Barons’ junior two-way threat previews district finale vs. West York

Dakota Royer has never played a football game in Hersheypark Stadium.

He’ll be there for the first time Friday night, and his goal is to help Manheim Central bus out of Chocolate Town with its 16th District 3 Triple-A championship trophy.

Royer and the Barons are set to take on West York in the district finale.

Central’s junior two-way terror has been a complete and total handful on both sides of the ball. On offense, he has a team-best 52 catches for 1,065 yards and five TD grabs, and on defense, he continues to chase quarterbacks with reckless abandon, and blow up play after play in the backfield before it even gets started.

Royer has had such a dominant junior season that he already has scholarship offers from Penn State, Maryland and Pitt in his back pocket.

But he said this week that those things are in the way, way back of his mind at the moment, and that he and his Central teammates have bigger fish to fry, namely winning another district championship.

And the one piece of good news for Royer and his defensive mates this week is that they won’t have to chase West York scatback Brandon Real – 2,600 rushing yards, 41 rushing TDs, 51 total TDs this season – who broke his collarbone in the district semifinals and was lost for the season.

But Royer knows West York – with or without Real – is still a quality opponent.

We chatted about that, along with Central’s groovy postseason run, including the magical, special-teams heavy, come-from-behind win at Mechanicsburg in the district semifinals last Saturday.

You can listen to the Podcast by clicking on the ‘play’ button above.

You can also download the interview and play it on your favorite mp3 device by clicking right here.