The records, they were a-fallin’ this weekend. It wasn’t just one or two – several single-game school records were rewritten. And they seemed especially concentrated in the southeastern part of the state.
The following information regarding District 12 records is attributed to long-time Philadelphia prep sportswriting veteran Ted Silary (who, by the way, keeps one of the most remarkable informational prep football websites in all of Pennsylvania at www.tedsilary.com):
We begin with the Archbishop Wood-Monsignor Bonner scorefest, which Wood won, 56-35. A pair of records – one each for the Vikings and Friars – were established, and another was tied. On the Wood sideline, senior Andrew Guckin set a school single-game rushing record by amassing 345 yards and scoring six touchdowns on 20 carries.
Meanwhile, on the Bonner sideline, quarterback Colin DiGalbo threw for a single-game record 332 yards (on just 14 completions) and tossed five touchdown passes. Bonner receiver Christian Summers caught four of the five touchdown passes, which tied a Philadelphia City single-game record.
West Catholic saw a record fall in its narrow 28-26 loss to PCL AAAA rep LaSalle College High School. Sophomore quarterback Antwain McCollum set a new single-game passing record, throwing for 342 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Burrs. West Catholic needed every one of those yards from McCollum’s aerial assault – the Burrs’ potent rushing attack was held in check – to 53 yards on 27 carries.
The Philadelphia Public League also got into the record-breaking act. Boys Latin Charter senior quarterback Erik Lark threw for a school single-game record 287 yards and three touchdowns, spreading his 18 pass completions among six different receivers. Lark is up to 2,928 yards passing for his career for Boys Latin, and could become the second PPL field general to reach the 3,000-yard mark in career passing this season – Frankford’s Tim DiGiorgio already accomplished that feat earlier in the year.
Simon Gratz, BLC’s opponent and the victor in a 62-34 contest, matched a school record for victories in a single season (9), and capped the first undefeated and untied regular season in program history.
In District 11, Allentown Central Catholic senior Colin McDermott moved within 80 yards of a new school single-season rushing record. McDermott, largely the focal point of ACC’s offense this season, has 1,692 yards and 22 touchdowns on 262 carries – just 77 yards shy of the school single-season record of 1,769, set in 1996.
Also in District 11, Tamaqua moved one step closer to its first-ever 10-0 start to a season in school history with a 49-0 shutout of Minersville. The Blue Raiders’ 9-0 start to its season is the first in 85 years – Tamaqua also started 9-0 in 1927.
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Regrettably, we missed mention in this notebook of Bishop McDevitt senior quarterback Alec Werner’s recent passage of 5,000 career yards, making him the fourth 5,000+-yard passer in Crusader program history, which ties Conestoga Valley and Bangor Pius X for most 5,000-yard passers from one program. Werner moved ever closer to 6,000 career yards with a 325-yard performance Friday in a 44-34 shootout victory over Cedar Cliff.
The Cedar Cliff victory marked Werner’s 22nd of his career as a varsity starter, who has thrown for 5,567 yards in his career – 1,942 of those have come in his senior season.
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Lancaster Catholic senior running back Roman Clay surpassed 5,000 career rushing yards in the Crusaders’ 49-0 shutout victory over Cedar Crest Friday. Clay needed just 13 carries to tally more than 300 yards on the ground and score four touchdowns. Clay has 5,212 yards and scored 74 rushing touchdowns in his career, and is up to 1,769 yards and 22 touchdowns through nine games.
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Perkiomen Valley’s Rasaan Stewart became just the fifth District 1 quarterback to amass 1,000 yards rushing and passing in the same season. Despite his Vikings falling to Pottsgrove, 42-28, Stewart, who had nearly 300 yards of total offense, finds himself with 1,249 yards passing and 1,046 yards rushing. He joins John Haldis (Council Rock South, 2003), David Cronagle (Boyertown, 2008), Zac Gravelle (Quakertown, 2010) and Casey Perlstein (Upper Perkiomen) as 1,000/1,000 quarterbacks from District 1, according to the Pennsylvania Football News.
PFN’s records for 1,000/1,000 QBs date back to 1996.
NOTE: Don Seeley of the Pottstown-Mercury reports Stewart has 946 yards entering Perkiomen Valley’s Week 10 game against Spring-Ford, not 1,046 as published in this notebook. Stewart will look to become the 5th District 1 quarterback with 1,000 yards rushing and passing in the same season against the Rams.
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Wilson Area’s Zack Bogoly, a senior wide receiver, is having a season to remember for the Warriors. Through nine games, Bogoly leads all receivers among AA schools in the state with 1,127 receiving yards on 55 catches. He’s scored 12 touchdowns and is among the team’s leading scorers for the season, with 76 points. The second-highest AA receiving yardage total in the state? Zach Challingsworth of South Fayette – with 952 yards on 46 receptions.
