Protime’s Pigskin Parlance – 2024 Milestones, Record Breakers & Game Shakers – Edition 3
Tagged under: News, pfn, Protime Predictions
Phil Myers | September 11, 2024
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: Who holds the PIAA record for most rushing touchdowns in one season? And how many did he have?
Program Wins Milestones
Hats off to Sharon who grabbed their 700th program win with their 42-0 triumph over Slippery Rock. They are the first District 10 team to reach that plateau. Well done, Tigers! Keep on roaring. According to PFN’s records, the Southmoreland Scotties not only stayed undefeated but won their 200th football game with a convincing 49-13 win over Laurel Highlands. Congrats you guys!
Coaching Milestones
Matt Bodamer, the Port Allegany alum, who at one time held PIAA passing records, is now coaching the Kane Wolves. He earned his very first coaching victory when Kane beat Otto-Eldred. Congrats and here’s to many more to come, coach!
Team Achievements
The Ringgold Rams snapped a 27-game losing streak with their 21-19 win over Yough. Kane actually broke a modest 12-game losing streak with their win. The Wildcats of Greater Latrobe are 3-0 for the first time since 2005.
Individual Achievements
I was witness to one of the top individual performances in the state last week as Port Allegany’s Tristan Kiser scored 5 touchdowns. He rushed for 3, gaining 174 yards on just 12 carries. He also turned the close game with Redbank Valley around when he raced 89 yards on a kickoff return, then minutes later intercepted a pass and took it 95 yards to the house. Teammate Aiden Bliss had 276 yards and 4 touchdowns toting the ball. Redbank Valley’s quarterback, Braylon Wagner threw for 419 yards and 4 TDs plus he ran for another. Alex Tatsch of Greater Latrobe is a Penn State commit at linebacker. But he rushed for a career high 257 yards and scored 4 touchdowns in leading his team over previously unbeaten Norwin.
Bethel Park has two weapons that appear to be unstoppable in QB Tanner Pfeuffer and RB JaVaughn Moore. Pfeuffer and Moore accounted for 581 yards and 6 touchdowns last week. Titusville’s Jaxon Covell had 270 yards rushing and scored 4 TDs. Aaron Clark of Springfield Chestnut Hill Academy had 216 yards in receiving. Sayre’s Nick Pellicano returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and Mason Smith of Troy had two punt return TDs. Jake Dubaskas of Wyoming Valley West chalked up 20 tackles in one game last week.
School Record Breakers
North Allegheny has a kicker by the name of Peter Notaro, who is a 5-star commit to the University of Alabama. Mr. Notaro singlehandedly was responsible for NA’s 18-14 win over Penn Hills as he kicked three field goals, two over 50 yards including a school record of 53 yards. He should also indirectly take credit for the NA Tigers getting a safety as a result of his 58-yard punt. Braxtyn Brown, Columbia Montour-Vo Tech set a school rushing record with his 401-yard performance. He also tied the school touchdown record of 5. Jacob Zietz of General McLane set a school receiving record with 209 yards. The QB is his brother, Isaac.
Jacob Ness, Trinity (D-3) is now the all-time leader in career tackles for the Shamrocks as he has brought down 315 opposing ball carriers. He broke the record held by his coach, Matt Conner.
Interesting Tidbits
Not often anymore a game ends up 7-0. Back in the day, believe it or not kiddies, that was a recurring score each week. When Eisenhower scored with 5 minutes to go in their game with Iroquois it was the first score of the game. It ended that way, Eisenhower 7 Iroquois 0. Aiden Snowberger of Brockway has a very unusual stat. I know it is only 3 weeks into the season, but how many wide receivers are averaging 58 yards a catch! Aiden has caught 6 passes for 346 yards. Four of those six catches have gone for touchdowns including a 98-yarder.
Games of the Week
My crack staff picked out four this week. We’ll open with Wilmington holding on for the win by stopping Northern Bedford’s 2-point conversion attempt with two minutes left in an exciting interdistrict game between two district title and state playoff contenders. In fact, NBC got the ball back and just missed a 44-yard game-winning field goal in the waning seconds. Wilmington led 14-0, but by early 4th quarter it was down to 14-13 at one point. NBC never led in the game. The loss broke Northern Bedford’s 28-game regular season winning streak.
North Schuylkill eked out a 32-31 win over Notre Dame Green Pond in a game where both teams’ fans were enthralled to the final buzzer. The game was tied at 7, 14, and 22 as the teams battled with all they had in this classic. NS booted a field goal to take the lead 25-22 only to see NDGP respond with a TD to give the Crusaders the go-ahead score. The Spartans of Schuylkill had one last drive in them as they embarked downfield helped by a long desperation pass with 13 seconds left. With the ball at Notre Dame’s 9, No. Schuylkill spiked the ball and then threw an incompletion. That left time for one more play. The pass was almost intercepted from what I saw on film, but was hauled in by the NS receiver at the 3-yard line and he willed his way into the end zone for the winning score.
The third contest of the week was Thomas Jefferson’s amazing 21-point 2nd half comeback against McKeesport. Trailing 28-7 at halftime, the Jaguars dug deep and mounted the comeback after Coach Bill Cherpak’s halftime talk. TJ held McKeesport scoreless in the 2nd half and eventually tied the score and sent the contest into overtime. McKeesport nailed a FG to go ahead 31-28 and the Tigers stopped TJ short of the goal line on 3rd down. Instead of going for the tie and a second OT, Cherpak said it was a no brainer to go for it. As you know they did and they won 34-31.
The last one found Reynolds beating Mercer 32-31 in triple OT. The game was tied at 19 at the end of regulation. Surprisingly, neither team scored in the first OT. Reynolds scored first in the next OT period but missed the extra point. Mercer scored and had a chance to win but they missed the PAT also which sent the game into the 3rd OT. Reynolds scored and kicked the point after to go ahead 32-25. Mercer scored and elected to go for the two-point conversion to win, but Reynolds won when their defense stopped Mercer.
Answer to trivia question: Zach Barket, Schuylkill Haven. He did it in 2008, sixteen years ago. He scored a whopping total of 65 rushing touchdowns. Zach went on to Lehigh where he saw action all four years. He ran for over 1,500 and scored 12 TDs in his career. He also scored 6 touchdowns receiving and had over 500 yards during his time there.
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