Fall 2025

RECORD BEING SMASHED -- Aiden Bliss, the Port Allegany flash, broke the District 9 rushing record last weekend after running for 329 yards and six touchdowns against Keystone. Bliss, with a few games to go before his high school career ends, now has 7,332 yards. The old record belonged to Curwensville's Nick Stewart with 7,324 yards. Curwensville players have held the record two other times with Nick Sipes (5,963) and Alex Holland (5,734).

HALL OF FAMER -- Kevin Blackhurst, after excelling in not one, but two sports at Delaware,

has been inducted into the university's Hall of Fame. Blackhurst played basketball and baseball for the Blue Hens after graduating from Franklin in 1989. He's the only athlete in Delaware history to play in both the NCAA Division I tournament in both sports, and was named the school's Male Athlete of the Year in 1994. Blackhurst helped the Blue Hens to an 81-63 record in basketball and tournament appearances and conference titles in 1992 and 1993. He's also ranked third in three-pointers (91), games played (111) and steals (124). Blackhurst played baseball (centerfield) at "UD" for three years, and hit .386, which ranks seventh on the school's all-time list. Blackhurst was imducted into the Franklin High School Hall of Fame in 2022.

DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME -- Volleyball: Warren (18-0) second straight D-10 3A title; Corry, which reached the state finals last season, repeats in 2A and claims its sixth championship overall; Maplewood third 1A crown in four years and 23rd overall; Soccer: Fairview boys 14th D-10 2A title and fifth in last six years.

ANOTHER BIGGIE -- Here's another big rushing game: 372 YARDS (and 4 TDs) for Northwestern's Brody Bickenheuser against Saegertown.

LAST-MINUTE OPT OUT -- I guess 6A Erie could face disciplinary action for waiting until Sunday -- way past the Wednesday deadline -- to opt out of the D-10 playoffs. TPTB even had a date with McDowell planned for the title game. Erie people said Royals just had too many injuries. McDowell got a win by forfeit.

RE-COMMITTED -- Walker Carroll, pitcher-infielder from Cochranton, has announced his commitment to play baseball at UConn. Carroll hit .519 and struck out 101 while pitching to a 2.33 ERA last spring. He had been committed to West Virginia.

FRIDAY NIGHT LEFTOVERS -- That victory over Cathedral Prep was the second ever for General McLane and the Lancers' first since 2005...Jacoby Thompson threw a school record five touchdown passes against Warren, breaking his old mark of four set earlier this season...Tymir Phillips caught a school record four of them, erasing Paul Burnett from the books. Burnett starred in basketball in the 1980s...28/271, 2 TDs for Vinnie Feliciano, bringing his career totals to 3,791 yards and 54 TDs (or thereabouts)...

HERE'S AN AMAZING STAT -- Grove City boys cross country has gone 18 straight years with an undefeated record. That's 117 dual meet victories in a row.

8 TDs FOR FELICIANO -- Vinnie Feliciano of Mercyhurst Prep scored eight touchdowns against Iroquois on Oct. 10. He rushed for 297 yards. The eight TDs was the most by any District 10 player this season. Earlier, Brody Bonsell of McDowell scored seven against Meadville. Feliciano, a junior, is approaching 3,500 career yards rushing by my count. He missed two full games and half of another this season after being ejected.

STREAKING HORNETS -- According to a tweet on X, Tiger LaVerde's Kirtland Hornets have clinched a playoff spot for the 16th consecutive season and 19th tike in the last 20 years. Kirtland is the first Division VI school to clinch a playoff spot this season and is gunning for the No. 1 seed for the seventh straight year.

DISTRICT 9 RUSHING RECORD -- Port Allegany senior Aiden Bliss is the new all-time rushing leader in District 9. Playimg in his 41st game, Bliss ran his career total to 7,324 yards on Oct. 3. He's also the D-9 leader in rushing touvhdowns with 97.

JUST FILLING IN -- Junior Jack Vanchieri, making his second start at quarterback for Corry on Oct. 2, threw for 421 yards (25/37) and five touchdowns in a 34-16 win over North East. The week before he threw four TD passes in a 40-37 victory over Mercyhurst Prep. Vanchieri was filling in for senior starter Lucas Baker, who was injured two weeks ago against General McLane. The two have now combined for more than 1,500 yards passing. Interestingly, Corry netted minus 14 yards rushing against North East.

FORFEIT -- Union City forfeited its game this weekend with Mercyhurst Prep. The Bears down to 13 players.

