by Duke Helm
RUNNINGBACKS: There were 2 games last week that involved a player from both teams scoring 4 or more td’s each. Tamaqua’s 42-40 shootout win over Lehighton and Whitehall’s 41 -28 win over Freedom. Nick Breiner of Tamaqua rushed for 149 yards and 5 td’s. Breiner, who had 26 carries at halftime, missed the last 16 minutes of the game due to leg cramps. Mike Mayernik of Lehighton rushed for 153 and scored 4 td’s in the same game. Mayernik had 3 rushing td’s and an 85 yard kick-off return. He’s one of several new players on the chart this week. Dashaun Peterson of Freedom rushed for 251 yards and 4 td’s in their loss to Whitehall. That’s the second game this year Peterson scored 4 td’s. The Whitehall player was Desmond Boykin (see receivers section). Breiner’s 5 td’s falls one short of the school record. Joe Rhubright scored 6 td’s in a 76-0 win over Nesquehoning in 1928. Rhubright would go on to score 18 td’s that season after scoring 17 td’s the year before. Darnell Ferrell of Central Catholic scored 2 td’s last week to up his District leading total to 26. Darion Jacoby of Pottsville and Thomas Melchiorre of ESN both have 526 career carries. Gunner Anglovich of Liberty went over the 2,000 yards rushing and 30 td’s for his career. He now has 2,060 yards and 31 td’s. Mitch Daniel of Notre Dame has rushed for 528 yards while picking up another 222 yards receiving. He has 33 career td’s which places him in 3rd place all-time at the school behind Dan Tavani (61) and Frank Morici (35). Zach Petiet of Saucon Valley went over 1,000 yards rushing and 20 td’s for his career. The junior has 1,087 yards rushing and has scored a total of 21 td’s. Saivaughn Vass of Bangor rushed for 272 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Northwestern. Logan Sterner, a junior from Pen Argyl scored 3 td’s in their win over Salisbury and now has 31 for his career.
QUARTERBACKS: Ethan Persa of Central Catholic threw for 210 yards and 5 td’s in their win over PME. He’s now thrown for 3,227 yards in his career and 23 td passes. Deven Bollinger of Northwestern threw for 256 yards and 3 td’s last week vs Bangor. The freshman is now Northwestern’s single season passing yardage leader with 1,382 yards. Frank Dangello held the old record when he threw for 1,306 yards in 2013 as a junior. Brandon Keyes of Pleasant Valley threw for 335 yards and 6 td’s in their win over Dieruff. The 335 yards falls 14 yards short of the school record 349 yards that Derrik Walling threw vs ESS in 2010. The 6 td’s ties the school record held by Brandon Leap. Leap also threw 6 td’s vs Dieruff in 2013. Keyes leads the District with 1,648 yards and 22 td passes. He’s now in 4th place all-time at PV for single season passing yardage and is tied for 2nd with Leap for td passes in a season. Javon Clements of Bethlehem Catholic threw for 243 yards for the second time this year. He threw 4 td passes vs Parkland and also went over the 1,000 yard mark for the year (1,007). Zachary Gilbert of Whitehall threw for 266 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Freedom, boosting his yearly totals to 1,355 yards and 12 td passes. Travis Stefanik of Nazareth threw for 260 yards and 4 td’s in their win over Emmaus. Stefanik has now thrown for 4,517 yards and 52 td’s. The td’s ties the school record that Dan Harding set from 2009-11. The career yardage places Stefanik in 20th place all-time in the District just ahead of North Schuylkill’s Bobby Grigas. Just like Jake Cirillo last week, Stefanik’s 52 td passes also ties him for 24th place all-time in the District with Phil Stambaugh of Pius X. Cirillo of ESS went over 1,000 yards passing for the 4th year in a row and now has 5,328 yards for his career. That’s good enough for 11th place all-time in the District. His 55 td passes ties him with Southern Lehigh’s Travis Edmond for 17th place all-time. First year player Cole Defranco continues to lead the undefeated Notre Dame team. The sophomore qb has completed 66% of his passes for 1,397 yards and 10 td’s. He’s also rushed for 349 yards and 6 td’s. Garrett Perschy of Palmerton threw for 254 yards and 3 td’s vs Palisades to go over 1,000 yards for the 3rd season in a row. He is now the Bomber’s career leader in passing yards (3,593) and td passes (33). Brian Morgan held the old records when he threw for 3,560 yards and 30 td passes from 1986-89. Joe Young of Freedom is in 40th spot on the District list for career passing yards (3,600). Perschy is 7 yards behind Young in 41th place and Ethan Kuczinski of Marian Catholic is in 44th place with 3,570 yards. Logan Ruppert of Pen Argyl went over 1,000 yards passing for his career (1,032) to go along with his 1,922 rushing yards. Sophomore Logan Edmond of Southern Lehigh and Hunter Kennedy of Panther Valley also went over 1,000 yards for the season (1,069 and 1,037 respectfully). Kennedy threw for 266 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Shenandoah Valley. Logan Yoder of Tri-Valley had his second 200 yard game of the season when he threw for 221 yards and 4 td’s in their win over Pine Grove last week. Derek Sheaffer of Emmaus and Noah Allegrette of Shenandoah Valley also went over 1,000 passing for the season.
