Playing a name game with the rosters with the 8^th edition of the Manheim Touchdown Club’s Tri-County All-Star Game gives the decided advantage to the South team.

The South, which will be led by Columbia head coach Jason Shoff, has such athletes like Eric Resch, Kyle Fisher, Dakotah Lightfoot, Dylan Stopper and Zacc Groff, and those are just the potential running backs.

Meanwhile, looking at Mike Miller’s (Annville-Cleona) North roster, it’s a struggle to find big-number guys, save for Lebanon’s All-State WR Jordan Clentimack and Lancaster Catholic DL Nick Schmalhofer.  Other notables include quarterbacks Jarvis Cummings (Hempfield) and Kyle McNeil (Elizabethtown) and hometown OL/DL Riley Clugston (Manheim Central).

There is one glaring omission from the North roster – Lancaster Catholic WR Travis Jankowski, who went over 1,100 yards receiving last season.  Think maybe his addition to the roster would take a little pressure off Clentimack if the North needs a big catch late in a tight game?

The stats for the five potential running backs on the South squad (names mentioned above) are just eye-popping.  Four of the five surpassed 1,300 rushing yards last season.  All five scored 17 touchdowns or more – and three surpassed 20 scores.  Combined, the quintet totaled 7,134 rushing yards and 105 touchdowns. 

What coach out there wouldn’t love that kind of talent in the backfield?  Heck, teams are lucky if they’ve got three talented running backs, and those teams are rare.  Just ask the 1985 Bishop McDevitt Crusaders or last season’s PIAA runner-up West Catholic Burrs, two such teams that immediately come to mind.

South quarterbacks Steve Huber (Wilson West-Lawn) and Weston Martin (Garden Spot) each had big-number seasons, too.  Huber missed a portion of the season, and still finished with 1,584 passing yards and a 4.7:1 TD/INT ratio.  Martin just missed the 2,000-yard mark passing, chalking up 1,924 yards and 25 touchdowns.

Huber and Martin will have three quality receivers to throw to – Alex Fegley (Wilson-West Lawn), Sean Persch (Pequea Valley), and Tyler Eby (Garden Spot).  Combined, these three pass catchers notched 164 receptions, 2,956 yards, and 29 touchdowns last year.  And Persch, a two-time second team All-State selection in “AA,” went over 1,000 yards receiving for the second straight year in 2008.

The North will try to counter with Clentimack, who recorded over 2,000 receiving yards the last two seasons, and McNeil and Cummings, who combined for 2,636 yards of total offense and 37 total touchdowns last season.

But just from the looks of things, and if you play the name game, the South has this latest edition of the Tri-County game signed, sealed, and delivered.

Hopefully, the North can keep up.

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