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Bogoly isn’t Eastern PA’s only 1,000-yard receiver at this juncture of the season. Scranton’s Karlon Quiller is over 1,000 receiving yards, too, and he’s proven a vicious home run weapon in the Knights’ offensive arsenal. Quiller has hauled in 38 passes for 1,012 yards and 16 touchdowns through nine games – he’s caught 80 percent of senior QB Marlinn Waiters’ touchdown passes and accounted for 65.7 percent of Scranton’s receiving yardage.
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Milton Area’s Brady Chappell completed 9-of-15 passes for 180 yards and three touchdowns Friday night as the Black Panthers rallied to down Jersey Shore. But that’s not the notable about Chappell’s night. This is: the 180-yard effort gave Chappell a second consecutive season of 1,000 passing yards – he’s up to 1,077 yards and 12 touchdowns after throwing for 1,035 as a sophomore.
Prior to 2011, Milton last had a 1,000-yard passer in football in 2001.
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Old Forge has been scoring points in bunches – 397, officially, in nine games, which averages out to 44.1 points per game. To compare, the Blue Devils’ last two District 2 championship teams (2006 and 2011) finished their respective seasons with 318 and 380 points, respectively. Each season was 13 games – meaning OF averaged 24.5 points per game in 2006 and 29.2 in 2011.
To put it in perspective, Old Forge has already notched four 50-point games in 2012. The Blue Devils’ 2006 & ’11 teams combined for zero 50-point games. In those two district championship seasons, OF’s single-game high water mark was 47 points, which came in the 2011 D2 title game against Riverside.
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Penn Manor committed five turnovers in its 14-7 loss to Wilson Friday night – more than the Comets had committed during its first eight games of the season (four).
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Parkland senior running back Jarel Elder had a game to remember Friday – rushing for 294 yards and two touchdowns on only six (yes, six) carries. Elder averaged 49 yards per carry for the game in the Trojans’ 47-17 triumph, the team’s seventh victory in a row.
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St. Joseph’s Prep advanced two spots in the USA-Today Super 25 prep football poll, and currently is ranked No. 15 nationally. The Hawks had been sitting in the No. 17 slot the last two weeks since a 24-16 victory over LaSalle.
Follow Josh Funk on Twitter @Funk_pafb
14 Responses
Rollie,
Yes I played DB so I think your thinking of the right person. Pottsgrove does have a good chance but it will be a tough road with WC Henderson, and AB Wood but they are both beatable and I know the Pottsgrove players have been working hard for their shot at a state title.
Also yes i believe either McDevitt or Cathedral Prep will be coming out of the west. The playoffs will be interesting to watch.
DJ,
If you’re who I think you are, I’ve seen you play once or twice. You were a very fine DB…real tough.
I agree with you. In fact, I think I said that to you below in my Oct 31 4:08pm post. If I knew who you were then, I would not have said it!
I think Pottsgrove has a chance to go pretty far this year. AB Wood’s somewhat beatable and though the other eastern teams are pretty good, Pottsgrove should have a fair shot. McDevitt should make it to the finals in the west bracket.
Rollie,
I am a past football player for pottsgrove from the 09-10 season to the 11-12 season so i have been following them all year. The starters have not had to play a full game for most of their games either. In the beginning of the season they were not playing much of the second half. So Hudgins and Dukes stats could be a lot higher and Brennans stats could have been better too.
Rollie… we use our “own” stats. The Mercury is the ONLY publication, website, etc. that covers EVERY GAME EVERY WEEK in the PAC-10. We don’t use anyone else’s statistics – and only change them if we hear from a team’s head coach about a glaring inaccurate statistic(s). We’ve been doing that for the 32 years I’ve been at the paper and have rarely had any arguments about the statistics. That doesn’t mean we’re right all the time, but we rely on our own reporters and their work. Thanks for your comments, though – appreciate that.
The Philly Inquirer’s Rick O’Brien has PV’s Rasaan Stewart with 939 yards rushing.
Mr Seeley, are you getting your stats directly from the team? Pac-10sports.com, Maxpreps.com and the Philly Inquirer (philly.com) rarely agree on anything. PV doesn’t load their stats into Maxpreps. According to the Boxscores pulled from Pac-10sports.com, Rasaan Stewart has 924 Yds rushing (PW-70 Yds, Methacton-87, OJR-0, Pottstown-226, Boyertown-51, P-ville-223, PJP-124, UpperPerk-87, Pottsgrove-70). Maxpreps is usually the official source if the team enters them…as Pottsgrove seems to. They have Hudgins at 1,020 and Dukes at 1,002.
Just to correct you on one item – Perkiomen Valley’s Rasaan Stewart has 946 yards rushing going into Friday, Nov. 2 game against Spring-Ford. He DOES NOT have 1,046 as written in your story.
