Protime’s Pigskin Parlance – 2024 Milestones, Record Breakers & Game Shakers – Edition 9

Tagged under: News, Protime Predictions

Phil Myers | October 24, 2024

https://www.twobirchwinery.com/

Protime’s weekly column will attempt to get readers up to date on current football facts, stats, and miscellaneous tidbits of information from across the entire state of Pennsylvania.  His crack staff of one will peruse some, but not all newspapers and other sources for hopefully what will be up to date scoop on the previous week’s games, records, and hitherto unknown factoids of the sort.

Trivia question of the week: How many NFL Hall of Fame quarterbacks are from Pennsylvania and can you name them?

Program Wins Milestones

In a happy but sad note, the Sheffield Wolverines, up in District 9, won their 300^th program game by whipping Bucktail, but in all probability that will be the last game Sheffield will ever play.  The Warren County School District will vote in January to close the school and send the Sheffield kids to Warren beginning next year which is the 2025-26 school year..

The Big Macs of Canon-McMillan won their 400^th career game in by beating Norwin 27-26.  Congratulations!

Coaching Milestones

John Franco of Tyrone won his 275^th game as the Golden eagles annihilated Penns Valley.  Congrats coach!  Couldn’t happen to a nicer man.

Speaking of nice men, Matt Grohal earned his 100^th victory when his Windber Ramblers defeated Northern Bedford 35-6.  Coach Grohal is a fun guy to talk with and is a huge fan of Protime.  Congrats coach!

Team Achievements

Ellwood City is now 8-0 and it has been 80 years since they did that.  Westinghouse beat Perry last week in a Pittsburgh City playoff game by using only 11 players.  That’s right, the House only had 11 players eligible to play due to 38 players being ejected the week before for leaving the sidelines during at altercation with University Prep.  In fact, Westinghouse only used 10 players when playing defense as they rotated resting a lineman each series.  Oh, they shutout Perry to advance.  Wilson West Lawn had 8 different players score a touchdown which may be a school record.

Individual Achievements

Bishop Canevin’s Kole Olszewski went over 6,000 yards passing.  Niko Mauro of Trinity (D7) rushed for 353 yards and 5 touchdowns.  There were some nice performances in District 10 this past week: Zander Telesz (Hickory) threw for 383 yards and 7 touchdowns.  Ike Friday (Sharon) ran for 310 yards and scored 5 times.  Vinny Feliciano (Mercyhurst Prep) ran for 313 yards and went over 2,000 for the year.

Calieb House of Lampeter-Strasburg scored 8 touchdowns.  Jase Ferguson, Central Clarion accounted for 8 touchdowns by throwing for 6 and running for the other 2.  He threw for 532 yards and surpassed 9,000 career passing yards.  Jase is about to break Matt Bodamer’s D9 record of 137 career touchdowns.  Khalil Green of Westinghouse scored 7 touchdowns.

School Record Breakers

Bishop Guilfoyle’s Chase Kissell became the all-time leader in TD passes and passing yardage.  WR Sam Hall of Warrior Run is the new record holder for receptions in a career with 153.  Ty Salazer, St. College, set the Centre County record for receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.  Ian Bates, Line Mountain, is the school’s new career leader in rushing yardage.  Justin Yescaveage, Jim Thorpe, broke the all-time receptions and receiving yardage records.  Niko Georgagis of California has the most tackles for loss in a season and a career at Cal.  His teammate, Lee Qualk, has the record for most TDs and points in a season.  Jaylen Delaney, Mt. Carmel, set the school record with 57 receptions in one year.  Owen Roken, a freshman kicker at Punxsutawney, set a new single season kick points standard.  Brady Collins of Clearfield is now the career rush leader with 4,693 yards and counting.

State Offensive Leaders

Quarterbacks:

1. Matt Bodnar, Notre Dame Green Pond – 3,403 yards passing.
2. Trey Wingard, DuBois – 2,475 yards passing.
3. Isaac Zietz, General McLane – 2,383 yards passing.
4. Ashton Walk, Tyrone – 2,375 yards passing.
5. Jase Ferguson, Central Clarion – 2,360 yards passing

Ferguson has 38 touchdown passes to lead the state, Bodnar has 34, Zietz has 33, Wingard 31, then Braylon Wagner (Redbank Valley) and Stone Saunders (Bishop McDevitt) are tied with 27 to round out the top five in TD tosses.

Wide Receivers:

1. Luke Kreger, North Penn Mansfield – 1,173 receiving yards.
2. Drew Cook, South Allegheny – 1,135 receiving yards.
3. Jacob Zietz, General McLane – 1,006 receiving yards.
4. Hamilton Gates, Bishop Guilfoyle – 968 receiving yards.
5. Ty Salazer, St. College – 933 receiving yards.

Zietz, Josh Smith (Mechanicsburg), Daron Harris (Chester), and Damarjae Warren (East Allegheny) are all tied for the state lead in TD receptions with 14.

Running Backs:

1. Brady Collins, Clearfield – 2,141 rushing yards.
2. Liam Taylor, Haverford – 2,062 rushing yards.
3. Braxtyn Brown, Columbia Montour Vo-Tech – 2,027 rushing yards.
4. Niko Carestia, Schuylkill Haven – 1,965 rushing yards.
5. Lee Qualk, California – 1,852 rushing yards.

