PIAA District three football brackets, a quick look at the games

Tagged under: District 3, News, Playoffs

Billy Splain | November 5, 2026

1A

Simple. The 8-1 Rollers and 3-7 Delone Catholic will play for the title. But first, a week off to prepare. Winner gets the District 5 champ.

2A

Upper Dauphin v Columbia is an interesting game. The 6-4 Trojans have several D1 kids but haven’t been able to beat a team with a winning record yet. At 4-6 Columbia can say the same. A streak will either continue, or end. Either UDA keeps beating teams under .500 or Columbia finally gets one.

York Catholic (6-4) v Newport (5-5).  See above for description. Winner of this bracket will get the district 12 rep, likely a powerful West Catholic team.

3A

Wyomissing v Trinity. I like this bracket. The Spartans are back in 3A, a division they were in when they lost two times in a row to D7 Central Valley. No lies here, the Spartan offense hasn’t changed. You have to stop that run game. Only two team have done so, Twin Valley and Southern Columbia. For Trinity, they’re a young team but they do have some athletes with breakaway potential. They like to spread it out with Sweppenhiser and George but its RB Brandon Harris that butters their bread.

Schuylkill Valley v Annville-Cleona. The Dutchmen just saw RB Yama Navarro run for 411 in a game. That’s their forte’. Devon Englehart and Navarro. Run. The Panthers know what they have to do. They’re the team that gave up 411 last Friday.

4a

Light schedule in this class in week one of the playoffs. Conrad Weiser takes on Elco, both teams with 6-4 records, with the winner to meet top seeded West York. The Scouts best win was a 27-13 win over 8-2 Schuylkill Valley in week one. They’re coming off a stretch in which they went 1-4, finishing out with a win over Daniel Boone. Elco, who defeated the Scouts 21-12 early in the season, has two nice wins over Donegal and Northern Lebanon winning 4 of their last 5 games.

Susquehannock faces Northern Lebanon with the winner facing 10-0 Hanover. These teams also have matching 6-4 records. The Warriors started off hot with wins over Trinity and a good Littlestown squad but have been inconsistent through the season.  Northern has a week 2 win over Hamburg but hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record since, though a quality win over 5-5 Donegal early in the season was a good resume builder.

5A

This class might be Twin Valley’s to win though it won’t be easy. The undefeated Raiders await the winner of Dover/Cocalico. Dover rattled off 8 straight wins after a week one loss to Conestoga Valley (CV), then lost to West York to close the regular season. Cocalico has a nice win over Lampeter early on but that’s their only win against a team with a winning record. Losses to playoff teams Solanco, CV, Ephrata and TV.

Spring Grove awaits the  winner of Exeter Twp/Hershey. The Trojans are coming off three straight losses to playoff teams. Exeter Twp has won 7 of their last 8 with quality wins over CV, Ephrata and Elizabethtown.

Northern York awaits the Ephrata/Lower Dauphin winner. The Mountaineers hold a nice win over CV but lost to Elizabethtown two weeks ago. Lower Dauphin, new to 5A, lost the Hershey to close out the regular season and they too haven’t gotten a win over a team with a winning record.

Solanco awaits the winner between CV and Northeastern. The Buckskins have two 4 game win streaks with a loss to Ephrata in between and lost to Exeter to close the season. For the Bobcats, they have a big slip up to powerhouse West York and a narrow loss to Dover.

6A

This is a banger of a bracket! Central York, Wilson, Manheim Township and McDevitt all have byes. The odd team out here is McDevitt. They haven’t seen any of the three others with byes. Twp beat the Panthers, Wilson beat Twp and the Panthers beat Wilson (by 2). McDevitt’s lone loss came to State College early in the season. Any of these teams could win the district.

The Crusaders with face either Mechanicsburg or Dallastown. The battle of Wildcats seems to favor 8-2 Mechanicsburg version but Levi Murphy has Dallastown playing inspired ball and they’ve been in some of those losses.

Cedar Crest and Hempfield know each other well. The Falcons took the first matchup 28-19. Both have losses to Wilson and Twp, however, Hempfield knows they can compete. The Streaks only beat them by 1 last week. Township awaits.

Harrisburg v York High. I know, it’s technically William Penn, but everyone knows them as York High. Look, the Cougars are coming off two thumping’s (State College and McDevitt) but this is a team that knows how to win playoffs. Coach Cal will have his team ready. The Bearcats have lost 5 straight, are 3-7 but they have athletes. And that schedule, wow. They’ve played 6 teams with 8 wins or more and South Western with a 6-4 record. Harrisburg took the first meeting in week one handily. Winner gets Wilson.

Cumberland Valley v Penn Manor. Like the others in the SCAC section, Penn Manor has been beaten by Wilson and  Twp. They did manage a win over Cedar Crest but the rest of the resume’ isn’t strong. Same said for the Eagles. It’s been a rough year for coach Josh Oswalt’s Eagles, and it started rough before the first practice losing several studs to other area teams. Winner here gets Central York.

Summary, this is a loaded bracket. Might be one of the best corners of the brackets out of all of them.