Plenty of top-notch individual performances to choose from for the Week 4 ‘3 Stars’ segment. Actually had to dig in and crunch some numbers for this one.

Here’s what I came up with …

Rickey Snyder, Annville-Cleona – What a night for the Little Dutchmen’s junior RB, who carried the ball 36 times for a whopping 326 yards and six – count ‘em, six – touchdown runs in Annville-Cleona’s wild and wonderfully wacky 53-32 win over Pequea Valley. The result did two things: It gave Annville-Cleona its first win this season after a sluggish 0-3 start; and it snapped Pequea Valley’s modest 1-game winning streak, after the Braves snapped a 29-game losing skid one week earlier with a win over Fleetwood. Snyder ran absolutely wild against Pequea Valley. His TD runs covered 35, 34, 25, 8, 45 and 5 yards, respectively, as the Dutchmen piled up 448 rushing yards and 21 first downs – and, most importantly, finally cracked the win column this season.

Arron Achey, Elco – Running out of superlatives for this guy so far this season. The Raiders’ senior QB was up to his old tricks in Elco’s 41-7 win over rival Northern Lebanon. Check out this line: Achey completed 11-of-15 attempts for 166 yards and tossed three TD passes, and he also rushed for 206 yards on 14 keepers (14.7 yards per pop) and scored two TD for the Raiders, who sailed past the Vikings and to a 4-0 start. Achey’s TD runs covered 57 and 23 yards, respectively, and his TD passes included an 8-yard toss to Tyler George, a 32-yard strike to George and an 11-yarder to Bryan Bowman. Achey was picked off for the first time this season, but it hardly mattered. In my very unofficial, top-secret poll, Achey is my league MVP through four weeks.

Taylor Groff, Manheim Central – The Barons’ senior kicker came through in the clutch, coolly and calmly drilling a 40-yard field with 1.8 seconds to go to lift Central over Cocalico 17-14 in an unforgettable Section 2 opener. Knotted 14-all and with time running out, Central, in business after a turnover, was facing fourth down and had no timeouts remaining. So the Barons couldn’t stop the clock – not even to spike the football. So Central hustled its field-goal unit onto the field and Groff buried the game-winner from 40 yards out – the longest field goal in the L-L League this season, and Groff’s third field goal this season – tied for the most in the league with Hempfield’s Dan Haldeman.