The Donegal football team has demonstrated throughout the year that hard work and practice pay off. Following each of the team's setbacks, the Indians showed resilience by registering key victories, wrapping up the regular season with consecutive wins.

On Friday, October 28, Donegal posted a 37-6 victory at home versus Lancaster-Lebanon League rival Octorara, thus earning a 10th-seed into the District Three Class 4A playoffs.

"We had a great end to the regular season, working hard and getting better each week," said head coach Chad Risberg. "The kids are working hard on the little things that make a big difference in games.

"The seniors really stepped up and led this team to victories in our last two games as we qualified for the Class 4A playoffs," Risberg added.

Quarterback Landen Baughman was one of the leaders on offense Friday night. The senior signal caller threw for 73 yards and had five big rushing plays for 66 more.

Noah Rohrer led the team in rushing yards with 91, taking 16 handoffs and scoring on three of them.

Donegal scored 30 points in the first half and extended the lead to 37-0 in the third quarter on Rohrer's third touchdown of the night.

Tyler Sload scored the game's first touchdown. Following Rohrer's second-quarter score from two yards out, Baughman connected with Sload on a 21-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-0.

The Braves finally got on the board in the fourth quarter as Chandler Stoltzfus tossed a 12-yard TD to Mason Colligan

The Indians (4-6) enter the districts scheduled to face York Suburban - the seventh-ranked team in Class 4A. Since ten teams enter the playoffs, seeds 7 through 10 battle for the chance to move on to the quarterfinals.

"The kids are excited and I'm excited for them," Risberg said of making the playoffs. "It means a lot to the program, making the playoffs for the second year in a row."

CROSS COUNTRY

Cross country is one of those sports that's an individual sport and yet a team sport.

You have individual runners out on the course, attempting to run at their best pace, negotiating the course conditions, the weather and personal fatigue.

Where each runner places, can affect how the team fares.

The Donegal girls' cross country team competed at the District Three Class 2A championship race on Saturday, October 29, at Big Spring High School.

A shining example of putting forth a great effort and helping one's team was junior Bailey Shoaf, crossing the finish line in a time of 24:27.10, which earned her 103rd place in the race.

How was that significant?

"The girls' team placed third and advanced to the state meet," Donegal coach Phil Koser explained. "It came down to a tiebreaker between us and Boiling Springs for the third and final spot for states. Our sixth runner, Bailey Shoaf, beat their sixth runner to break the tie."

Both Boiling Springs and Donegal had 143 team points while Annville-Cleona finished atop the team standings with 82 points followed by Bishop McDevitt (106).

Donegal's leading runner on the day was Kathryn Fernald, who earned a medal with her 11th-place finish. The sophomore's pace was 20:16.20.

Freshman Molly Myers (21:11.70) finished 24th followed by Marleigh Ballard (25th, 21:16.20)

"Kathryn had a solid race on a hilly course," Koser said. "Some of the other girls were running through either an injury or illness but gave it their all."

Addison Houck (44th, 22:06.20) and Natalie Greiner (90th, 23:55.10) also helped with Donegal's third-place finish. Emma Myers posted a time of 25:06.

In the boys' Class 3A districts, junior John Hinkle paced the Indians with a time of 18:18.40. Cadel Barber (18:42.76) and John Spackman (20:10.30) also competed.