by Duke Helm
RUNNINGBACKS:
Chase Herb of Tri-Valley and Mason Smeland of Palisades each went over 2,000 yards rushing in their careers last week. Herb playing in his first game this year rushed for 144 yards and scored 3 td’s in their win over Shenandoah Valley. Herb now has 2,101 yards for his career. Smeland rushed for 117 yards and 2 td’s in their win over Salisbury and now has 2,028 career yards. Brandon Camire of Emmaus rushed for 116 yards and 3 td’s and caught 2 passes for 62 yards and 2 more td’s in their win over Allen Thursday night. Matt Frauen of Notre Dame rushed for 195 yards and scored 4 td’s in their win over Palmerton. Frauen leads the District with his 16 td’s this year and has scored 30 total for his ND career. Matt Russin of Freedom rushed for 133 yards and scored 3 td’s in their win over Northampton. Russin now has 21 career td’s. Ben Terry of Mahanoy Area joins the chart after he went over 1,000 yards rushing for his career with his 110 yards and 2 scores vs Williams Valley. Terry has scored 11 td’s this season and 21 for his career to go along with his 1,064 career rushing yards. Freshman qb Conner Schwalm of Minersville rushed for 149 yards and 4 td’s and threw for 177 yards and 2 td’s in their win over Panther Valley. In the same game, Panther Valley’s Louie Clouser rushed for 203 yards and 2 td’s.
QUARTERBACKS:
Bryce Herb of Williams Valley threw for 293 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Mahanoy Area. Herb went over 1,000 yards passing on the season and 4,000 yards for his career. He now joins his dad (Paul) in the “4,000-yard” club. Herb currently has 4,033 career passing yards and 52 career td passes. Paul holds the school record with the 4,530 yards that he threw from 1981-84. They are the second father/son duo in District 11 to throw for over 4,000 yards each. Dan Kendra jr of Central Catholic threw for 5,003 yards from 1971-73 and his son Dan Kendra III who played at Bethlehem Catholic threw for 6,087 yards from 1991-94. Collin Quintano of Notre Dame threw for 321 yards and 3 td’s vs Palmerton to up his season totals to 888 yards and 9 td passes. Josh Leininger of Pine Grove threw for 262 yards and 2 td’s in their win over Blue Mountain. In their first game of the year, Easton’s Cole Transue threw for 160 yards in a 30-7 win over Liberty to go over 2,000 yards for his career. The junior has thrown for a career 2,023 yards and 14 td’s. Jake Hall of North Schuylkill threw for 264 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Jim Thorpe. Hall joins 3 other qb’s in making it onto the chart this week as all 4 went over 1,000 yards passing in their careers. Hall a junior, has 1,005 career passing yards. Jacob Moyer of Emmaus now has 1,008 yards. Pen Argyl’s Gavin Amerman has 1,045 yards and Lehighton’s Rich Fronheiser has thrown for 1,074 yards in his career. Fronheiser threw for a school-record 398 yards and 4 td passes in their win over Schuylkill Haven. Chris Whiteman held the old record when he threw for 380 yards in 2018 also against Haven. Joe Kerbacher of Northampton threw for 156 yards and 2 td passes in their loss to Freedom to become Northampton’s career td pass leader. Kerbacher has thrown 38 in his career surpassing Eric Spadt who threw 36 td passes from 1993-95.
RECEIVERS:
Christian Sapp of ES South caught 5 passes for 109 yards and 2 td’s vs PM West. Sapp now has 95 career catches for 1,704 yards and 23 td grabs. He’s closing in on 2 career school records (receptions and reception yardage). Dan Cason holds all the career receiving records at ES South. In 2 years (2008-09) Cason caught 97 passes for 1,784 yards and 30 td’s. He caught a td pass every 3.2 catches. Jesse Engle of Williams Valley caught another 2 td passes last week vs Mahanoy Area and now has 9 on the season and 30 for his career. Engle is one td catch short of the career record of 31 that Jake Wolfgang caught from 2015-17. He does however move ahead of Jason Grow who caught 29 td’s from 1987-90. Gabe Davis of Minersville upped his career totals to 80 catches for 1,280 yards and 13 td catches. He owns the career td reception record with his 13 so far. He’s tied with Bryce Ellinger for career catches with 80 catches. And he’s nearing another Ellinger record which is career receiving yards. Ellinger has 1,359 yards and Davis is 79 yards behind with 1,280 yards. Justin Rodda of Northwestern is within 1 td catch of tying Cam Richardson’s career td catch record of 23 that he set from 2012-14. Lehighton’s duo of Zack Hunsicker and Hunter Crum had huge nights vs Schuylkill Haven. Hunsicker caught 7 passes for 185 yards and 2 scores, and Crum caught 6 passes for 146 yards and 2 td’s. Hunsicker is tied with Shea Morgan of Pine Grove atop the District leaderboard with 27 catches apiece. I forgot to mention last week that Morgan went over 1,000 yards in his career and added to that total this past weekend and now has caught 80 passes for 1,189 yards and 10 td’s in his career.
History:
Back in the 1966 Turkey day game between Emmaus and Whitehall, Emmaus punter John Fritch boomed a 73-yard punt. Well, who would have thought that a year later Fritch would boom another punt vs Whitehall with this one going 86 yards. The punt aided by the wind hit the Whitehall 40-yard line and rolled all the way down inside the 1-yard line.
What’s in a nickname. Also, back in 1966, a defensive back for Bethlehem Catholic had an appropriate one. Mark “chicken” Cacciatore.
