DISTRICT NOTES: District leaders are now listed at the bottom.
by Duke Helm
RUNNINGBACKS: Darnell Ferrell of Central Catholic rushed for 213 yards (2td’s), caught 1 pass for a 51 yard td and returned a kick-off 100 yards for a td in their win over Pocono Mountain West. Going through past records that I have, that’s the first player in District 11 to have 2 rushing td’s, 1 reception td and 1 kick-off return td in two consecutive games. Ferrell and Notre Dame’s Mitch Daniel lead the District with 9 td’s each. Thomas Melchiorre of East Stroudsburg North rushed for 304 yards and scored 3 td’s in their win over Allen. Melchiorre went over 3,000 yards rushing for his career (3,271) and joined the “40 td” club. He also leads the District with 580 yards. Brandon Belfonti of Northern Lehigh rushed for 265 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Bangor. Bangor had 3 fumble recovery td’s in the game including 2 for 102 yards by Joey Schader. Jamaal Brome of Stroudsburg rushed for 272 yards and 3 td’s in their win over East Stroudsburg South. Brome went over 2,000 yards for his career (2,144). Darion Jacoby of Pottsville also went over 2,000 yards for his career (2,052). Catasauqua has scored 11 td’s this year with 8 different players reaching the endzone. Justin St. Hill of Jim Thorpe scored 3 td’s for the 2nd week in a row. Jared Colletti of Palisades rushed for 172 yards and 3 td’s, kicked 2 field goals (29, 35) and was 4-4 in extra point kicks in their come from behind win over Northwestern. Matt Mayernik of Lehighton rushed for 197 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Schuylkill Valley. Mike Kalyan (Schuylkill Haven), Kei’dre Taylor (Minersville) and Logan Sterner of Pen Argyl all went over 1,000 yards rushing in their career’s. Sterner had a big game when he rushed for 258 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Catasauqua.
QUARTERBACKS: Freshman qb Devin Bollinger of Northwestern threw for a school record 291 yards and 3 td’s in their loss to Palisades. Mike Heintzelman held the old record when he threw for 264 yards in 1975 vs Jim Thorpe. Brandon Keyes of Pleasant Valley threw for 275 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Northampton. Keyes and Cody Scherer of Lehighton have thrown for over 200 yards in each of their first 3 games. Scherer leads the District with 790 yards passing. Scott Poulson of Easton threw for 207 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Freedom. The school record at Easton is 237 yards held by Mike Miller (1971) and Matt Loebsack (1998). Ethan Kuczynski of Marian Catholic (3,058) and Joe Young of Freedom (3,001) both went over 3,000 yards passing for their career’s. Juniors, Thad Zuber of Tamaqua, Hunter Kennedy of Panther Valley and Jacob Keane of Pocono Mountain East all went over 1,000 yards passing in their career’s. Logan Edmond a sophomore from Southern Lehigh threw for 335 yards and 4 td’s in a loss to Notre Dame. The 4 td’s ties the school record held by Blake Levengood and his 2 brothers Ty and Travis. Edmond leads the Distict with 9 td passes. In the same game, Notre Dame’s sophomore qb Cole DeFranco threw for 254 yards and 3 td’s. Zachary Gilbert of Whitehall threw for 282 yards and 3 td’s vs Nazareth. Noah Allegretta of Shenandoah Valley threw for 255 yards and a td last week and now has 425 yards on the season. Jake Cirillo of East Stroudsburg South is now in 32nd place all-time in the District for career passing yards. He moved ahead of Jeff Krisiak of Pocono Mountain West. Converted wide receiver Jake Wolfgang of Williams Valley threw for 125 yards and 2 td’s and returned a fumble for a 99 yard td.
