Winter 2025-26

ON DECK FOR 1,000 POINTS -- Cranberry's Blake Marchinke and Darien Wenner. Marchinke has, by my count, which may be wrong, 908(ish). Wenner, a sophomore, has 714. Both should get there next season, Marchinke before Christmas. And then...Shia Sanchez, another Berry soph, has 335. A couple of 300-plus campaigns, and he'll be there. Two more sophomores who are into their 200s: Cranberry's Elena Ishman and Franklin's 6-4 Nolan Parry. Highest scoring freshmen, both from Oil City and off to decent starts: Easton Liederbach (174) and Laney Smith (135). Other ninth-graders who scored a little bit this season and could take giant steps at any time: Oil City's Isaiah VanWormer and Brady Fulmer, Franklin's Miah Shingledecker and Cranberry's Ella Fleeger.

ALL ALONE IS PREP -- The rest of the field showed it was no match for Cathedral Prep in the D-10 tournament, just sayin'. After the Ramblers got done with two-seed Sharon in the finals (99-80 or whatever) the venerable Sharon press (Ryan Briggs, Bob Greenburg, those guys) were raving about them -- as in one of the best teams they've ever seen. And that's saying something considering they hail from Mercer County. Actually, Sharon gave them a pretty good go. Prep went up by as many as 20 in the first half, but couldn't pull further away. Turnovers killed Sharon, although sometimes they did get through the vaunted press for easy hoops. But Tigers didn't get closer than 12. They were pretty good in their own right, though; next best team in the tournament. And while Nando and Michael Thompson are seniors, the rest of the Ramblers are underclassmen. Sharon is even younger. So keep all that in mind.

PLAYOFF LEFTOVERS -- Surprised Meadville boys beat DuBois in 5A. Didn't think Bulldogs were that good; thought Beavers were pretty decent...Look at Slip Rock girls. In the 4A finals after getting by Oil City. Lady Oilers obviously had a tough draw, but showed up well...I still find that 4A boys bracket infuriating. You know what should have been done? Give Prep a bye clear out to the finals. In fact, give Prep a bye to state championship game. Luv how mighty Hickory got its clock cleaned by the Ramblers. 95-69. Eyeball roll. And there sits Warren, pure as the driven snow. Gag. Be interesting to see how Sharon does against Prep. The thing is: Everybody knows how much better Prep is than the rest of the field, yet, here these thick-headed men (aka D-10 braintrust) sit, looking the other way... Play dumb, why don't you?...Oh, and here's another idea, Prep. Play up.

WARREN NAMES COACH -- Warren's new football coach is Jodi Baum -- despite the spelling of the first name, a guy not a girl. 30 years experience. Don't wantv to pay for a subscription for the Warren paper to find out more, so that's all I know.

DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT, BUT THAT'S BASKETBALL, I GUESS -- Not all seasons for seeding teams for basketball tournaments are created equal. Like this one in District 10 4A boys. TPTB had 13 teams to seed, and one of them, Cathedral Prep, while an obvious one seed is not your common, ordinary garden variety one seed. It's doubtful that anybody can touch Prep, which is 23-1, ranked No. 1 in the state and has scored over 100 points five times and over 90 on nine other occassions. Its points differential is 91.9-72.8. Granted, Oil City lost to Prep 115-60, in December, but proved more by going on to win Region 5 by three games over runnerup Warren. Three games. And so what do the brilliant minds in D-10 do? Go about their boring business of matching 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, etc. It's bad enough that the Oilers were seeded behind also rans from Mercer and Erie, but to put them in point blank range of Prep for the second round with no chance of finishing higher than fifth is an outrage. Meanwhile, wouldn't you know, Warren, the team that finished three games back of Oil City in Region 5, pulls off upsets of Grove City and Fairview and, the way I'm reading the schedule, will place no worse than fourth in District 10. And, oh by the way, the No. 5 out of D-10 will face the WPIAL champ in the first round of the PIAA playoffs. The No. 4 team will get either the District 8 or District 9 champ. I commend Warren for what it is doing in the playoffs so far, but the Dragons didn't exactly earn getting the chance to begin with.

