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Ethen Knox (RB/DB), Cole Buckley (QB/DB), Nathan Pfennigwerth (K/P) and Henry Milford (OL/DL) were named to the first team all-stars as two-way performers by Region 4 coaches.  Knox was Player of the Year. 

The Erie Times News announced its region all-stars for football on Nov. 20.  Look for District 10 teams after the playoffs end in December.

Franklin's Ty Prince was second team all-D-10, heading the local all-stars in golf. Caleb and Jay Prettyman, also of Franklin, were named D-10 second team in cross country.

Girls cross country, soccer and volleyball TBA.

District 10 3A Playoffs

Quarterfinals

Sharon 28, Fairview 0

Oil City 51, North East 14

Hickory 44, General McLane 12

Grove City 35, Ft. LeBoeuf 0

Semifinals

Sharon 39, Oil City 16

Hickory 38, Grove City 7

Championship 

Hickory 14, Sharon 6

PIAA Quarterfinals

Hickory 26, Martinsburg Central 13

PIAA Semifinals

Belle Vernon 42, Hickory 16

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District 10 4 A playoffs

Championship

Meadville  45, Corry  13

Sub-Regional

Meadville 22, University Prep 18

PIAA First Round

Juniata 21, Meadville 7

PIAA Quarterfinals

Selinsgrove 44, Juniata 14

PIAA Semifinals

Aliquippa 52, Selinsgrove 32

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PIAA 2A semifinals

Westinghouse 28, Beaver Falls 7

A little bit of context: Belle Vernon beat Avonworth, 26-0, for its second straight WPIAL title. Grove City opened with Avonworth the last two years, and dropped both games, 35-14, this season and 27-7 in 2022. 

In 4A, Selinsgrove drubbed Hollidaysburg, 48-7, during the regular season. This came one week after Hollidaysburg blanked Oil City, 49-0.

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No. 7!

Kirtland, LaVerde
claim Ohio state
championship
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Tiger LaVerde's Kirtland Hornets whipped Versailles, 32-15, on Dec. 1 to win the Ohio Class VI state championship.

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The top-seeded Hornets avenged a 20-16 defeat to the Tigers in last year final. It was the seventh state title for Kirtland and LaVerde, an Oil City High School graduate and former Franklin head coach.

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Laverde is 229-20 at Kirtland since 2006 and is 249-30 including his three seasons at Franklin (2001-03).

 

Kirtland claimed its seventh straight regional crown this season and its 12th trip to the final four in the last 13 years.

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Kirtland is also one of nine schools in Ohio history with seven state crowns on the gridiron.

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The Hornets finished 15-1, and have 12 straight wins since losing to Perry in Week 3.

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LaVerde's son Jake is Kirtland's quarterback. He was the starter last year as a freshman and when his brother, Philip, made all-state as a senior. Jake made second team all-Ohio (Class VI) at QB this season.

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Onward Franklin!

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Nate Byham finished his first season as tight ends coach at Stanford, and the results were disappointing -- a 3-9 record after a 56-23 loss to Notre Dame on Nov. 25. Nevertheless, here is a bio box on the former Franklin/Pitt star:

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Ian Haynes update
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Franklin's Ian Haynes is still on the mend  from a broken foot he sustained in September 2022. What's more, Kutztown's starting QB, Donny Blaine, went down with an elbow injury early this season, so the Bears have been going with a red-shirt freshman, Judd Novak. 

"I travel to games, but I'm not in uniform," said Haynes who threw for more than 9,000  yards in high school. "(I'm) just there to help Judd out."

Haynes did say this is the healthiest he's been in the past 18 months. The criminal justice major still has two years of eligibility as he works on his masters degree.

The Bears, meanwhile, remain alive in the NCAA Division II playoffs.

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Blane Gold's team stays
with WPIAL champ 
but falls in state semis

District 9 champion Redbank Valley, coached by 2007 Franklin graduate Blane Gold, gave WPIAL champion Fort Cherry all it could handle, but bowed to the Rangers, 33-23, Dec. 1 in the PIAA Class 1A semifinals.

The Bulldogs, who closed at 12-3, were hoping to reach the state final for the second time in three years. They lost to Bishop Guilfoyle in the 2021 state final.

Redbank led much of the way against Fort Cherry, which is led by sophomore Matt Seig, a Division I safety prospect who is being looked at by Penn State, Pitt and Syracuse among others. Seig is is dual threat high school quarterback who has more than 3,000 yards total offense this year and runs a 10.9 100 meters in track. He scored three touchdowns and ran for more than 120 yards in the fourth quarter alone.

The Bulldogs led 16-13 near halftime, but Fort Cherry began imposing its will in the third quarter. Still, Redbank was within 26-23 with 2:29 left to play.

Fort Cherry then recovered an onside kick and went on to score again.

This is Gold's fifth year as coach of the New Bethlehem school, where he is 50-11. The Bulldogs were coming off a 44-0 romp over D-10 champion Cambridge Springs, which beat Lakeview, 32-29, for the right to play Redbank.

Gold, a state co-Coach of the Year in 2021, played college football at Grove City and had been an assistant coach at Oil City.

He applied for the head job at Franklin, but the school board felt he was too young and offered him an assistantship. But when the Redbank head job opened up, he took that instead.

Odds and ends photos
 Class of 2024 off to college
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