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Oilers play General McLane Saturday at Edinboro
The Oilers will play General McLane at 7 p.m. Saturday at Edinboro for the District 10 4A title.
Winner next plays Nov. 14 or 15 against either Punxsutawney (D-9 top seed at 9-1), Clearfield (D-9 No. 2 at 7-3) or USO (D-8 champ at 7-2).
Clearfield faces USO (University Prep/Science Tech/Obama Academy) Friday at Brookville, winner then taking on Punxsutawney and the right to play Oilers-McLane winner.​
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All Eyes on the Prize
District 9/10 cross country
Cranberry's Beatrice Kolesar: District 9 1A champion
Next step for those who qualified is the 86th annual PIAA state meet Saturday at the Parkview course in Hershey. Cranberry is defending champion in 1A girls and qualified its team again as runnerup to Central Clarion in Saturday's District 9 meet. When the Berries won the grand prize last year, they dethroned another District 9 team -- Elk County Catholic. Before that, Brookville won titles in 1995 and 1996. The only other D-9 squad to win it all was Punxsutawney (boys) in 1977.
Bet you'd never suspect
District 10 has had several team champions, including North East, which has NINE (!) -- five in 2A boys and four more in the girls.
Earliest champs are Hickory in 1955 and Warren in 1966, both in 3A when it was all one class.
Union City has two championships. Other D-10 boys winners: Eisenhower, West Middlesex, Grove City and Saegertown.
Titusville girls won in 1977 and 1994. The Lady Rockets' first state champion was coached by Larry Kirkwood, who lives in Oil City and is an OCHS graduate. His grandson, Oiler senior Keegan, will make the trip to this year's state meet after finishing ninth in D-10 on Saturday. Brent Henderson coached the 1994 Titusville team.
Villa Maria also has two state titles, while Fairview and Cathedral Prep (formerly Villa) each have one.
First state champion in 1939: Altoona.
Action Saturday begins at 9:30 a.m. with the 1A girls.
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OILERS
Cole Findlay (4) has more than 1,800 yards total offense to go with touchdowns passing, running and returning. StevenHeise (12) has more than 1,000 yards rushing and has scored 102 points. (photos by Eric Elliott and Kelly Malek)
The Oilers have scored 46 touchdowns
this season, and Cole Findlay and Steven Heise have had a hand in 38 of them. Plus, seven different receivers have been the recipients of Findlay's 15 TD passes, Landon Baker leading the way with six.
Blues Brothers...
Oilers' 1,000/1,000 rushing/passing in one season
(File photo Eric Elliott)
Landon Baker leads Oiler receivers this year. The first-year senior has nearly 600 yards.
*incomplete
20+ Kicking Points Season
Senior linebacker Brayden Buzard (43) made some big plays in his last two home games. He returned an interception 43 yards for a TD against Warren on Oct. 10, and then made two sacks totaling 18 yards against Franklin on Oct. 17. He finished with 14 stops, including three sacks, to go with the Pick 6 in the two games. Buzard has 162 career tackles. (Photo by Eric Elliott).
The Oiler defense has given up an average of 132.6 yards per game, including a season high of 302 to General McLane. Erie and Meadville were over 200, but the six other opponents had 145 or less. Five players are credited with 11 or more stops in the backfield, and Cole Findlay and Steven Heise have teamed for 10 interceptions.
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Junior Logan Heath was one of three players to catch a touchdown pass from Cole Findlay vs. Franklin. The others were Noah Lucarelli and Landon Baker. Heath also contributed a 29-yard punt return that led to a TD. Heath has been handling the punting of late and averages over 35 yards on nine kicks. (Photo by Kelly Malek)
The sign is (STILL) ours...
So that's what the back of that thing looks like...Oilers, led by center Carson Foster, etch the score of this year's game onto the back of the Route 8 Rivalry sign.
(Photo essay by Kelly Malek)
Man on The Run
"Everybody" knows coach Dan York likes to keep his cards close to the vest by run, run, running the football. Since his days at Lakeview where he eventually had Blake Reddick and now at Oil City where his latest bread-and-butter offensive weapon is Steven Heise, he prefers run. And that has paid off handsomely over the years. But, at least since returning to his alma mater, York has shown he will throw the ball. Grudgingly. He may still be closer to Ground Chuck than Air Coryell, but statistics show he will take that walk on the wild side. This chart doesn't show it because his Lakeview stats before Reddick in 2011 are not included, but he's had four 1,000 yard passers in his coaching career -- all since returning to Oil City: Dylin Chapin, Holden Stahl and now Cole Findlay (twice). Just so you know. York's full stats can be found here.
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KNIGHTS
(File photo Tammy Curry)
Caden Mincer ran for 249 yards on 35 carries in Franklin's 34-12 decision over Lakeview Friday night. The junior is the fourth Franklin player to run for more than 2,000 yards. He finished the season with 1,065 yards. Mincer scored three touchdowns. Seniors took care of the rest of the scoring: Jayden Wilmoth returned a kickoff for a touchdown, blocking back Evan Steigerwald scored on a 22-yard run and Connor Ritchey kicked four extra points during the Senior Night game. The big linemen in the picture are senior (78) Jake Riddle (6-2, 285) and junior (76) Aaron Moore (6-6, 340.)
200-Yard Rushing Games
(File photo by Tammy Curry)
Jayden Wilmoth returned a kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown in the Knights' victory over Lakeview. The 5-7 senior, listed at 5-4 in 2024, caught 30 passes for 419 yards the last two years.
Senior Evan Steigerwald's duties mainly are blocking back, but Friday night he broke loose for a 22-yard TD once he got one of his rare carries. This photo from earlier in the season shows him protecting then quarterback Freddie Blackhurst. Blackhurst had an interception and stopped a two-point conversion Friday. (File photo Richard Sayer)
(File photo Tammy Curry)
Although stats are not available for the North East and Erie games this season, Connor Ritchey otherwise punted an astounding 80 times the last two years for a 36.5-yard average.