Football Preview: Red Lion Lions vs. Central York Panthers
Two dominant signal callers in Mason Hollingshead and Brooklyn Nace are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. A feisty cat fight will be fought when Lions takes on the Central York Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Red Lion has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the match with three straight defeats, while Central York will come in with five straight victories.
Last Friday, Red Lion and Spring Grove were almost perfectly matched up, but Red Lion suffered a 35-34 loss.
Despite the defeat, Red Lion got top-tier performance from Mason Platts, who threw for 327 yards and three touchdowns while completing 73.5% of his passes. Jeremiah Morales was in the mix too, providing Red Lion with two touchdowns.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Central York). They blew past Northeastern, posting a 62-13 win on the road. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania football rankings (they are ranked 34th, while the Bobcats are ranked 509th), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.
A big part of Central York's victory came down to the chemistry between Nace and his top target Brendyn Smith. Nace threw for 274 yards and five touchdowns while completing 83.3% of his passes while Smith picked up 181 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Smith was no stranger to the big play, lighting up the secondary with a catch that went for 55 yards. Legend Johnson was another key player, rushing for 26 yards and two touchdowns.
Red Lion's loss dropped their record down to 2-5. As for Central York, they pushed their record up to 6-1 with the win, which was their fourth straight on the road.
Red Lion came up short against Central York in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, falling 35-27. Can Red Lion avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
