Week 3: Rissmiller scores at will in Suburban's win; Strausbaugh returns for Red Lion

After four days of weather wreaking havoc on the high school football schedule, the skies were clear Monday as seven YAIAA teams took the field.

Central York, Red Lion, York High and York Suburban were Week 3 winners, while Biglerville dropped an overtime thriller to James Buchanan.

Here's how the action unfolded:

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Football week that just won't end: See Week 3 results and photos from Thursday/Friday and Saturday.

Monday's Week 3 games

Red Lion 38, Reading 20: The Lions played a real waiting game to get their second win of the season.

They waited for Dain Strausbaugh to be healthy enough to play a full game. They tried to wait out Friday's storm, but it was suspended, and they had to wait three days to pick it up with 3:16 remaining in a scoreless first quarter.

And when Monday rolled around, the game was pushed back another hour because Reading couldn't find transportation to bring the team back to Horn Field. Once play resumed, the Lions didn't wait to score. Chris Price lofted a ball to the outside corner of the end zone to a spot where Damien Cedrone had to use all of his 6-foot-4 reach to make a one-handed catch to start the second quarter.

Red Lion coach Jesse Shay said his coaching staff pulled double duty over the weekend to make adjustments for the conclusion of the suspended game, and to prepare for Friday's game against Elizabethtown.

"We only have three days," he said. "Our coaching staff did a great job. In the short little sample that we had, we saw that [Reading] aligned differently to a couple of our formations than we thought they were going to, so we were able to make some adjustments."

That work paid off as Price was able to build on the Lions' lead with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Morales that came after a Jackson Harris sack forced the Black Knights to turn the ball over on downs. Kenyon Sherriff cut the Lions' lead in half with a 5-yard run in the last minute of the first half, but the lead grew to double digits when Strausbaugh returned the kickoff 57 yards to set up Price's 25-yard field goal.

The Lions only dug Reading's hole deeper in the second half. Strausbaugh scored from 16 yards out, and Price found Cedrone for another score less than three minutes later to build their lead to 31-7 with 3:04 left in a third quarter that lasted nearly an hour.

Penalties mounted in that third quarter, including a Reading personal foul and ejection after a missed point after on Kevin Small's 8-yard touchdown run that cut the lead to 31-13 with 1:48 remaining.

"As the head coach, I need to take responsibility for that," Shay said of the penalty-filled quarter. "I have to make sure our guys are doing the right things. But, you know, I'm pretty proud of the way our guys have always handled themselves. It got a little chippy in there on both sides, and I've already started talking about that. We can't control anyone else, we can only control our reaction to things."

Strausbaugh didn't show any effects from the hip flexor that kept him out of last week's win over West York. He was the deep man on punt and kickoff returns and scored touchdowns on runs of 16 and 21 yards.

Shay said Strausbaugh's speed on the edge opened things up in the middle for Price, whether he was running, throwing short slant passes or pitching to open runners.

"This was the first week that he's out for the full game and that's obviously nice," Shay said. "He's a bit of a difference-maker."

Another part of the game that made a big difference for the Lions was the aggressive play by the defense. Rarely did the Black Knights make a gaping hole with their offensive line so that their backs could run. Instead it was Red Lion winning the battle in the trenches, which led to sacks, forced throws and bottled up runners.

It also led to short or no gains on first and second downs to put Reading in long-yardage situations.

James Buchanan 21, Biglerville 19 (OT): James Buchanan made enough plays to survive a wild fourth quarter/overtime and secure its first victory of 2023 on Monday night.

It was 6-0 James Buchanan on Friday night when the lightning and rain halted play with a little over half the second quarter gone. Monday's resumption saw both offenses come to life.

Biglerville's Bo Forney, who was 0-6 with two interceptions thrown on Friday night, turned things around by going 9-of-16 for 179 yards, three touchdowns and one interception on Monday.

Rockets' junior corner Elijah Williams swatted away the tying two-point conversion pass intended for Kyler Johnson in overtime to seal the deal for James Buchanan.

Jacob Frey scored a 5-yard touchdown rush in overtime, then ran in the two-point try for the Rockets. Biglerville (1-2) answered with a third down screen pass that Noah Fulton took 12 yards for a score to set up the tying two-point attempt.

Forney's only second-half interception came on the second to last play of regulation. Jacob Frey picked the pass off at the goal line and raced 100 yards for a would-be winning score, but a penalty on the Rockets for an illegal block in the back negated the return and in effect sent the game to overtime.

Tavian McAuliffe, Adams County's leading pass catcher coming into the game, caught six balls for 105 yards for the Canners, all in the Monday portion of the contest.

Central York 39, Hempfield 0: The Panthers improved their record to 3-0 with a shutout of their LL League foes. Now attention turns to the league portion of the schedule in Week 4 and the question remains: Can anyone in the YAIAA beat Central, who hasn't lost to a league foe since 2018?

York Suburban 42, York Catholic 0: It was "The CJ Rissmiller Show" as the Trojans (1-2) ran up the score and recorded their first victory of the season. The game was postponed Friday and restarted with Suburban up 14-0 in the second quarter. Rissmiller, a sophomore who also scored the opening touchdown on Monday, ran in three straight touchdowns to give the Trojans a 35-0 lead. Donovan Alicea and Steve Bowman accounted for the other two TDs. The Irish fell to 0-3.

Pequea Valley 25, Hanover 14: The Braves stormed back in the second half to hand Hanover a loss after the Nighthawks (0-3) held a 14-6 halftime lead on Friday. Pequea Valley scored on three of four possessions, grabbed an interception and recovered a fumble.

York High 42, Carlisle 40: The Bearcats (2-1) led for most of the game. The Herd (1-2) tied it at 28 briefly in the third quarter, but York ran the score to 42-28 at the end of three. Carlisle didn't roll over, bringing the game within two points with less than eight minutes to play, but the Bearcats held on for the win.

Correspondent George Marinos contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: YAIAA Week 3 high school football scores: York Suburban earns win