THE 106-YEAR OLD OOOPS -- That 545 points Ike Cleaves had in the 1920 season? It was wrong, I discovered the other day. Numbers weren't adding up. So I went over them again. And again. Turns out he had 541 points that year. Just so you know.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL -- As it turns out the Oil City did get put in front of the runaway freight train that is Cathedral Prep when the pairings came out Saturday for the District 10 playoffs. Prep got the top seed and a first-round bye. The Oilers got eighth seed a with it a rematch with the Ramblers in the second round provided the got by North East. But five teams out of District 10 will advance to the PIAA tournament, so the Oilers can get that far provided they win their first game. 'Course, you never know, maybe Prep will stumble against Oil City. Wouldn't that be funny?

OOOPS -- An error was made Oil City's calculating the scoring in the Warren game. So take a basket away from Nevin Stinson (30 to 28 points), and give it to Carter Thompson (7 to 9).

MAYBE I'M MISSING SOMETHING -- So every year as the season winds down, Tom Reisenweber, venerable scribe of the Erie Times News, predicts the brackets for the District 10 basketball tournament. Last week he had his first edition. In 4A boys, D-10 was set to take 12 teams, the top four of which will advance to interdistricts. He had Cathedral Prep as the top seed, and I doubt anyone would have a problem with that. Then he had Mercer and Erie county squads (Sharon, Grove City and Hickory; Harbor Creek, Fairview, North East and Girard) as seeds 2-8 with the top four from Region 5 (Oil City, Warren, Ft. LeBoeuf and Franklin) pulling up the rear. OK...

Since then Farrell has come into the picture after upsetting somebody in a Mercer County game. That moved the Region 5 teams down another notch.

Now keep in mind that District 10 will meet Saturday to draw up the official pairings, so what Reisenweber has to say doesn't mean a hill of beans -- although it does seem to put a lot of stock in his opinion.

Still...according to Reisenweber's latest bracket, the top four in Region 5 are (1) Oil City, (2) Warren, (3) Ft. LeBoeuf and (4) Franklin. OK....

Problem is -- and this gets complicated -- he has Oil City in the same side of the bracket as Prep. This is where my brow furrows. For Region 5 champion Oil City -- presuming the Oilers are the outright champions -- to get to the top eight -- and a chance to make the final four, it would have to win its first round game (OK) but then face Prep -- PREP! -- and elimination in the second round while the second- and third-place finishers from Region 5 are in the opposite side of the bracket and have the easier road to the top four.

Maybe I'm missing something, but my brow remains furrowed. I just hope TPTB in District 10 know what they're doing when they get together Saturday.

HURST NEEDS NEW COACH -- Ryan Riemedio, Ethen Knox's coach at Mercyhurst, is leaving to become defensive coordinator at Youngstown State. Riemedio has been head coach of the Lakers since 2022. Knox has spent the last two years at the Hurst since setting all kind of rushing records at Oil City from2021-23....UPDATE (Feb. 10) looks like 31-year-old Thomas Sydeski, the team's offensive coordinator, will replace Riemedio...

PREP, AGAIN -- Prep thumped Meadville, 102-65, Friday. The 16-1 Ramblers are averaging 94.1 ppg. They've scored at least 100 points four times (North East, Oil City, Franklin, Meadville) and have been over 90 on seven other occassions. Only teams that have held them down are Fairview and Girard. They have five regular season games left, two with Erie plus McDowell, McLane and Meadville again.

WORTH MENTIONING, I GUESS -- Jovon Johnson, who made some controversial remarks after his North East team defeated Ethen Knox-less Oil City in 2023, is now the defensive backs coach for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. Johnson left North East after the Oilers slammed the Grape Pickers in the playoffs...Totally unrelated, but interesting nonetheless, Johnsonburg outlasted St. Marys, 9-5, in a boys basketball game on Jan. 14. There had been a link on d9and10sports.com to rewatch the game (no thanks), but it doesn't work anymore...

