Here are three District 3 playoff matchups that feature games where the lower seed could possibly post a victory over a higher seed.

CLASS 2A

No. 3 Upper Dauphin (8-1) at No. 2 Columbia (8-1): This game might have some points scored. It would be a surprise otherwise. Columbia has a stud senior quarterback in Robert Footman. He powers an offense that averages nearly 45 points a game by throwing for almost 300 yards per outing. The Tigers throw it on average about 30 times a game.

He’s tossed 29 touchdowns already and also averages 5.8 yards per carry when he runs the rock. I still think Columbia is the favorite in this game, but Upper Dauphin will hunt. Their ground-focused offense is diverse and comes at you in waves, powered by Brady Morgan and Christian Snyder. The Trojans will throw it with more impact than you might think with Wil Laskowski. The Tigers are a solid favorite here, but if UDA doesn’t have a say in the outcome it would be surprising.

CLASS 3A

No. 5 Middletown (5-4) at No. 4 West Perry (5-5): OK, so this one is like the adult who knicks Halloween candy from the kids. Technically West Perry is the higher seed, but the Blue Raiders are the clear favorite here. The Capital Division has provided a more complete test for Middletown and the Blue Raiders come into this one winning three of its last four with a pair of shutouts including a 7-0 win over playoff-bound Class 4A squad Big Spring.

The Mustangs have over performed and overachieved all season. There’s a LOT to be said for that. But in this matchup, the Blue Raiders are playing their best football of the season and have more pieces fitting into place to make it difficult for the Mustangs. The upset here is West Perry winning. 

CLASS 4A No. 10 Big Spring (7-3) vs. No. 7 Conrad Weiser (7-3): Despite losing to Middletown 7-0 in the slop of last Friday night to close out Week 10, I’m still bullish on the Bulldogs. Big Spring is making only its second ever appearance in the District 3 playoffs and won’t be hanging their heads over that Week 10 loss. They surrendered only one touchdown, and their offense was handicapped by the elements.

Big Spring runs the rock and opens up a defense by taking deep shots with QB Ethan Eisenberg using his strong arm to connect on more of those shots than he misses. A driving sideways rain takes that off the table. Shows the value of the diversity of this offense, though. Physically the Bulldogs are ready for this challenge, and the Scouts will be a full-metal-jacket test for sure. I’m not all that keen on the schedule Weiser has played, and they will give up some points.

But they are a proven tough out. Big Spring better bring its track shoes and work on pass coverage this week because Scouts QB Logan Klitsch, a junior, is a 2,000-yard passer who boasts a completion percentage north of 66%. Half of his targets go to Aanjay Feliciano, a 1,000-yard receiver, but there is some depth to their wideouts that could make it very sticky for the Big Spring secondary. I love this matchup. I think it’s one of the best games on the slate to kick off the second season.

Five-star performance

Forrest Rhyne has been on a tear over the last month.

After recording 24 tackles in all of September for the 6-2 Villanova Wildcats, Rhyne, a former Waynesboro linebacker, has nearly matched that total in two different games in October.

Rhyne had another monster performance in a 31-18 loss to William & Mary on Saturday, recording 19 tackles and a quarterback hit at home. It’s his third double-digit tackling performance this season, falling one short of his career high of 20 set Oct. 9. He finished the month with 58 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack. 

The Wildcats went 3-1 during that stretch with wins over No. 3 James Madison, Albany and Rhode Island.

In on the action

Former Camp Hill tight end Zack Kuntz caught eight passes for 67 yards and a 5-yard TD, helping the Monarchs to a second win that snapped a five-game win streak by beating Louisiana Tech 23-20.

Looking back a week, Harrisburg grad Donte Kent had eight tackles in Central Michigan’s 39-38 loss to NIU. The Chippewas were off this weekend.

Western Carolina has won two straight, and Ronald Kent Jr. (Harrisburg) has five tackles between them, including two Saturday in a 41-21 win over Wofford.

Cody Gustafson (Shippensburg High) returned from Grove City College’s bye week and produced 13 catches for 131 yards, his fifth straight 100-yard performance and seventh of the season to put him above 1,000 for the season. Grove City lost for just the second time this year 28-24 to Washington & Jefferson.

Pete Haffner (State College) had five tackles, half a tackle for loss and half a sack in Lehigh’s 31-12 loss to Holy Cross.

Another former Little Lion had a tackle in Penn State’s 33-24 loss to No. 5 Ohio State.

