards, with 224 of those on the ground.
Twin Valley 42, Cocalico 0: Quarterback Gavan Foster completed 16 of 17 passes for 249 yards with three touchdowns as the top-seeded Raiders rolled in their District 3 Class 5A quarterfinal against Cocalico on Friday night.
Twin Valley (11-0) hosts fifth-seeded Exeter on Friday night in the semifinals, with the other semifinal pitting third-seeded Solanco (10-1) at No. 2 Northern York (10-1).
Foster threw a 65-yard TD pass to Grant Moser, a 40-yarder to Chase Reilly and a 26-yard strike to Brody Majeski.
Lucas Myers rushed for two touchdowns, 4 and 11 yards.
Twin Valley won the 4A title last year and advanced to the state title game, but has been moved up to 5A this season, as has last year’s state champion Southern Lehigh, which is still alive in the postseason.
West York 44, Conrad Weiser 0: The Scouts finish the season 7-5 after falling in the Class 4A quarterfinals to West York. Conrad Weiser had just 154 yards in total offense with Kole Kupper gaining 63 yards on 17 carries. Top-seeded West York plays Lampeter-Strasburg in the semifinals on Friday.
Annville-Cleona 21, Schuylkill Valley 14: For the second game in a row, Annville-Cleona got the better of Schuylkill Valley. After beating the Panthers, 56-21, on Oct. 30 in the regular season finale, the Dutchmen downed the Panthers in the semifinals of the District 3 Class 3A tourney on Friday night. Both teams had byes last week.
Annville-Cleona (8-3) will play the winner of Wyomissing-Trinity (game is Saturday, Nov. 14) for the district title.
Yama Navarro led Annville-Cleona with 178 yards rushing on 36 carries and scored two touchdowns.
For the Panthers (8-3), quarterback Alex Aletras completed 26 of 36 passes for 207 yards with two touchdowns, and he ran for 43 yards on 8 carries.
He threw touchdown passes of 20 yards to Alex Gehret, and 7 yards to Anthony Batista, with the latter score coming with 49.8 seconds left in the game.