RECEIVERS: Tim Walter of Southern Lehigh caught 8 passes for 125 yards and a td in their win over Wilson. Walter now has 107 career receptions for 1,814 yards and 24 td catches. That places him in 3rd place for catches and yards at Southern Lehigh. He already owns the school record for td catches. In the Colonial league record books he’s now tied for 7th place with John Gardus of Salisbury for catches. Ron Gelegonya of Palisades and Kowan Scott of Wilson are 1 behind with 106 catches each. His yardage places him in 8th place moving ahead of Gardus and Justin Scerbo of Wilson. He’s tied for 3rd place for td catches with Brad Walter of Wilson and is now 1 ahead of Cam Richardson of Northwestern. Justin Richardson of Pleasant Valley broke the school record for receiving yards in a season when he caught 5 passes for 100 yards last week. Richardson now has 808 yards receiving, breaking the old record held by Andrew Romeo who had 742 yards in 2012. He has 11 td catches this year and 16 for his career. That’s one less than the school records of 12 and 17 that Romeo currently holds. He also needs 64 yards to break the school career record of 1,260 yards that Rob Getz set from 2009-11. Desmond Boykin of Whitehall caught 9 passes for 191 yards and 2 td’s vs Freedom last week. He also ran a kick-off back 85 yards for a score and had a 2 yard td run. Boykin leads the District with 47 receptions. He’s tied with Jim Potocnie at Whitehall for 5th place all-time for receptions in a single season. Trevor Cunningham of Northwestern had another big game last week and now has 33 catches for 796 yards and 11 td catches. At Northwestern, his catches are 4th best, td’s are 2nd best and his yardage is a school record. Cam Richardson held the old school record for reception yardage when he had 758 in 2014. He also sits behind only Richardson for career reception yardage and td catches. He’s also moving up the all-time career Northwestern list for receptions and currently is tied with Garrett Lerner (2008-09) with 57. John Murphy caught 10 passes for 105 yards and 3 td’s vs PMW. That’s the 3rd time this year Murphy has had at least 3 td catches in a game. Catasauqua now has 3 receivers with at least 30 receptions this year. Corey Raysely had 9 catches last week and now leads the team with 36 catches. Miquel Hernandez has 35 catches and Ryan Greene has 32 catches. Greene needs 2 more catches to join the “100 catch” club and has 1,093 career reception yards. Raysely has 999 career yards and Hernandez has 979 yards. Mike Stasko of Palmerton had his 4th – 100 yard receiving game of the year and now has 29 catches for 484 yards and 7 td’s. Stasko went over 1,000 career receiving yards and needs 48 more rushing yards to have 2,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in his career. He is the fifth Bomber to go over 1,000 yards receiving for their career. Stasko’s career totals put him in 4th place for catches, 5th place for yardage and is tied for 4th in td catches. His 12 td catches ties him with Eric Bollinger who happens to be Northwestern’s Deven Bollinger’s uncle. Eric, who played tight end from 1991-93 caught 49 passes for 934 yards in his career at Palmerton. Alston Wolfe of Saucon Valley now has 11 career td catches. That puts him in 4th place all-time at Saucon. The junior catches a td pass every 2.3 times he catches a pass (25 for 570 yards and 11 td’s). Zachary Keifer of Nazareth caught 10 passes for 167 yards and 3 td’s vs Emmaus.