Austin Peay’s Damion Barber (Harrisburg) had two tackles and half a tackle for loss in a 13-12 loss to No. 12 University of Tennessee-Martin.

Christian Arrington (Cumberland Valley) had a tackle in Rhode Island’s third straight loss, this one 45-24 to Maine.

PSAC performances

In this week’s Shippensburg Red Raiders installation: Evan Morrill (Lower Dauphin) caught six passes for 61 yards in a 24-23 victory over East Stroudsburg to move to 7-2. Bill Williams (Camp Hill) had 15 carries for 22 yards and a 17-yard reception. Middletown grad Laron Woody had 11 tackles (one TFL) and half a sack from his defensive tackle spot. Woody had six tackles (2.5 TFLs) and 1.5 sacks a week ago in a win over Millersville.

Yahmir Wilkerson (Harrisburg) had a 39-yard touchdown run on his only carry in West Chester’s 35-13 win over Lock Haven. 

Timmy Smith (Central Dauphin) had a 1-yard TD on his only carry, and Jaheim Morris (Cedar Cliff) ran 13 times for 28 yards in Millersville’s 30-7 loss to No. 21 Kutztown, its fourth straight loss.

That was one miserable cuss of a Friday evening to close out the 2021 regular season.

Rain and wind is a deadly combination, and that was not just your garden variety rain. This was almost sideways at times. Offenses were impacted, running the ball was critical and turnovers were practically guaranteed.

Before we get to the playoffs and how Week 10 impacted the final results when the brackets are officially announced Monday by District 3 (the official final power rankings were released Saturday, but the brackets aren’t published until Monday), let’s just take a look at a few tidbits that stood out.

Because I was unable to attend a game in person Friday night, I settled in to watch the Milton Hershey vs. Red Land game on the gold turf at Henry Hershey Field. Will I get hateful communication if I say out loud that for no particular reason I’m not a fan of the gold turf? I don’t hate it, but it’s just not my cup of tea for some reason.

It was a joy to watch Spartans senior running back Dion Bryant, who has done so much for this team in 2021, have a record-setting night. The senior, who is going to make some lucky FCS school very happy at the next level, went off in the driving rain.

Bryant rushed for a school record 468 yards on a staggering 39 carries with SEVEN touchdowns. Once he cleared the line of scrimmage it was nearly impossible to catch him or bring him down. He averaged 12.0 yards per carry and did all his damage after Milton Hershey fell behind the Patriots 14-0 early.

Bryant is an FCS-level back all the way, will get my nomination and vote for All-State and colleges should be knocking at his door to obtain his services. He posted more than 800 rushing yards over the final two games. And he allowed the Spartans to celebrate on their new gold turf for the first time this season.

As you could probably tell if you’ve listened to any of our YouTube “The Preview” videos the last couple weeks or read anything I wrote about the Thundering Herd, I was pulling for Carlisle to find a way into the District 3 Class 6A field.

I saw the Herd in Week 1 against Mechanicsburg and liked a lot of what I saw. It was clear the talent and skill they had in place would develop and evolve, and it has. The defense had some holes, but over the course of nine more games they filled in the gaps. For a program that has been coughed around for so many years, I wondered whether they would find that internal belief — which is different than confidence — to understand they were good enough and belonged. And the Herd found that critical ingredient. It was a process, but they found it.

The Thundering Herd are the team nobody in Class 6A wants to square off against in the playoffs. They will show up and believe. It appears that team will be Commonwealth Division foe Harrisburg, a rematch of a game in which the Cougars cruised to a 34-14 victory, according to District 3’s final power rankings released Saturday night. That was five long weeks ago for a Herd squad that won four of its last five, including a very mild upset of CD East in Week 10 to close out the season.

Carlisle did something extra special in my book to upset the Panthers — they rallied from a 14-0 deficit in the second quarter to post the 28-20 triumph. Climbing uphill against the Panthers down two scores is a tough ask. The Herd had a response. Special teams and a blocked punt for a touchdown to get on the board lit the fire.

Jeremiah Hargrove, a versatile weapon, was forced into single duty at running back and responded with 140 yards on 17 totes with three touchdowns. Those are heady numbers against a physical and aggressive CD East defense. His yards tell you everything you need to know about where this offensive line is these days.

Cumberland Valley won’t make the Class 6A playoffs with a 5-5 record, but the Eagles and the rebuild of this program under Josh Oswalt is heading in a direction most fans should like after CV torpedoed Central Dauphin’s playoff aspirations with a 24-17 victory over the Rams.

Central Dauphin, with the loss, fell to just below the yellow line, dropping from No. 6 to No. 9, and their 2021 season is done.