Aiden Bliss (Port Allegany) leads the state with 33 rushing touchdowns.  Collins and Qualk are tied for second with 31 rushing TDs.  Carestia has 26, and Bo Sheptock (Danville) with 25, round out the top five in rushing TDs.

State Defensive Leaders

A quick look at defense has Alex Marfink (Sheffield) leading PA with 168 tackles in only 8 games.  Noah Dol (Camp Hill) is 2^nd with 159.  Dylan Stephens (United Valley) is 3^rd with 157 ball carrier take downs.  In the interception department, Justin Schell (Greenville), Gavin Bell (Hollidaysburg), and Alex Moren (Salisbury) lead the state with 8 picks.  Tied for the state lead in sacks with 15 are Mason Metz (Avonworth), Maxim Johnson (Line Mountain), and Remington Diehl (Claysburg-Kimmel).

Interesting Tidbits

Cocalico is 6-3.  The teams the Eagles have lost to are a combined 27-0!  Lampeter-Strasburg, New Oxford, and Conrad Weiser are all having great seasons and the common thread is that they each have beaten Cocalico for the Eagles’ only three losses.

Round and Round We Go

Every year there seems to be times when Team A beats Team B, Team B beats Team C, then for some unknown or maybe known reason Team C beats Team A.  Protime calls it ‘Round and Round We Go.’  Round 1) Pine-Richland beat Pittsburgh Central Catholic 22-17, then PCC topped North Allegheny 27-24, and finally last week NA downed Pine-Richland 28-21.  Round 2) Garnet Valley beat Haverford 35-20, then Haverford stopped Springfield-Delco 21-13, and last week Delco downed Garnet Valley 35-23.  Round 3) DuBois mercy-ruled Ridgway 62-18, a week later St. Marys upends DuBois 27-14, and the next week Ridgway beats St. Marys 28-19.  Round 4) Warrior Run beat Bloomsburg 38-24, then Bloomsburg takes care of Hughesville 39-7, and two weeks ago Hughesville sneaks by Warrior Run 32-29.  Round 5) Hamburg beat Annville-Cleona 27-14, then Pequea Valley burned Hamburg 24-17, and a week later Annville subdued Pequea Valley 41-31.  There are more instances, of which too many to list this week, but we may list some more next week.

Games of the Week

In Protime’s opinion there were numerous games of the week, so he’ll be brief about it.  There have been some really great games this season.

In 6A action, Easton came from behind to give Bethlehem Freedom their first loss of the year 25-21.  The Red Rovers intercepted 4 passes including the last one with 11 seconds left.  Freedom was ranked #5 by PFN and Easton was HM in 6A.

In a see-saw affair Montour handed Aliquippa their second loss and the Spartans remained unbeaten by scoring a 2-point conversion after their touchdown with 34 seconds left.  The Quips were ranked #1 by PFN at Class 4A, Montour was 7^th.

Plymouth-Whitemarsh beat Upper Moreland 21-14 by scoring with 2:40 left and intercepting a pass at their 3-yard line with 14 seconds remaining.  The game was tied at 14 at the half.

North Allegheny scored two 4^th quarter touchdowns for a comeback win over Pine-Richland 28-21.  The Rams had been undefeated and ranked 5^th in Class 5A by PFN.  NA was 9^th in Class 6A.  Apparently costly penalties and turnovers beleaguered Pine-Richland in what has become a rivalry game.  But kudos to the NA Tigers to work hard for the ‘W.’

Owen J. Roberts beat Spring-Ford 27-25 with a field goal on the last play of the game.  It was a back-and-forth contest with Spring-Ford scoring twice in the fourth to take the 25-24 lead, the second one with 56 seconds left.  But OJR went 50 yards in 4 plays to set up the winning FG.

Gateway lost to Greater Latrobe 28-27 as Latrobe came back from a 14-0 first quarter deficit.  The Wildcats eventually took the lead 28-21.  Then the Gateway Gators scored with a minute left but the extra point try was missed.

Susquehanna Township beat Trinty (D3) 40-34 in double OT.  Township was losing 19-7 at one point but took a 20-19 lead in the 4^th quarter.  Trinity answered by scoring and going up 27-20, but the Indians tied the game with 20 seconds left.  Each team scored a TD in the first OT.  Susquehanna Twp. scored on a fourth and 4 in the second overtime and the defense held Trinity for the win.  Township was HM in 4A and Trinity was HM in 3A.

Central Bucks West nipped North Penn 17-14 by kicking a FG with 5 seconds remaining.  The Bucks led 14-0 and dominated early on.  However, the Knights fought back to tie the game with 10 minutes left in the fourth.

Answer to trivia question: Nearly a fourth of the NFL Hall of Fame quarterbacks are from Pennsylvania.  They are George Blanda (Youngwood HS), Johnny Unitas (St. Justin’s HS in Pittsburgh), Joe Namath (Beaver Falls), Joe Montana (Ringgold), Dan Marino (Pittsburgh Central Catholic), and Jim Kelly (East Brady HS).  That makes 6 from Pennsylvania out of the 26 total in the HOF.  If you are not familiar with some of those now defunct high schools, all 6 are of those HOF quarterbacks are from Western PA.

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