More District Duals Talk

   If you didn't know by now, the District 5 matches for tonight have been pushed to tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. Fourth seed Somerset hosts fifth seed HOPE for Hyndman, and third seed North Star hosts sixth seed Meyersdale. You can find my closer look at the D5 team tournament here - Looking at District 5 Duals.
   In District 3-AA last night, there was a shocker as Northern Lebanon knocked off Bermudian Springs, 36-28, in a semifinal match. Northern Lebanon will wrestle Boiling Springs for the D3 title on Saturday.
   Coming into the match, Bermudian Springs was ranked fifth in the state by Off the Mat and eighth by PA Power Wrestling. Northern Lebanon was not ranked by either service, and had lost to Bermudian by a 44-28 score earlier in the season. Hurting Bermudian was the absence of standout lightweight Bayley Oberlander, who is done for the season with a shoulder injury. But Northern Lebanon was without 220-pounder Matt Vines, who is ranked 16th by Off the Mat.
   Not all is lost, just yet, for Bermudian Springs, but the Eagles need a lot of help. First, they need to beat Delone Catholic for third place on Saturday. Then, they would need Northern Lebanon to pull off a bigger upset and defeat Boiling Springs for the championship. Only that scenario would put them in the first-year true second place match against Boiling Springs for the right to advance to Hershey. Obviously, Bermudian would need to then avenge a 10-point regular season loss to the Bubblers to do so.
   In a tough twist of fate to swallow for Bermudian Springs, the true second format was created in District 3 this year in order to avoid a recurrance of last season, where the Eagles and Boiling Springs were on the same side of the bracket based on the power point ratings that are used to determine seedings. That forced the two powers, who like this season are ranked among the top teams across the state, to meet in the semifinals with only the winner surviving the district tournament. Boiling Springs did and won the tournament on its way to a fourth-place medal in Hershey, while Bermudian Springs was left to think what might have been if things were different.
   The District 3 runner-up also bears watching in regards to whoever wins District 5 and who will be the District 6 runner-up. On Monday, 3-2 and 6-2 will meet in a play-in match for a berth at the Giant Center next Thursday. The winner of that draws the D5 champ in a first round dual in the PIAA bracket.
   It was certainly possible that Bermudian Springs would have been the D3 second, and advanced to Hershey to face presumed D5 winner Chestnut Ridge. That would have meant Off the Mat's #4 and #5 teams (#5 and #8 by PA Power) battling for a quarterfinal spot, and maybe the inside track at reaching the state final from that half of the draw. As stated above, Bermudian could still make it, but that seems very unlikely.
   No slight to any of the District 6 teams, as any of the four remaining (Huntingdon, West Branch, Central, or Westmont) would probably give the D3 second placer a good match. Given what we saw last night and on countless occasions before, anything is possible.
   And maybe we shouldn't be sleeping on Northern Lebanon either. All it takes is a look back to last year to see Hamburg's run to the state semifinals, with wins over Burrell and Brookville.