Protime’s Pigskin Parlance – 2024 Milestones, Record Breakers & Game Shakers – Edition 8
Tagged under: News, pfn, Protime Predictions
Phil Myers | October 16, 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: Being a member of the Armed Services back in the 70s, Protime noticed that Army and Navy are both ranked in the top 25 this week. The question, then, is when was the last time both Army and Navy were ranked at the same time? The second part of the question is since both service academies are undefeated this year, when was the last time both Army and Navy were undefeated at this point of the season?
Program Wins Milestones
Congratulations to the Bishop Guilfoyle Marauders as, according to PFN, they grabbed the program’s 600th career win. BG beat Chestnut Ridge 47-7. Three teams collected their 400th career victories. Biglerville, Garnet Valley, and Lansdale Catholic performed the feat. Biglerville beat Hanover 7-0. Garnet Valley defeated Upper Darby 20-7. Lansdale Catholic topped Archbishop Carroll 30-14. Congrats to the Biglerville Canners, the Garnet Valley Jaguars, and the Lansdale Catholic Crusaders.
Coaching Milestones
None that we know about.
Team Achievements
When Ellwood City beat Riverside, it marked the first time since 1944 that the Wolverines have been 7-0. A well-earned congrats goes out to the current Ellwood City players and coaching staff.
Morrisville is 7-1 which to many teams is really good but not a big deal. It is a huge deal for Morrisville. You see the Bulldogs are 7-1 for the first time since 1972, over 50 years ago! Congrats to the Bulldogs. Here’s hoping for a run in the playoffs.
For the first time ever the Archbishop Ryan Raiders clinched the Philadelphia Catholic League Blue Division with a win over Archbishop Wood. 1993 was the last time Ryan won the PCL. There were no divisions back then. Good job guys!
Individual Achievements
Out of the top 200 receivers in the state Daniel Batch of Montour and Aiden Snowberger of Brockway stand out for yards per catch. Batch averages 38.77 yards a catch and Snowberger is not far behind with 36.6 markers per grab.
In Philadelphia, Semaj Beals broke Kyle McCord’s all-time city passing yardage record. Beals now has 6,927 yards. Congratulations to Mr. Beals.
Kymon’e Brown of Jeannette had 463 all-purpose yards and accounting for 6 TDs in his team’s 42-41 amazing win over Brentwood. Brown scored a touchdown with 7 seconds left and then added the winning two-point conversion.
Two players returned interceptions 100 yards last week. They are Brian Delaney of Springfield-Delco and Leyden Hertz of Schuylkill Haven. Alexander Moran of Salisbury picked off 3 passes. Kamari Coleman, Stroudsburg, returned a fumble 98 yards to the house.
School Record Breakers
Cardinal O’Hara’s John Welde is now the school’s career passing leader. He is also the first O’Hara QB to surpass 4,000 yards. Anthony Smith, Southmoreland’s freshman quarterback set the Scotties single season touchdown record with 21 passing TDs. Braylon Wagner, Redbank Valley’s prolific passer, set the school career record in passing yardage and touchdowns. He is also the school record holder for total touchdowns. By the way, he’s only a junior. Logan Nawrocki of Schuylkill Valley is the first QB in school history to throw for over 4,000 yards. Jalen Harris, Chester, broke the county record for career touchdown passes with 79. Kaiden Maurer, Line Mountain, broke his school’s all-time career TD pass record at 45, and he’s only a junior. Blayze Myers set the McDowell record for TD passes. He now has an even 50.
Ty Salazer of St. College is Centre County’s all-time leading receiver. Ethan Dudsak, Stroudsburg, grabbed 13 passes last week setting a school record. McDowell’s James Zigler became the Trojan’s career passing yardage leader. Damien Morgan of Cardinal O’Hara tied the school record with 14 catches in a single game and he broke the career yardage record at O’Hara.
Port Allegany’s Aiden Bliss broke his own single season rushing record. Ty’mere Wilkerson, Berwick, broke the Bulldog single game rushing record that had stood since 1974 when he galloped for 366 yards. Juniata Valley’s Vinnie Hoover lugged the rock 44 times setting the school record for number of carries in a game. Bo Sheptock of Danville became the single season TD rushing leader for the Ironmen.
Nico Georgagis of California now has a school record 28 TFLs for one season. Jason St. Leger, Salisbury, scored 5 touchdowns which tied a school record.
Interesting Tidbits/State Offensive Leaders
Quarterbacks:
- Matt Bodnar, Notre Dame Green Pond – 2,978 yards passing.
- Trey Wingard, DuBois – 2,175 yards passing.
- Isaac Zietz, General McLane – 2,127 yards passing.
- Torin ‘TD’ Evans, Susquehanna Township – 2,061 yards passing.
- Braylon Wagner, Redbank Valley – 2,041 yards passing
Jase Ferguson (Central Clarion) has 32 touchdown passes to lead the state. Zietz has 31, Bodnar has 30, Wingard 29, and Wagner 27 to round out the top five in TD tosses.
Wide Receivers:
- Drew Cook, South Allegheny – 1,070 receiving yards.
- Luke Kreger, North Penn Mansfield – 1,057 receiving yards.
- Hamilton Gates, Altoona – 933 receiving yards.
- Jacob Zietz, General McLane – 926 receiving yards.
- Ty Salazer, St. College – 891 receiving yards.
Zietz and Aiden Burgy of Quakertown are on top in touchdown receptions this week with 13, then five players are tied with 12. Josh Smith of Mechanicsburg has grabbed 12 TD passes, as have Cook, Gates, Daron Harris of Chester, and Damarjae Warren of East Allegheny.
Running Backs:
- Brady Collins, Clearfield – 1,860 rushing yards.
- Niko Carestia, Schuylkill Haven – 1,793 rushing yards.
- Liam Taylor, Haverford – 1,785 rushing yards.
- Braxtyn Brown, Columbia Montour Vo-Tech – 1,756 rushing yards.
- Aiden Bliss, Port Allegany – 1,655 rushing yards.
Bliss leads everyone in the state with 31 rushing touchdowns. Collins and Lee Qualk (California) are tied with 26 rushing TDs. Carestia has 24, and Jayden Floyd (Leechburg) 22 round out the top five in rushing touchdowns.
Games of the Week
In Protime’s opinion there were four this week, but two are here because so many points were scored and Protime loves seeing points scored, after all he was in attendance when Meadville beat DuBois 107-90.
Hanover’s Hawkeyes were 0-7 coming into their game with Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech, and they had only scored a total of 54 points. CMVT led 8-7 after the first, but then the fireworks started. The two teams combined for 51 second quarter points. It was like watching a ping-pong game as the teams traversed up and down the field. The Rams of CMVT took a 38-28 lead into halftime. But Hanover scored 28 straight points in the next two quarters before CMVT scored again late in the fourth. The final tally was Hanover 56 CMVT 44. So, in one game Hanover scored more points than they had in the previous 7 contests. There were 952 total yards racked up in this game and each team had a 300-yard rusher, Braxtyn Brown of CMVT and Malique Campbell of Hanover.
The other high-scoring affair was Jeannette beating Brentwood 42-41 and it was more of a thriller to the end. Trailing 41-27 in the 4th quarter, the Jayhawks scored two late TDs, the second with 7 seconds remaining. Then Jeannette went for two points and the win, getting it and the thrilling comeback win.
One of the biggest games in the state proved to be one of the best also. Upper St. Clair and Bethel Park were both undefeated and highly ranked in 5A. The USC Panthers led at the intermission 7-0, but Bethel Park’s Black Hawks tied the game in the third. Bethel Park went up with 4 minutes to go on a field goal. USC answered by driving down the field and scoring the go-ahead TD with 48 seconds left. The Panther defense held on for the win. It was the third straight week Upper St. Clair knocked off a very good undefeated team. In succession they’ve beaten Peters Township, South Fayette, and Bethel Park.
The other thriller a classic as Hughesville went double overtime to beat Warrior Run. Hughesville had gone up 14-0 only to see the Defenders come back to within 17-14. A safety and a field goal put the Spartans up 22-14, but Warrior Run drove over 60 yards to score with 33 seconds remaining. The two-point conversion was good and overtime ensued. Each team scored a TD in the first overtime. Hughesville kicked a FG in the second OT and then stuffed a Warrior Run run on 4th and one at the goal line to win the heart-stopper of a game.
Answer to trivia question: It was October 3rd, 1960, over 64 years ago that Army and Navy were both ranked. Then one has to go back 15 more years to 1945 to find both schools unbeaten at this point of the season.
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