LANCERS HIT THE SKIDS -- General McLane has fallen on hard times in hoops. The Lancers, who lost to Clarion the last time out, are 2-8 and bring up the rear in Region 6. They've beaten only West Middlesex and Greenville in a tipoff tournament.

DUNK-O-RAMA, PROBABLY -- Big, bad Cathedral Prep and playmates set all kinds of scoring records in the Burger King Classic in Erie over the weekend. Philly's Neumann-Goretti, reigning 5A state champion, outlasted the Ramblers, 107-91, for the title, handing them their first loss. Goretti's Allassane N’Diaye scored 41 against Prep in the finals. That's two points off the tournament record. And the Saints are the second team to score 100 points in the Classic, but just missed the record there, too. The Ramblers are 15-1 and will return to Earth Friday, facing Meadville. Ranked No. 1 in the state in 4A by the Post-Gazette, Prep averages 93.7 ppg.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER -- Cathedral Prep 115, Oil City 55 to basically close out 2025. I guess now Oil City has a basketball companion to partner with the 1928 football score of Sharon 108, Oil City 0. Oh well, sugar happens every 100 years or so.

Now, to the rear end hole who wrote the following post on Facebook:

"I know I’ll catch hell for this but it’s out of control.

 This “new prep”(2022-present) needs to change. First you’re playing an ECL basketball schedule which is embarrassing but playing Oil City(no offense to players and coaches of Oil City) is BEYOND embarrassing!!! This is NOT real Prep (1921-2021) basketball!! Your AD will tell you we always played the best of the best, not this stat stuffer of a schedule with new “fake” school records. There better be an asterisk from 2022 and beyond on any and all so called “records” Tell this new administration they better purchase an asterisk stamp!!! Make that 2, one for boys and girls.

1977 Alumni

Rant completed"

Well, I have to say I wondered why, if Prep is so good, it is playing in the Dick Russell tournament. Usually teams of Prep's supposed caliber (ranked No. 1 in the state) are playing powerhouses from Washington D.C. over Christmas. Not in the Dick Russell, unless they thought they were going to face your 2006 state champion Franklin Knights. But implying Oil City is worse than Erie County League teams and then -- no offense to the OCHS players and coaches -- saying it's beyond embarrassing. Well that IS offensive, not to mention ignorant. Hey, you're 60 years old or thereabouts. Are you still that stupid?

Oh, and by the way. You should look up some Prep scores from yesteryear. Like Prep losing to Corry, 30-27, in 1928.

And take a look in the mirror if you want to see "beyond embarrassing."

AFTER LOOKING SOME STUFF UP -- Oil City's Cole Findlay wasn't the only player in the state this season to pick off nine passes. Three of four others on that 4A list alone did that -- and, as with Findlay, they had other gaudy stats. Don't know if Aliquippa's Qa'Lil Goode was one of them, but his 100-yard pick 6 against the Oilers was probably enough to put him over the top. Yeah, it's a shame Findlay didn't make it -- but neither did anyone from General McLane, like the QB, Matt Caro. Or either of those tight ends. And that running back from McDowell, Brody Bonsell, had some games that statistically brought back memeories of Ethen Knox. Bonsell didn't make it in 6A. 3-7 probably didn't help. Still...I think it's odd that the Erie Times News has yet to release its All-District 10 teams. So they will be announced after the all-state teams come out. If ever. Whatever.

WHERE IS COLE FINDLAY? -- Not on the all-state team, even after making 14 career INTs...Cathedral Prep is 10-0 in basketball. Oilers will be seeing them in the Dick Russell.