Eagles running back JD Hunter had 148 yards and two scores, and QB Isaac Sines had a long TD run covering 55 yards and kicked a field goal. And in a game with no passing yards, the CV linebackers were on point and played a huge role in the win.

It is indeed a very strange year when neither Central Dauphin nor Cumberland Valley are part of a big-school playoff field. Very, very strange.

Big Spring struggled offensively for two reasons, the driving rain and more importantly Middletown’s defense, and fell 7-0 to the surging Blue Raiders. The loss didn’t totally derail a fine season for the Bulldogs. For the second time in school history, it appears Big Spring will be playoff bound.

Wyomissing and Boiling Springs are still the top dogs in Class 3A, but there are warning signs flying all around Middletown that scream you do not want to play this team right now. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Congratulations to the Harrisburg Cougars for claiming the Commonwealth Division title outright by blanking Chambersburg. The road-warrior Cougars clinched the title, appropriately, on the road. The only blemish on their impressive schedule was a loss at Governor Mifflin in a game they took on short COVID-19 notice.

Hands down the biggest surprise in 2021 for the Mid-Penn is Lower Dauphin. The Falcons had won only three times in their previous 26 games, including 0-10 in 2019 and a one-win campaign a year ago. So getting to 6-3 AND qualifying for the postseason is stunning.

LD finished with a comfortable double-up of Palmyra thanks to RB Jacob Kauffman’s 226 yards on 27 carries and a couple touchdowns. The Falcons, and the weather, kept the game in a sandbox that LD thrives in. And the Falcons made it pay off.

Cedar Cliff star running back Jontate Morris capped a stellar comeback season after losing the 2020 campaign to injury by rolling up 228 yards and three more touchdowns to go along with a pick-6 on defense as the Colts easily dispatched Mifflin County 35-0.

Waynesboro used a couple of Nick Brill interceptions to hold off Northern and claim the No. 2 spot in the Colonial by shutting out the Polar Bears 6-0. Shippensburg completed its second undefeated season in three years by taking care of Greencastle-Antrim in a Thursday night game. Going 10-0 twice in that short of a span might sound easy, but it is a lot harder than it looks.

The one score that stands out as a shocker from Week 10 is East Pennsboro 43, Mechanicsburg 0. The Wildcats took the field controlling their own destiny in terms of securing a playoff spot. However, when you factor in the Jekyll & Hyde that is the Panthers this season, this result should really not be all that big of a surprise. East Pennsboro has been nothing but wildly inconsistent week-to-week, producing some stunning results and then making you wonder how that happened the very next week? It was just their journey this year.

Susquehanna Township came oh so close to that elusive first win in 2021 against West Perry, falling by three points. The playoff-bound Mustangs were pushed to the limit by the ‘Hanna Tribe. Only 230 yards and three scores from RB Trent Herrera prevented West Perry from heading into the playoffs with back-to-back losses. Looks like the Mustangs will get Middletown to open the postseason party. 

Juniata comfortably claimed the Liberty Division crown with a 6-0 mark by drilling would-be title contender Susquenita 52-20. The Blackhawks had a shot at grabbing a piece of the title with a win. The 20 points surrendered is a season-high for the Indians, but most of them came in mop-up time as Juniata pushed this game to the mercy rule by halftime.

Here are the playoff teams from the Mid-Penn Conference after District 3 released the final, official power rankings Saturday night: Class 1A: No. 1 Steel-High; Class 2A: No. 3 Upper Dauphin and No. 4 Susquenita; 3A: No. 2 Boiling Springs, No. 4 West Perry and No. 5 Middletown; Class 4A: No. 1 Bishop McDevitt, No. 8 Northern and No. 10 Big Spring; Class 5A: No. 3 Shippensburg, No. 5 Waynesboro, No. 6 Cedar Cliff and No. 11 Lower Dauphin; Class 6A: No. 2 Harrisburg, No. 3 CD East and No. 7 Carlisle.

Bring on the second season.

Class 6A:

The top 8 teams will advance to the District 3 Class 6A playoffs.

Class 5A:

The top 14 teams will advance to the District 3 Class 5A playoffs.

Class 4A:

The top 10 teams will advance to the District 3 Class 4A playoffs.

Class 3A:

The top 8 teams will advance to the District 3 Class 3A playoffs.

Class 2A:

The top 4 teams will advance to the District 3 Class 2A playoffs.

Class 1A:

The top 2 teams will advance to the District 3 Class 1A playoffs.