DJ,
Pottsgrove is not close because Michaels & Brennan are splitting the rest of the carries to the tune of >550 yds. Also, Pottsgrove has been so dominating this season that the 2nd half of most of their games have been under the Mercy Clock.
DJ,
I have found 5 instances of 1,000-yard backfield trios – all since 2005. The teams who boasted said backfields were:
2005 Montoursville Warriors – Luke Ellison, Luke Trick & Garrett Cillo;
2007 Serra Catholic Eagles – Isaiah Jackson, Chris Loving & TJ Heatherington;
2008 West Catholic Burrs – Rob Hollomon, Curtis Drake & Ray Maples;
2009 Avon Grove Red Devils – Brendan McLaughlin; Brandon Monk & Jordan Harris;
2011 Meadville Bulldogs – Fred Epps, Terrence Goodrum & Artrel Foster.
Rumor has it that the 2001 Washington Little Prexies, who went 15-0 and won PIAA “AA” gold over Pen Argyl, had a 1,000-yard rushing trio. But I’ve never been able to confirm that rumor or find official statistical totals or names for the trio of athletes in Wash High’s backfield that season. And there may be other instances prior to 2005 other than Washington of teams w/ 1,000-yard rushing trios, but as a state Pennsylvania has been much better Internet resources documenting statistics and such happenings since the mid-2000s. Newspapers have much historical statistical information, but researching microfilm and compilations of editions of past newspapers is very tedious and time-consuming. Maybe when I retire (if I ever get that far, haha) I can throw myself into something like that. If I am married then, hopefully the Mrs. Funkster would understand.
Good question, DJ.
Josh,
I was just curious on how many teams have had 3 1,000 yard rushers in a single season? I know Pottsgrove this year is not close to achieving that but the 3 previous seasons they almost did. Last year(2011-12) Hudgins and Dukes both rushed for 1,000+ yards while Curtain finished just shy of 1,000. The Year before that(2010-11) Polamalu and Greene both rushed for 1,000+ with Chestnut finishing just shy of 1,000 in a year he missed playing time due to injury. And the year before that(2009-10) Polamalu and Chestnut both rushed for 1,000+ with Greene finishing just shy in a year he didn’t play fullback till the 3rd game of the season due to Hamlette going down with an injury.
The PAC-10 has produced some fine athletes over the years. Recently, Perk Valley’s Zach Zulli is really lighting it up for D2 Shippensburg. Thanks to him they just beat #4 Bloomsburg. He passed for nearly 500 Yds & 7 TDs…and he’s only a Jr. His Soph Year he passed for >2,700 yds & 34 TDs. Thru 9 games this year he passed for >3,500 yds & 45 TDs for the now #7 ranked Raiders. He leads all NCAA D2 in TD passes, Passing YPG, and Total Passing Yards.
Rollie,
Thanks for that information – Dukes & Hudgins also put themselves in some company by rushing for 1,000+ yards each for two consecutive seasons. I’ll mention that stat in next week’s notebook. My research of 1,000-yard rushing backfield pairs is pretty much 99.9% complete from 2006-present, but spotty from the 2005 season and prior. Also, Pottsgrove has never produced a team which has scored 500+ points in a season before in program history. The Falcons’ program record is 497 points, matched in consecutive seasons (2009 & ’10) and the 2011 edition scored 491. To give you an idea, as we stand presently, 497 points is unofficially tied for 213th-best in PIAA history and 491 ranks tied for 230th. Those numbers will change as more teams approach or surpass 500 points scored in a season, but just wanted to offer you some perspective about past Falcon teams. They’ve had an impressive run with impressive athletes leading the charge.
Also, since you are mentioning Old Forge’s fantastic scoring record, I thought I’d post this about D1 AAA Pottsgrove (since Don Seeley wrote about it in the Mercury this week – http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20121030/SPORTS01/121039978/high-school-football-pac-10-teams-scoring-at-a-record-pace&pager=full_story). Thru 9 games, Pottsgrove has scored 409 points for an average of 45.4/game while giving up only 10.7 per game for an average win margin of 34.8 ppg. Pottsgrove has had five (5) games where they have scored >50 pts so far this season…a season where they have played six (6) AAAA teams. If they go deep into the playoffs, they could eclipse 500 points.
Josh, in last week’s Notebook you wrote about teams producing pairs of 1,000 yd rushers. Pottsgrove’s Dukes and Hudgins both went over 1,000 in last week’s Pottsgrove win over a rugged Perkiomen Valley team. Hudgins had 214 yds/3 TDs & Dukes had 127 Yds/2 TDs.
To provide closure to an open question, Pottsgrove has produced a pair of 1,000 yd rushers each year since 2008…a 5 year streak.