Against Northern Lebanon, Senior Quarterback Mark Pyles threw for 207 yards and a record six touchdowns passes and five of them went to Nicholas Negron.
He broke the previous record of five touchdowns passes in a game, held by James Capello against Ephrata in 2008. “James holds every passing record in our school and was a Big 33 quarterback and went to Iowa State,” said head football coach Gerry Yonchuik. “I laughed a little bit with James and said to him, believe it or not we broke one of your records.”
Mark had a monster game last weekend, passing for 418 yards and five touchdowns. He rushed for 137 yards and two scores. “Mark had 555 total yards of offense against ELCO and last weekend we had six drops and two of them were touchdowns. He would have had seven touchdown passes. On defense he had 18 tackles in the game.”
In the past two games, Mark has thrown 11 touchdowns. So far this season he has completed 53 of 92 for 852 yards 14 touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Not only is it amazing what he is doing on offense, but on defense at linebacker is where he excels. The last two games he has had 31.5 total tackles. “That is where he is going to play college I believe. He is a smart player and physical player.”
Mark is a four-year starter on defense. “He is a better defensive player than on offensive player. That is where he is getting recruited right now. But the numbers he is putting up offensively, schools are starting to look at him at quarterback.”
The most impressive thing about this young man is what he is doing in school. “He is ranked number one in his class in carries a 4.56 grade point average.”
“I have been coaching for 30 years. I have had kids that went to Ivy League schools, academy schools and big time colleges. I never had one with the package of academics, leadership and football like this guy in 30 years and that is saying something.”
Mark is a three-sport star athlete. “Here is something unique. He will be a seven-time varsity captain at the end of his senior year. He was a varsity baseball captain as a 10th grader, last year as a junior and this year as a senior. He was a captain last year in basketball and will be this year. In football he is a two-time captain for me.”
(Photo credit: LDNews.com)