RECEIVERS: Timmy Walter of Southern Lehigh caught 7 passes for 90 yards and 3 td’s vs Notre Dame. Walter now has 93 receptions for 1,634 yards and 23 td catches in his career. In week 2, he became the 18th player in the Colonial league to go over 1,500 yards receiving in their career. He’s now in 12th place as he moved ahead of Brian Cooper (Wilson 1,502), Ron Gelegonya (Palisades 1,532), Austin Cseh (Palmerton 1,572), Tom Falzone (Catasauqua 1,583), Matt Andrews (Catasauqua 1,598) and Cam Richardson (Northwestern 1,601). His 23 td catches breaks the school record of 22 that was set last year by Ethan Price. Justin Scerbo of Wilson also had 22 td catches in his career and is tied with Price for 6th place in the league. Walter is currently tied with Richardson for 4th best all-time in the league. His career yardage total of 1,634 places him in a tie for 45th all-time in the District with Central Catholic’s Jalen Snyder-Scipio. He moved ahead of 3 other players that had at least 1,600 yards in their career. They are; Jacen Nalesnik (Lehighton 1,604), Mark Scattene (Bethlehem Catholic 1,605) and Tom Miller (Panther Valley 1,611). Justin Richardson of Pleasant Valley caught 5 passes for 176 yards and 2 td’s. Richardson now has 17 catches for a District leading 483 yards and 6 td’s. He is now the only player left to have at least 100 yards receiving in every game this year. Desmond Boykin of Whitehall leads the District with 20 receptions. Chris Monaco of Pocono Mountain West caught 2 passes for 69 yards and a td, had 7 carries for 91 yards and returned a punt 81 yards vs Central Catholic. Karim Powell of Bethlehem Catholic has a total of 3 receptions this year. The 3 catches netted 185 yards (61.7 avg) and all 3 went for td’s. Trevor Cunningham of Northwestern caught 6 passes for 145 yards and 3 td’s vs Palisades. He now holds the top 2 spots all-time at Northwestern for reception yardage in a game (184, 145). Julian Liaci of Nazareth caught 6 passes for 168 yards and 2 td’s in their win over Whitehall. Mike Stasko of Palmerton and Mitch Daniel of Notre Dame are both senior runningbacks. They both have 683 career receiving yards and 6 td’s receptions.
Week 3 Trivia: Joe Young of Freedom (3,001 career passing yards) needs 393 passing yards to break the school record. Who holds the record with 3,393 passing yards for their career at Freedom?
Week 2 Trivia:
No player in the District rushed for 200 yards last week. When was the last time that happened in the regular season? There’s been a player in District 11 rush for at least 200 yards in 47 consecutive regular season weeks and counting. I’m currently back to 2011 (week 4) researching to find a 200 yard rusher.
Week 1 Trivia: Mitch Daniel of Notre Dame rushed for over 1,000 yards (1,096) and caught passes for over 500 yards (525) in 2015. Who is the only other player in District 11 to accomplish this? Hint: He played D1, but didn’t play offense. Kyshoen Jarrett of East Stroudsburg South rushed for 1,027 yards and caught 33 passes for 591 yards in 2010. Jarrett had a successful career at Virginia Tech making 249 career tackles from his safety position.
