Protime’s Pigskin Parlance – Milestones, Record Breakers & Game Shakers – Top Running Backs Edition 2
Tagged under: News, pfn
Phil Myers | November 22, 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: What teams played in the highest scoring state championship game?
Program Wins Milestones
When Steelton-Highspire beat Northern Bedford last week, it was the program’s 800th win in their illustrious history. When St. Joes Prep defeated Abraham Lincoln last week, it was their 700th career victory. Congrats goes out to the Steel High Steamrollers and the St. Joes Hawks.
Coaching Milestones
Coach Mark Evans earned his 100th win when Manheim Township won their game with Cumberland Valley last Friday. Way to go, coach! Coach Evans and his Manheim Township Blue Streaks are undefeated so far in 2023 and with a win this week will be one of the top four 6A teams in Pennsylvania.
Coach Evans with football.
Team Achievements
In beating Troy, Southern Columbia won their 31st District Four title. That was also their 31st straight win against Northern Tier League competition dating back to 1990. On the other side of that spectrum, Peters Township won their first ever District 7 (WPIAL) championship when they beat Pine-Richland. Selinsgrove is having a fantastic year and bringing back memories of 2009 when they defeated Manheim Central 10-7 to win the state championship. One of the amazing things about the Seals this year is their +29 turnover ratio. They have forced 36 turnovers and only turned the ball over 7 times themselves. Speaking of turnovers, Manheim Township has only turned the ball over four times all year. All fumbles. They have not thrown an interception.
Individual Achievements
Hayden Johnson has now thrown 47 touchdown passes on the year and has not thrown an interception in 2023. Johnson, of course, plays for Manheim Township. His main receiver, Landon Kennel has caught 25 TD tosses this year, which is the most in a single season at Township. With 22 tackles last week, Garrett Garcia of Southern Columbia becomes only the second player in Tiger history to record over 400 tackles in a career and he missed a whole year due to an injury! The only other Tiger player to go over 400 tackles is current Michigan State standout, Cal Haladay. Isaiah Thomas of Washington returned an interception 100 yards for a TD against Beaver Falls. Manheim Central’s Brycen Arnold ran for 367 yards last week against Twin Valley.
Record Breakers
North Allegheny defeated Pittsburgh Central Catholic 44-41 in the highest scoring championship game ever in the long history of the WPIAL (District 7) dating back 109 years to 1915. The old record of 77 points was set in 2004 when Seton LaSalle beat Aliquippa 42-35 for the AA crown. Hayden Johnson now owns the record for passing yardage all-time at Manheim Township surpassing Pat Bostick’s record. Ashton Kahle of Redbank Valley is the first receiver in Bulldog history to have 1,000 yards receiving in one year. Kahle has 1,125 after last week when he had 247 yards catching passes. Teammate Mason Clouse was going to be the first, but he was pressed into QB duty for a week. Clouse has 962 yards and should get to that 1,000-yard mark also. QB Tyler Gee of Loyalsock set a couple of records for the Lancers. He is the career leader in passing yards with 7,508 and TD passes with 81. One of Loyalsock’s receivers, Jaylen Andrews, set the school record with 73 catches in a year. Zac Hahn is now Manheim Central’s single season passing yardage record holder and fellow Baron, Aaron Enterline, set the school’s career record for receiving yards.
Top Running Backs (Not Quarterbacks)
According to MaxPreps, Alex Achenbach of Williams Valley has rushed for 3,056 yards and is the top rusher in PA and #3 in the country. Luke Stevenosky (Minersville), Jake Williams (ELCO), Ethen Knox (Oil City), and Braxton Brown (Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech) round out the top five running backs in yardage. Achenbach and Knox are tied for most rushing TDs with 34. Then comes Stevenosky and Evan Wright (Mars) with 33. Fifth with 31 touchdowns is Tucker Teats of Selinsgrove.
Alex Achenbach #5
Quarterback Update
Last week at press time we did not have Alex Erby’s 2023 stats. Mr. Erby, who is Navy bound, has thrown for 3,462 yards which is still tops in PA. The Steelton-Highspire senior has accumulated 49 touchdown passes which is second only to Stone Saunders of Bishop McDevitt.
Games of the Week
Some great ones last weekend for sure. Two of the best were Clearfield vs. Central and Parkland vs. Nazareth. In a game where the lead changed five times, Central scored with a minute to go to take a 28-25 lead, but Clearfield drove down field and kicked a game-tying field with one second left. Central scored on 4th down in the first OT, to tie the game at 35 and then won 41-35 in double overtime by intercepting Clearfield’s 4th down pass in the end zone. Nazareth scored with a minute left in their game with Parkland, gambled and made the two-point conversion to take an 18-17 lead, then on the last play of the game as a Parkland receiver was heading for the end zone, the ball was punched out and returned by Nazareth for a touchdown and the 24-17 win. Dallas scored with under 5 minutes remaining to beat Valley View 21-18. The difference was Valley View did not convert their PATs or two-point tries after their 3 TDs. Strath Haven beat Springfield-Delco 14-12 when Delco scored with two minutes left but failed on a two-point try to tie the game. Imhotep scored twice in the last four and a half minutes to avoid the upset with Roman Catholic. The second score came with 36 seconds remaining after a short Roman punt.
Answer to the trivia question: In 2012 there were 91 points scored when North Allegheny defeated Coatesville 63-28 for the 4A title in Hershey. (Note: The second highest scoring game (90 points) occurred in 2014 when St. Joes Prep beat Pine-Richland 49-41. That was also a 4A championship game.)
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