DISTRICT PLAYOFF PREVIEW - SEMIFINALS

     The Final Four starts tomorrow night and promises to be another excellent evening of Central PA high school lacrosse. For the second straight year Wilson, Carlisle, Manheim Township, and Hershey will meet to determine who plays Thursday night for the district title at Hershey Park Stadium on Thursday. All four teams will play in the state tournament as well. This is truly one of the best nights of local lacrosse and a must see for fans of the game.

     We will be doing live scoring updates from out twitter page (CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW) starting at 4:45pm and will have coverage of both games.

(Previews after the jump)

MANHEIM TOWNSHIP (3) vs CARLISLE (4) 5:00PM

- The Herd will get the "easier" of the two match-ups tomorrow night but not by much. Township is one game away from defending their 2013 district title (12-9 over Wilson) and is aiming to return. The Herd has bounced back very nicely from the Mid Penn Championship game and handily won both their first two district match-ups (11-3 over Penn Manor, 15-7 over Governor Mifflin). If the Herd can get out in front early, control the ball and possession time through out the game, and continue to play top level defense we like their chances.

    Most of that is easier said than done and they will need a number of players to step up. Max Breschi, Collin Wallace, and Hunter Scott will need to continue to lead the scoring by committee with Jon Mundell remaining a force on face-offs and in the middle of the field. First team Mid Penn selection Sid Ewell will need to showcase why he is one of the best defenders in the district and Mark Bowser must continue lead the defense from the net.

     The Blue Streaks have a 96.5 laxpower.com rating (Carlisle is at 94.6) and are 20-1 on the season with their lone loss coming against Emmaus (11-6). Manheim hails from the Lancaster-Lebanon League where they won their conference. On attack Willy Hendrick presents a real challenge with 60 goals on the season. Chris Augeri and Ryna Ketchum follow with 35 and 30 scores respectively. In the net Alex Ready will look to be up to his name for Township. Manheim is clearly a talented team with visions of reclaiming the district. We do not have any head to head to data on them with a Mid Penn team (they played none in the regular season) but if we can draw a comparison to their performance against Hempfield (lost 7-6 in OT) and Hershey's (who Carlisle has both a win and loss against this season) victory over the same team this past Thursday (15-11) it does show us that these two teams are at the same level of play an neither should be considered a huge favorite.

HERSHEY (5) vs WILSON (1)

- Seeding in the district tournament is everything. Hershey has the tougher road than the Herd to advance but in order to win it all you are going to have to beat some very good teams. After last Thursdays 15-11 dismantling (the score was a lot closer than the actual game) of Hempfield the Trojans showed that they are an elite team in district three and offer a legitimate threat to the Bulldogs run to the title.

     In order for Hershey to be successful they must continue to be in sync on offense. That means a whole lot of juniors Jake Wilson and George Briggs on attack. When these two are on and in rhythm they appear to be unstoppable. With senior standout Logan Calhoun completing the starting attack group they can score with anyone in the field. We have been adamant the past three games about the vital role senior LSM Dave Sickler plays in the Hershey game plan. Sickler controls the middle of the field and the transition game as good as we ever seen. If he is out there causing turnovers and dominating ground balls like he has been through out the post season we like Hershey's chances. Jimmy Eberle and sophomore Karl Vanblargen will need to be on their game from the midfield and continuing to give the attack as many possessions as possible. Kyle Kondracki has been fantastic in the net as of late and will need to continue to be lights out for the Trojans to go the distance. Chris Gazzio has a been a force at pole and if he can continue to shut down leading scorers good things will come from it.

    The Bulldogs have been dominant all season with an undefeated record of 22-0 and a near perfect laxpower.com ranking of 98.2 (Trojans are ate 96.2). This will be Hershey's most difficult opponent to date. These two squads played one another back on April 19th and Wilson won convincingly by a score of 12-4. After outscoring the Trojans 6-1 in the first half they put the game away in the 3rd quarter going up 11-2. Ryan Terefenko led them that day with 4 goals and 2 assists. Matt Close (2 goals, 1 assist) and Ryan Connolly (2 goals) followed his lead and all three will be players to keep an eye tomorrow night. Jason Roland was solid all evening in the net with 8 saves. It was Hershey's first loss of the season and one of only two they had all spring. Including the post season Wilson has out scored their opponents a whopping 348-94 for an average sore of 15.8 - 4.2 on the season. Their closest games were against Parkland (7-6), Governor Mifflin (9-5) and Hershey (12-4) showing they have been largely unmatched all season.

     Clearly Wilson will be recognized as a strong favorite tomorrow night but it would be foolish to count the Trojans, or any team still alive at this point, out before the whistle blows. We have seen through out the playoffs that what you have done before hand is not going to help you once the game starts. These are teams that have fought all season, are highly motivated, and bring some of the best players in the area to these games. With this level of talent everyone needs to be on top of their game to get victories.