Greenville Wins First District 10 Title Since 1999
Tagged under: District 10, Game Photos-Videos, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs
Shane Lux | November 16, 2025
Hermitage – Time to party like it’s 1999.
For the first time in the new millennium, the Greenville Trojans are District 10 champions. It hadn’t been since a 42-6 victory over General McLane on November 13th, 1999, that the Trojans reigned superior in District 10.
“This is what we worked for, to realize it is, I don’t know. It’s just fantastic,” said Greenville head coach Mike Menold. “I’m so proud of the kids and the coaches and how hard they worked. What a football game. This is anybody who’s ever been a part of Greenville football. It’s been a long time. We’ve been close several times. It was just great to finish.”
Saturday night in Hermitage, Greenville overcame a 22-19 4th-quarter deficit and a 46-minute lightning delay to earn its first title in 26 years.
The Trojans took over following a punt at their 22-yard line with 7:10 to play, down three. They moved the football to the Greyhounds’ 34-yard line thanks in large part to a 13-yard completion from Cael Thurber to Keith Covert and a 4-yard rush by Thurber that turned into a 19-yard gain following a personal foul penalty.
Then the lightning struck with 4:15 to play, and the ensuing delay lasted 46 minutes.
“You control the things you can control,” Menold said. “We had no control over that. So, get settled. We talked about what we wanted to do, and we came out, and they were focused. They were excited at the fact that we had a chance to write the ending, and they did a great job writing it.”
Coming out of the delay, Kaysom Mataria ran 15 yards to the 19-yard line, but the Trojans were soon faced with a 4th-and-16 from the 25-yard line.
Quarterback Cael Thurber scrambled around and found Hunter Cox for a 23-yard gain.
“It was super long, I was just scrambling around, and I knew before the play even started I was gonna scramble,” said Thurber. “Then I saw Hunter Cox coming across the middle. Big guy, 6-3, got it done. He reached out and made that play.”
On the next snap, Rudy Gentile scored his second touchdown of the night on a 2-yard run with 2:16 to play.
“So we were in the locker room and we were kind of bummed,” Gentile said. “We were able to get loose enough and got a lot of time to recover. Then we got back out there and started getting back to what we were doing. That (touchdown) was awesome. So I jumped into the end zone, got hit up, and then everyone was on me. It was great! It was an awesome feeling.”
On the ensuing drive, Keith Covert intercepted Wesley Vass-Gal with two minutes to play.
Wilmington would get the ball back with 1:34 to play and gain one first down. It was the Trojans who stopped Rowan Miller a yard short on fourth down with 25 seconds to play, setting off a huge Greenville celebration.
For Greenville, it marked the first time they had defeated Wilmington in the District 10 title game, losing in 2000, 2001, 2017, 2019, and 2024.
You can read about the 2024 game here.
It also marked some revenge as Greyhounds had defeated the Trojans 21-7 to open the season on August 22nd.
Like their opening week matchup, it was the Trojans that took the early lead as they drove 71 yards in nine plays, scoring on Thurber’s 6-yard touchdown run.
The two schools then went back and forth as Chase Mitcheltree scored the first of his three touchdowns, a 44-yard jaunt that tied the game at seven.
Greenville then did what it failed to do on August 22nd and retook the lead when Rudy Gentile scored on a 1-yard run, capping a 9-play 80-yard drive.
Gentile rushed for 41 yards on 16 carries and scored a pair of touchdowns, while adding one catch for 28 yards.
With a blocked extra point, Wimington took its first lead of the night when Mitcheltree scored on a 25-yard touchdown run on a 4th-and-3 at the 8:32 mark of the first half.
Greenville took a 19-14 lead into the locker room when Thurber capped an 11-play 85-yard drive with a 1-yard run with 24 seconds to play in the half. Thurber was 5-for-5 passing on the drive for 63 yards, and completed 11-of-17 passes for 156 yards in the game, while adding a team-high 89 yards rushing.
“Such a long drought, and the whole Community has been waiting on it,” said Thurber. “I mean, I can’t believe that just happened, but we did it. We got some new plays in. We watched some film of other teams showing what they did well against them. Like Karns City, we got a couple of plays from them. We just stayed with it.”
Wilmington had taken a 22-19 lead when Mitcheltree scored his third touchdown of the night to begin the second half, capping the short 15-play drive with a 3-yard run.
Freddie Zehetner returned the kickoff 73 yards to the Trojans’ 15-yard line. Chase Mitcheltree rushed for a game-high 151 yards on 18 carries for the Greyhounds.
Greenville will now move on to the state playoffs, where they’ll take on District 9 champion Port Allegany. The Gators defeated Wilmington last season en route to a state runner-up finish.
You can read more about that game here.
Game Highlights
Greenville 25 Wilmington 22
Score by Quarters
Greenville – 13 6 0 6 – 25
Wilmington – 7 7 8 0 – 22
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
G – Cael Thurber 6 yd run, (Logan Campbell pat), 7:13 – 9-71
W – Chase Mitcheltree 44 yd run, (Ryder Tervo pat), 5:01 – 5-71
G – Rudy Gentile 1 yd run, (kick blocked), 1:51 – 9-80
Second Quarter
W – Mitcheltree 25 yd run, (Tervo pat), 8:32 – 9-71
G – Thurber 1 yd run, (pass failed), 0:24 – 11-85
Third Quarter
W – Mitcheltree 3 yd run, (Mitcheltree rush), 9:05 – 5-15
Fourth Quarter
G – Gentile 2 yd run, (kick blocked), 2:16 – 11-78
Individual Stats
Rushing: G – Thurber 17-89, Gentile 16-41, Kaysom Mataria 4-29, Justin Schell 5-28, Team 1-1. Totals: 43-188. W – Mitcheltree 18-151, Freddie Zehetner 12-51, Rowan Miller 4-13, Cam Kettering 2-8, Wesley Vass-Gal 1-(-3). Totals: 37-220.
Receiving: G – Schell 6-66, Hunter Cox 2-38, Keith Covert 2-24, Gentile 1-28. W – Zehetner 1-13, Miller 1-9.
Passing: G – Thurber 11-for-17, 156 yards, 1 INT. W – Vass-Gal 2-for-9, 22 yards, 1 INT.
Interceptions: G – Covert. W – Danny Leonard.
Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews
