Protime’s Pigskin Parlance – Milestones, Record Breakers & Game Shakers – Top Receivers Edition 2

Tagged under: News, pfn, Protime Predictions

Phil Myers | November 29, 2023

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: Which team has won state championships in 3 different classifications?

Program Wins Milestones

The Dallas Mountaineers won their 450^th game in school history last week in dramatic fashion by beating Bonner-Prendie 28-27 in overtime.  Congratulations to the Mountaineers.

The Dallas Mountaineers

Coaching Milestones

Another question for you all.  What does Jim Roth, Bob Wolfrum, and Kevin Clancy all have in common?  They are the top three winningest active coaches in PA.  Roth (Southern Columbia) is #1 all-time with a record of 496-68-2.  Coach Roth is #3 among active coaches in the USA.  Wolfrum is second among active coaches in PA with a record of 362-88-1.  Clancy has the third most wins among PA active coaches with a record of 357-145-2.  All three have guided their teams to a berth in the state semi-finals this week.

Team Achievements

This is the first time ever Fort Cherry and Peters Township have been to the state semi-finals.  Northwestern Lehigh has been to the semis before, but never to the finals.  All four 4A semi-final teams are undefeated.  Dallas is 14-0, Selinsgrove is 13-0-1, Bishop McDevitt is 13-0, and Aliquippa is 12-0.  Add to the mix Peters Township, Imhotep, Northwestern Lehigh, Westinghouse, Fort Cherry, and Steelton-Highspire and you have 10 teams that are still unbeaten in 2023.  There is a possibility that 8 undefeated teams will be playing for a state title.  Aliquippa won their 20^th WPIAL title last week which is the most of anyone in District 7.

Individual Achievements

Dominic Fetterolf of Southern Columbia notched his 400^th career tackle last week to join current teammate Garrett Garcia and Cal Haladay who is now playing with Michigan State as the only other Tigers to have 400 career tackles.  Carter Shanafelt of Peters Township kicked 4 field goals in the Indians’ win over Cathedral Prep.  Most kickers usually don’t have four FGs for the year, let alone in one game.  The record is 5 by, believe it or not, a Peters Twp. kicker.  Bob Milspaw booted 5 in a game back in 1994.  This next stat is incredible.  When Fort Cherry meets Redbank Valley this week, the two quarterbacks have combined for over 6,500 yards and accounted for 106 touchdowns in 2023.  And both QBs are sophomores!  Fort Cherry’s Matt Sieg has combined passing and rushing yards of 3,467 while passing for or scoring 55 TDs.  Redbank’s Braylon Wagner has combined yardage of 3,044 and has accounted for 51 TDs.  Wagner’s numbers would be higher, but he has missed a pair of games due to an injury.

Record Breakers

Aaron Johnson of Danville broke the state record for touchdown receptions in one year with 28.  Jah Boyd broke the single season TD reception record at Roman Catholic when they played St. Joes a couple weeks ago.  Samaj Jones of St. Joes Prep accounted for 4 TDs this past week and by doing that, he became the first Philadelphia City League player to account for 100 touchdowns in a career.

Top Receivers

Except for the numbers for Durrell Ceasar Jr., all the other numbers came from MaxPreps.  The top five receivers by yardage are Durrell Ceasar Jr. (Steelton-Highspire) with 1,845, Aaron Enterline (Manheim Central) 1,508, Aaron Johnson (Danville) 1,470, Jasper Shepps (Juniata) 1,379, and Jaylen Andrews (Loyalsock) 1,321.  Receiving touchdowns top five are Johnson with 28, Enterline and Landon Kennel (Manheim Township) with 25, Rico Scott Bishop McDevitt) 22, and Ceasar Jr., with 21.  Kahale Burns (BEA) leads with the most receptions with 94, Ceasar Jr. is next with 90, followed by Enterline and Scott with 80.

Durrell Ceasar Jr.

Games of the Week

Last week saw at least five really good games.  Harrisburg came back from a 28-7 third quarter deficit to tie Manheim Township and send the game into overtime.  The Cougars then continued their momentum and won 34-28.  Dallas won their game against Bonner-Prendie in overtime 28-27.  The difference was a missed extra point in overtime that was blocked by Dallas quite possibly because Prendie was kicking the PAT from the 25, not the 10 due to an excessive celebration penalty when B-P scored their OT touchdown.  Kids, hand the ball to the ref and celebrate after the game is over!  Things looked dim for Beaver Falls when Steel Valley scooped up a fumble and ran 78 yards with five minutes to go.  That gave the Ironmen a 12-6 lead.  But Beaver Falls was not to be denied.  The Tigers drove 55 yards and scored with 44 seconds left.  Then they made the 2-point conversion to win 14-12.  Manheim Central had McDevitt on the ropes 17-8 heading to the 4^th quarter, but two TD passes, the second after a turnover, allowed the Crusaders to eke out the 23-17 victory.  Lastly, Farrell led Westinghouse 20-12 with 11 minutes remaining in the last quarter, then the wheels fell off and the House scored 24 unanswered points.  Westinghouse tied it on a long pass play with 10 minutes left.  Then they went ahead on a long pass with two minutes left and iced the game with a pick six moments later.

Answer to the trivia question: Aliquippa is the only team to win in three classifications.  The Quips beat Bishop McDevitt for the 4A title in 2021.  They won the 3A crown in 2018 when they beat Middletown.  Aliquippa won two championships at 2A, winning in 1991 and 2003 against Hanover and Northern Lehigh respectively.  Bishop McDevitt, Cathedral Prep, and Pine-Richland have played for championships in three different classes, but only won in two of those classifications.

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