KICKERS: A lot of the new people that get this e-mail asked who has the longest field in District 11. I covered that story in 2014. Here’s that info. Carson Long of North Schuylkill kicked a 54 yarder vs Mount Carmel in 1972. Tom Cochran of Bethlehem Catholic kicked a 52 yarder in a 3-0 win over Parkland in 1989 and Brian Happel of Pius X kicked a 52 yarder against Bangor in 1977. Long also had a 51 yarder vs Mahanoy Area. Long would go on to play at PITT and kick 45 career field goals. Long kicked for the Buffalo Bills in 1977 and made 7 field goals. Cochran went to Duke and kicked 36 field goals. Happel went to Texas-Arlington and kicked 29 field goals.
Week 7 Trivia: Northampton football has won many league championships and has had many powerhouse teams. They also play an extra game each year vs Catasauqua on Thanksgiving morning. But they’ve only had 8 players that rushed for 1,000 yards in a season. How many of the 8 can you name and who holds the record?
Week 6 Trivia: Carson’s 48 yard field goal vs BECA is not a school record. Dalton’s 7 field goals in one season isn’t a school record either. Who kicked the longest field goal in Emmaus history and who kicked the most field goals in one season at Emmaus? Mike Wascura kicked a 49 yarder vs BECA in 1999. Austin O’Brien kicked 8 field goals as a sophomore in 2008.
Week 5 Trivia: Deven Bollinger of Northwestern went over 1,000 yards passing last week to become the 9th freshman to do accomplish that in District 11. How many of the other 8 can you name and who did first? Jake Cirillo (ESS 2013), AJ Long (Pius X 2010), Alex Atiyeh (Dieruff 2003), Ryan Fry (Nazareth 1995), Brent Andrew (Marian Catholic 1994), Jim Weidle (Mahanoy Area 1992), Dan Kendra III (BECA 1991) and the first to do it was Ric Schumacher of Notre Dame in 1988.
Week 4 Trivia: Desmond Boykin of Whitehall had 207 yards receiving last week vs Liberty. That is not a school record. Who holds the school record for most receiving yards in a game at Whitehall? HINT: He was a “one game wonder”. Question #2… I’ll make it a little bit easier. Boykin became the 8th Zephyr to go over 1,000 yards receiving in their career. How many of the other 7 players can you name? In a 31-14 Thanksgiving day loss to Emmaus in 1988, Fred Delucia had 9 catches for a school record 228 yards. In Stan Luckenbill’s last game as head coach, Delucia caught 4 passes from starter Dave Swartley in the first half. Then, in the second half Luckenbill inserted sophomore qb Mike Buskirk. Buskirk connected with Delucia 5 times for 155 yards and 2 td’s. Question 2 answer: Mike Peters, Adam Skrapits, Joel Cesare, Jim Potocnie, Matt Hamscher, Tyler Artim and Conner Sullivan.
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? Jeff Haberl threw for 3,393 yards from 1995-96. Haberl would throw for 1,443 yards (16 td’s) as a junior and then throw for 1,950 yards (19 td’s) as a senior. He would complete 71 passes for 1,459 yards and 14 td’s to his bookend wide receivers Matt Kacanda and Trent Clark.