A NIGHT FOR SCHOOL RECORDS -- This was moved from out front. Quite a few school

records fell during Week 5 of the football campaign. Leading the way was Matt Caro of General McLane who threw for 347 yards in the Lancers' 49-18 victory over Corry. Caro, who replaced another prolific passer in Isaac Zietz, has 1,296 yards already this season and 1,888 for his career. Jacoby Thompson rewrote the Meadville record book with his four TD passes, a modest total since MASH is a running team, in the 65-47 loss to McDowell. (Brody Bonsell ran for a school record 347 yards and sclored seven touchdowns for the Trojans.) Finally, there was Bryson Galloway who tossed seven touchdown passes in North East's 68-0 rout of Franklin.

Meadville's Jacoby Thompson

WHATEVER IT TAKES -- I remember back in 2001-03 when Tiger LaVerde was coaching

Jake LaVerde received the Player of the Game award after Kirtland beat Central Clarion in a showdown of reigning state runners-up in the season opener.

Franklin. The Knights had a three-year starter at quarterback named Rich Cerro, a runner/passer type who did throw for a lot of yards. So many that "people" (aka Franklin fans) thought Tiger was a regular "Air Coryell." Somewhere along the line, as I recall, he said, no he does what the talent gives him. Or words to that effect. That leads us to his son, Jake, current quarterback for Tiger's Kirtland, Ohio, juggernaut. Jake is a four-year starter with highly unusual career stats, which leads back to my third sentence. Kirtland, as we all know by now, is a highly successful program, but I'm not going to go into the numbers here. I am going to go into Jake's stats, though. The kid has only thrown eight passes in Kirtland's first four games this season -- a 4-0 start, by the way. EIGHT! And he's coming off a junior season in which he went a modest 20/35 for 321 yards. That might not make you blink, but this was after a freshman season of 59/124 for 1,032 followed by a sophomore campaign of 65/111 for 1,132. He threw 28 touchdown passes his first two years. That stat has dropped to 10 last year to zero so far this season. Meanwhile, the 6-2, 210-pounder is on pace for a second straight season of 1,000 yards rushing. He is 59/595 in his first four games. This is after a 94/1,215 as a junior. I'm willing to bet there are a lot of players out there who would not be so willing to go from 2,164 yards passing their first two seasons to eight attempts in four games as a senior. Just sayin'. Now to tidy it all up: J. LaVerde is 146/278 for 2,534 yards and 38 TDs passing and 310/2,722 and 34 touchdowns rushing. For his career.

10-YEAR ANNI -- Hard to believe, but it's been 10 years -- Sept. 11, 2015 -- since

Meadville's Journey Brown broke into the national limelight with his 722-yard, 10-touchdown performance against DuBois. He led the Bulldogs to a 107-90 victory over the Beavers and was all over ESPN. I remember being at the Oil City game that night and checking the scores at halftime. "Holy cow!" I said to the guy I was sitting with as I was going over those scores. I think the score at DuBois was 50-49 or some such thing. What nobody remembers is another game Journey would take part in later on that season -- Oil City's 74-48 conquest of the Bulldogs. Don't remember how many yards Journey had; do remember Mo Hadley tied a state record with seven touchdown catches (and at least one of them was against Journey) and 14 receptions for 317 yards. Jackson McFall was doing the pitching that night for the Oilers and threw eight TD passes in all and ran up 480 yards total offense. Two weeks later, Franklin beat Meadville, 42-25, in the midst of a 6-6 campaign. The Knights rolled up 485 yards total offense, 334 on the ground. Obviously, Meadville was not a defensive juggernaut that year. People can scoff at Journey's stats in that DuBois game, but they can't argue being a two-time state champion in the 100 meters. Journey did have a nice partial career at Penn State and I was looking forward to more success after he ran for long TDs and set bowl records for the Nittany Lions. Needless to say I was sorry to see that promising career cut short by a medical condition.

LOSING STREAKS -- Welp, much to the surprise of many, Warren's 24-game losing

streak came to an end Friday night against Franklin. In case you're wondering, Oil City had a 24-game losing streak in the early 1960s. That ended in 1962 against Corry. Franklin's longest losing streak was 25 games in the early 1950s. Actually, it came to a halt when the Nursery tied Titusville. Then they beat Kane the next week. Franklin's drought started in 1950 when Ken Wolfe was still the coach. John Uram was the coach for the nine losses in 1951 and the first seven in 1952.

PROTEGE? -- It would appear Cochranton -- his old stomping grounds -- is the place to be for Ian Haynes. Cards' freshman QB Noah Carroll threw six TD passes (and 235 yards) in a 55-13 rout of Union City on Aug. 29. Four of the HTDs went to his older brother Walker. Haynes, District 10's all-time leading passer after a stellar career at Franklin, is now an assistant at Cochranton where his dad, Tom, serves as head coach. The Hayneses came to Franklin from Cochranton about a decade ago...Meanwhile, Tiger LaVerde's Kirtland Hornets are off to a 2-0 start after walloping Crestview, 42-7...Two more TDs for Jake LaVerde...