2016 single game highs: ( ) is the week the player accomplished the stat
Single Game Touchdowns (4)
5 (2), 4 (3) Darnell Ferrell (Central Catholic)
4 (1) Thomas Melchiorre (ES North)
4 (2) Mitch Daniel (Notre Dame)
Single Game Rushing Yardage (200)
304 (3) Thomas Melchiorre (East Stroudsburg North)
272 (3) Jamaal Brome (Stroudsburg)
265 (3) Brandon Belfonti (Northern Lehigh)
258 (3) Logan Sterner (Pen Argyl)
216 (1) Randy Terry III (Bethlehem Catholic)
213 (3) Darnell Ferrell (Central Catholic)
Single Game Passing Yardage (200)
335 (3), 224 (1) Logan Edmond (Southern Lehigh)
315 (1), 240 (2), 235 (3) Cody Scherer (Lehighton) *School Record*
305 (1), 254 (3) Cole DeFranco (Notre Dame)
302 (2), 297 (1) Andrew Brett (Catasaqua)
291 (3), 241 (1) Drew Bollinger (Northwestern) *School Record*
288 (2) Jake Cirillo (East Stroudsburg South)
282 (3), 218 (1) Zachary Gilbert (Whitehall)
275 (3), 229 (1), 217 (2) Brandon Keyes (Pleasant Valley)
255 (3) Noah Allegretta (Shenandoah Valley)
243 (2) Logan Yoder (Tri-Valley)
234 (3), 210 (1) Travis Stefanik (Nazareth)
210 (1) Joe Young (Freedom)
208 (2) Todd Erney (Liberty)
207 (3) Scott Poulson (Easton)
204 (2), 201 (1) Hunter Kennedy (Panther Valley)
Single Game TD Passes (4)
5 (2) Andrew Brett (Catasauqua) *Ties School Record*
4 (3) Logan Edmond (Southern Lehigh)
Single Game Receptions (10)
11 (2) Miguel Hernandez (Catasauqua) *Ties School Record*
Single Game Reception Yardage (150)
190 (2) John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South) *School Record*
187 (1), 176 (3) Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley)
184 (1) Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern) *School Record*
176 (2) Darian Street (Liberty)
168 (3) Julian Liaci (Nazareth)
Single Game Reception TD’s (3)
3 (1) Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley) *Ties School Record*
3 (2) John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South)
3 (3) Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern)
3 (3) Timmy Walter (Southern Lehigh)
District Season Leaders
Rushing (400)
580 Thomas Melchiorre (East Stroudsburg North)
498 Jamall Brome (Stroudsburg)
473 Darnell Ferrell (Central Catholic)
407 Jarrad Pope (East Stroudsburg South)
Touchdowns (6)
9 Mitch Daniel (Notre Dame)
9 Darnell Ferrell (Central Catholic)
8 Thomas Melchiorre (East Stroudsburg North)
7 Mike Mitchell (Pleasant Valley)
7 Logan Sterner (Pen Argyl)
6 Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley)
6 Nick Breiner (Tamaqua)
6 Timmy Walter (Southern Lehigh)
6 Justin St. Hill (Jim Thorpe)
Passing Yards (400)
790 Cody Scherer (Lehighton)
745 Brandon Keyes (Pleasant Valley)
740 Logan Edmond (Southern Lehigh)
715 Andrew Brett (Catasauqua)
677 Zachary Gilbert (Whitehall)
658 Devin Bollinger (Northwestern)
637 Cole DeFranco (Notre Dame)
534 Joe Young (Freedom)
526 Travis Stefanik (Nazareth)
524 Hunter Kennedy (Panther Valley)
516 Ethan Persa (Central Catholic)
500 Jake Cirillo (East Stroudsburg South)
471 Derek Sheaffer (Emmaus)
440 Thad Zuber (Tamaqua)
425 Noah Allegretta (Shenandoah Valley)
Touchdown Passes (6)
9 Logan Edmond (Southern Lehigh)
7 Joe Young (Freedom)
7 Brandon Keyes (Pleasant Valley)
7 Cody Scherer (Lehighton)
7 Derek Sheaffer (Emmaus)
6 Andrew Brett (Catasauqua)
6 Devin Bollinger (Northwestern)
6 Eric Wapinsky (Potttsville)
Receptions (15)
20 Desmond Boykin (Whitehall)
19 Miquel Hernadez (Catasauqua)
19 Gavin Zehner (Lehighton)
18 Ryan Greene (Catasauqua)
17 Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley)
17 Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern)
16 Corey Raysely (Catasauqua)
15 Timmy Walter (Southern Lehigh)
15 Josh Artis (Emmaus)
Reception Yardage (250)
483 Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley)
392 Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern)
327 Timmy Walter (Southern Lehigh)
282 Darius Street (Liberty)
271 Zeke Wassell (Tamaqua)
260 John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South)
Reception Touchdowns (4)
6 Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley)
6 Timmy Walter (Southern Lehigh)
5 Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern)
4 Ashton Buchanan (Tri-Valley)
4 Josh Artis (Emmaus)
4 Alstan Wolfe (Saucon Valley)