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 51 consecutive regular season weeks and counting. I’m currently back to 2010 (week 10) 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)
7 (5), 5 (2), 4 (3), 4 (4), 4 (6) Darnell Ferrell (Central Catholic) *7 Ties School Record*
6 (6) Logan Sterner (Pen Argyl) *School Record*
5 (4) Mike Stasko (Palmerton) *Owns School Record of 6 set in 2015*
4 (1) Thomas Melchiorre (East Stroudsburg North)
4 (2) Mitch Daniel (Notre Dame)
4 (4) John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South)
4 (4), 4 (5) Sone Ntoh (Emmaus)
4 (4), 4 (7) Dashaun Peterson (Freedom)
4 (4), 4 (7) Zach Petiet (Saucon Valley)
4 (4) Saivaughn Voss (Bangor)
4 (5) Randy Terry III (Bethlehem Catholic)
4 (6) Mike Mitchell (Pleasant Valley)
4 (6) Luke Strauss (Southern Lehigh)
4 (6) Jared Colletti (Palisades)
5 (7) Nick Breiner (Tamaqua)
4 (7) Mike Mayernik (Lehighton)
4 (7) Desmond Boykin (Whitehall)
Single Game Rushing Yardage (200)
304 (3) Thomas Melchiorre (East Stroudsburg North)
301 (6) Mike Mitchell (Pleasant Valley) *School Record*
272 (3) Jamaal Brome (Stroudsburg)
272 (7) Saivaughn Vass (Bangor)
265 (3) Brandon Belfonti (Northern Lehigh)
262 (5), 206 (6) Dylan Rabuck (Williams Valley)
258 (3) Logan Sterner (Pen Argyl)
251 (7) Dashaun Peterson (Freedom)
235 (4), 213 (3) Darnell Ferrell (Central Catholic)
230 (6) Luke Strauss (Southern Lehigh)
226 (5) Richie Zahodnick (North Schuylkill)
216 (1) Randy Terry III (Bethlehem Catholic)
212 (5) Job Goodman (Wilson)
210 (4) Danny Scheib (Tri-Valley)
210 (5) Cam Lutz (Pine Grove)
Single Game Passing Yardage (200)
335 (3), 224 (1) Logan Edmond (Southern Lehigh)
335 (7), 264 (6), 244 (4), 229 (1), 217 (2) Brandon Keyes (Pleasant Valley)
315 (1), 240 (2), 235 (3) Cody Scherer (Lehighton) *School Record*
305 (1), 254 (3), 239 (5) Cole DeFranco (Notre Dame)
302 (2), 297 (1) Andrew Brett (Catasaqua)
291 (3), 264 (5), 256 (7), 241 (1) Deven Bollinger (Northwestern) *School Record*
288 (2) Jake Cirillo (East Stroudsburg South)
282 (3), 266 (7), 225 (1), 218 (1) Zachary Gilbert (Whitehall)
276 (5), 210 (7) Ethan Persa (Central Catholic)
266 (7), 204 (2), 201 (1) Hunter Kennedy (Panther Valley)
264 (5), 259 (4), 254 (7) Garrett Perschy (Palmerton)
260 (7), 234 (3), 210 (1) Travis Stefanik (Nazareth)
258 (4) Doug Weist (North Schuylkill)
255 (3) Noah Allegretta (Shenandoah Valley)
243 (2), 221 (7) Logan Yoder (Tri-Valley)
243 (5), 243 (7) Javon Clements (Bethlehem Catholic)
223 (6), 210 (1) Joe Young (Freedom)
208 (2) Todd Erney (Liberty)
207 (3) Scott Poulson (Easton)
Single Game TD Passes (4)
5 (2) Andrew Brett (Catasauqua) *Ties School Record*
5 (4) Brandon Keyes (Pleasant Valley)
5 (7) Ethan Persa (Central Catholic)
4 (3) Logan Edmond (Southern Lehigh) *Ties School Record*
4 (4) Garrett Perschy (Palmerton)
4 (7) Javon Clements (Bethlehem Catholic)
4 (7) Travis Stefanik (Nazareth)
4 (7) Logan Yoder (Tri-Valley)
Single Game Receptions (10)
12 (6) Jason Najunas (Shenandoah Valley) *School Record*
11 (2) Miguel Hernandez (Catasauqua) *Ties School Record*
10 (4) Desmond Boykin (Whitehall) *Ties School Record*
10 (7) John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South)
10 (7) Nick Keifer (Nazareth)
Single Game Reception Yardage (150)
207 (4), 191 (7) Desmond Boykin (Whitehall)
190 (2) John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South) *School Record*
187 (1), 176 (3) Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley)