STINSON UPDATE -- Oil City's Nevin Stinson will go into Christmas tournament season with 199 points in eight games, an average of 24.9 per. As said earlier, Stinson could break the school single-season scoring record of 545 points set in 1920 by Stephen "Ike" Cleaves. In those days, teams had a designated free throw shooter, and Cleaves was it for the Oilers. Cleaves made 215 of Oil City's 219 foul shots that season. He had 165 baskets and averaged 21.8 points per game. If you are thinking well, that shouldn't count, -- the free throws business -- note that Cleaves didn't play in the day of the three-point shot and in playoffs, playoffs, playoffs adding up to more games. If you do want a "modern" record, that would be 498 points set in 1971 by Mike Emick. His big claim to fame that season was scoring a school record 56 points against Rocky Grove.

LADY OILERS GYMNASTS HEADED TO STATES -- Oil City competitive gymnasts qualified for the state meet Jan. 9-10 at Johnstown. The Lady Oilers were second to McDowell in the "big school" District 10 meet, but their 73.50 average was high enough to advance,

SCORING RECORDS IN DANGER? -- Don't look now, but two Oil City scoring records are

being threatened this season. One is Tracy Whitling's career scoring mark for girls. She finished her career in 1997 with 1,346 points. Challenging is Payton Liederbach, who is up to 1,044 as of Dec. 19. She has the rest of this month and all of January and February to get there. The other is the oldie but goodie of anyone's records: Steve Cleaves' single season 545 points set in 1920. Nevin Stinson has come into play here. He already has 141 points with 16 regular season games left. Both are longshots, but both are doable. And for a school that is not known for setting scoring marks -- especially the boys.

Interesting note about Steve Cleaves. Originally attended Allegheny before joining his more famous brother, Jack, at Princeton where he starred in football. Steve captained a 21-2 team his senior year in 1925. He also played la crosse at Princeton. After gradurating from Harvard Law School, he practiced law in New York City for 59 years.

SNUBBED -- Kinda feel Oil City's Caleb Sparks was snubbed on the D9and10.com All-District 10 team. Coach Dan York has been known to rave about his defensive line, yet nobody is on the all-stars. Just noticed, too, that none of the Coach of the Year awards ever go to anybody from Oil City. Others with all-star credentials: Franklin's Connor Ritchey and Caden Mincer. Just sayin'

COACH WANTED -- Warren, along with Franklin, is looking for a new football coach...Now, so is Slippery Rock.

WHO SAW IT COMING? -- Southern Columbia and its wing T offense really did a number

on Farrell in the 2A state championship game to the tune of 351 yards rushing. The Steelers finished with minus 34 yards rushing after Southern dominated the first half. Final was 43-22. Farrell's star running back, Nebraska recruit Juelz Johnson, finished his career with 5,121 yards rushing, but was limited to 4/18 against Southern. The Tigers have a record 15 state titles, much to the dismay of those who wonder why the PIAA doesn't make the them play up and belly ache about Aliquippa. Heh, come to think of it, of the three crown jewels of western Pa. football, only Clairton lived up to its press clippings. Oh well.

WHO DOESN'T LIKE IKE? -- Here's something you don't see every day: Eisenhower beating Warren in basketball. Happened Friday night in the finals of the Eisenhower Tipoff tourney. The Knights/Ikes won by 20, too, putting six players in double figures...When the Oilers face DuBois tonight in the Keystone finals, they'll be taking on three-point shooting specialist Maddox Bennett, who scored his 1,000th career point against Clarion. The Beavers beat the Oilers by four in last yeart's final, Bennett getting 23...The big showdown tonight is in the Roy Sanner Tipoff where Rocky Grove and Cranberry clash in the championship game. The Orioles' won last year's final, 65-64, on Aiden Focht's game winner in the final seconds.

FIRST BASKETBALL PLAYER/WRESTLER? -- Don't know, but Oil City freshman Ella Kasunic plays basketball for the Lady Oilers and wrestles for Cranberry. Don't recall anybody ever having that combo next to their athletic resume. Not surprised because she's excelled at both sports in the lower grades like forever. It would appear that wrestling is in her blood. She's related to Brayden Crocker, who had a brilliant wrestling career ahead of him until a knee injury derailed both his football and mat careers a few years back.