Interviews done

Interviews were completed yesterday at Columbia High School for its vacant football  coaching position.

The next step is expected to be to take the name of the successor to Jason Shoff to the school board's extra-cirrucular committee meeting.

That committee meets Wednesday night. The following week, the Columbia School Board will hold its Committee of the Whole meeting.

Current CHS assistant Michael Burke III is considered the front runner.

Fire damages building in township

Fire caused $600,000 in damage to the Columbia Pattern and Machine Company, 4604 Klinesville Road around 4 a.m. this morning in West Hempfield Township.

PSP Fire Marshal Brian Herr said there was $100,000 damage done to the builing and $500,000 to its contents.

Fire officials said a passing motorist spotted the blaze. When firefighters arrived smoke was coming from the roof with an orange glow. Damage was contained to computer controlled machines, equipment and the roof.

The fire was brought under control around 6 a.m.

Assisting at the the West Hempfield Fire Department on the scene were the Susquehanna and Consolidated Fire Departments from Columbia, Mountville, Fire Department Mount Joy (yes that is correct), Maytown-East Donegal, Rheems, Marietta, Washington Boro and Wrightsville. Many were tankers.

Season ends

They played twice this year. Each won a game on the others' home court.

Wednesday, Annville-Cleona and Columbia met for the third time this season in boys' basketball. Unlike the two league games, one held about 10 before on the Tide's home floor, this one had a lot at stake. Win and you advance in the District Three Class AA playoffs. Lose and its the end of the season and high schoo, careers for many.

At Hershey High School, the two evenly matched foes from Section 4 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League, battled in the first round of the District Three playoffs. To the winner went a Saturday meeting against third seeded Hanover.

And it was Annville-Cleona who is moving on following a 42-41win over the Crimson Tide. Columbia's sesason ends with a 7-16 record.

The story of the game was the play of Annville-Cleona guard Trey Blanding. He scored 24 of his team's 42 points, including the first 11. On the other end of the court, Tide senior Brandon Arnold scored all six of his team's first quarter points. After eight minutes, it was Blanding 7, Arnold 6.

A-C continued to led the game in the second quarter. A big basket was a three-pointer from A-C's Tyler Napierala,, which gave the eventual winners a six-point lead. The Tide bounced back, tying the game at 14-14, before falling behind 16-14 at the half.

The Tide took their first lead of the game to open the second half  by Arnold (13 points), but A-C got a couple of three-pointers in the third quarter, including one by Josh Henning to go up as many as five points in the third quarter. A-C still owned a three-point, 28-25 lead entering the final eight minutes.

The Little Dutchmen increased their lead to 32-25 early in the fourth quarter, before the Tide got back into the game outscoring A-C 8-1 over a three minute span to tie the game at 33-33 on a basket by Tre Simms.

Back in the game, the Tide turned the ball over four straight times and A-C took advantage, taking control of the game, leading 40-35 with under two minutes left. Blanding hit 4-of-4 from the foul line to ice the game for A-C. A three-pointer by Nate Wall (11 points) at the buzzer made it a one point game.

District Three picks

Here are the basketball picks.
Boys 4-A: Hempfield over Penn Manor in a close one; Red Land over York; Wilson easily over Warwick and Reading shoots down Daniel Boone.
Boys 3-A: Eastern over Susquehanna Township; West York over East Pennsboro; Hershey melts Lancaster Catholic and the Rollers falll to York Suburban.
Boys 2-A: Trinity over Upper Dauphin; Delone over McDevitt; Trinity over York Catholic and Hanover easily over Annville-Cleona.
Boys 1-A: Central Catholic rolls over Antietan; Millersburg tops Living Word; Greenwood goes "green" over Canp Hill and Lebanon Catholic has some hope against New Hope.
Girls 4-A: CD upsets Red Lion; Reading tops Hershey; Mifflin beats Harrisburg and Mechanicsburg moves on over CD East.
Girls 3-A: West York over Daniel Boone; Shippensburg over Oley Valley; Trinity rolls over Manheim Central and Lancaster Catholic uphends Palmyra.
Girls 2-A: York Catholic over Holy Name; Wyomissing over Kutztown; Mennonite over Biglerville and Delone overe Brandywine Heights.
Girls 1-A: Steel-High over Central Catholic; Lancaster Country Day over Bible Baptist; Lebanon Catholic over Camp Hill and Greenwood over Conestoga Christian.