184 (1), 161 (5), 153 (7) Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern) *School Record*
176 (2) Darian Street (Liberty)
168 (3) Julian Liaci (Nazareth)
167 (7) Zachary Keifer (Nazareth)
Single Game Reception TD’s (3)
4 (4), 3 (2), 3 (7) John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South) *Ties School Record*
3 (1) Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley) *Ties School Record*
3 (3) Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern)
3 (3) Timmy Walter (Southern Lehigh) *Ties School Record*
3 (4) Desmond Boykin (Whitehall) *Ties School Record*
3 (3) Mike Stasko (Palmerton)
3 (6) Alex Huertas (Freedom)
3 (7) Thomas Murphy (Central Catholic)
3 (7) Zachary Keifer (Nazareth)
District Season Leaders (2016)
Rushing (800)
1129 Thomas Melchiorre (East Stroudsburg North)
1141 Darnell Ferrell (Central Catholic)
1122 Dylan Rabuck (Williams Valley)
985 Mike Mitchell (Pleasant Valley)
896 Jamaal Brome (Stroudsburg)
843 Saivaughn Vass (Bangor)
841 Randy Terry (Bethlehem Catholic)
833 Jared Colletti (Palisades)
Touchdowns (13)
26 Darnell Ferrell (Central Catholic)
17 Mike Mitchell (Pleasant Valley)
17 Logan Sterner (Pen Argyl)
16 Zach Petiet (Saucon Valley)
15 Thomas Melchiorre (East Stroudsburg North)
15 Sone Ntoh (Emmaus)
14 Jamaal Brome (Stroudsburg)
13 Mitch Daniel (Notre Dame)
13 Nick Breiner (Tamaqua)
13 Randy Terry III (Bethlehem Catholic)
Passing Yards (1000)
1648 Brandon Keyes (Pleasant Valley)
1397 Cole DeFranco (Notre Dame)
1382 Deven Bollinger (Northwestern)
1355 Zachary Gilbert (Whitehall)
1340 Ethan Persa (Central Catholic)
1325 Andrew Brett (Catasauqua)
1247 Cody Scherer (Lehighton)
1221 Travis Stefanik (Nazareth)
1153 Garrett Perschy (Palmerton)
1133 Joe Young (Freedom)
1070 Derek Sheaffer (Emmaus)
1069 Logan Edmond (Southern Lehigh)
1025 Noah Allegretta (Shenandoah Valley)
1023 Jake Cirillo (East Stroudsburg South)
1007 Javon Clements (Bethlehem Catholic)
Touchdown Passes (11)
22 Brandon Keyes (Pleasant Valley)
14 Deven Bollinger (Northwestern)
13 Travis Stefanik (Nazareth)
12 Ethan Persa (Central Catholic)
12 Jake Cirillo (East Stroudsburg South)
12 Javon Clements (Bethlehem Catholic)
12 Cody Scherer (Lehighton)
12 Zachary Gilbert (Whitehall)
11 Logan Edmond (Southern Lehigh)
11 Joe Young (Freedom)
11 Derek Sheaffer (Emmaus)
11 Garrett Perschy (Palmerton)
Receptions (26)
47 Desmond Boykin (Whitehall)
39 John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South)
37 Jalen Simpson (Notre Dame)
36 Corey Raysely (Catasauqua)
35 Miquel Hernandez (Catasauqua)
34 Gavin Zehner (Lehighton)
33 Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern)
32 Ryan Greene (Catasauqua)
32 Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley)
32 Alec Huertas (Freedom)
29 Mike Stasko (Palmerton)
29 Timmy Walter (Southern Lehigh)
28 Jason Najunas (Shenandoah Valley)
27 Trey Bailey (Easton)
27 Jon Moran (Notre Dame)
26 Josh Artis (Emmaus)
Reception Yardage (475)
808 Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley)
796 Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern)
649 Desmond Boykin (Whitehall)
580 John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South)
560 Gavin Zehner (Lehighton)
528 Miguel Hernandez (Catasauqua)
484 Mike Stasko (Palmerton)
481 Alec Huertas (Freedom)
Reception Touchdowns (7)
11 Trevor Cunningham (Northwestern)
11 John Murphy (East Stroudsburg South)
11 Justin Richardson (Pleasant Valley)
7 Alec Huertas (Freedom)
7 Timmy Walter (Southern Lehigh)
7 Alston Wolfe (Saucon Valley)
7 Mike Sasko (Palmerton)
