District 11 Top Returning Players (Week 2)

DISTRICT 11 NOTES (week 2):   

RUNNINGBACKS: 

Cayden Vassa of Bethlehem Catholic rushed for 260 yards and 4 td’s in their win over Emmaus. Vassa leads the EPC 18 in rushing with 372 yards and 6 td’s scored. Vassa also threw for 154 yards and a td in the game. Another QB, Cole Ordway of Easton is 2nd behind Vassa in EPC 18 rushing yards with 331 yards. Ordway also joins the chart for his 1,104 career rushing yards. Junior, Lukas Croizier of Lehighton also joins the chart with his 1,063 career yards. Keyen Johnson of Stroudsburg rushed for 209 yards and a td in their 48-42 OT loss to Wilkes-Barre. Luke Miller of North Schuylkill leads the District with 403 yards rushing after 2 games. Miller went over 30 career td’s with the 3 he scored in week 2 and now has 32. Sean Steckert of Southern Lehigh hit the 50 td mark in week 2 when he scored 2 td’s in their win over Blue Mountain. Steckert has 51 career td’s. Dante Carr of Minersville joins the “40 td” club with exactly 40 td’s scored. Marquez Wimberly of Nazareth rushed for 194 yards and scored 3 td’s (1 rush, 2 receiving) in their win over Whitehall. Wimberly went over 2,000 yards rushing for his career (2,125).

QUARTERBACKS:

Peyton Falzone of Nazareth threw for 302 yards and 3 td’s in a week 2 win over Whitehall. Falzone went over 5,000 yards passing in his career (5,223 yards) and has thrown 48 career td passes. Ceejay Serfass of Pocono Mountain East threw for 286 yards and a td in their win over Honesdale. Serfass leads the District with 561 passing yards after week 2 and Falzone is 2 yards behind with 559 yards. Colton Sams of Southern Lehigh joined the “4,000 yard” club. The junior has thrown for 4,017 yards and 45 td passes so far in his career. Matt Bodnar of Notre Dame threw 5 td passes in their win over Salisbury. Cade Mengel of North Schuylkill threw 3 td passes in their win over Tamaqua to go over 30 for his career (32). Andrew Allen of Pottsville and Jayse Lawrence of Lehighton both went over 2,000 career passing yards. Allen has 2,045 yards and Lawrence has thrown for 2,038 yards in his career.

RECEIVERS:

Justin Williams of Pocono Mountain East had another big night which included breaking his own school record. Williams caught 7 passes for a school record 224 yards and a td. Williams held the old record when he had 197 yards vs Honesdale last season. He is tied in the District with his 15 catches and leads the District in reception yardage (361 yards). Williams also went over 1,000 yards for his career (1,022). Carter Vassa of Bethlehem Catholic also has 15 catches in the first 2 weeks and now has 99 career catches. Jake Puksyzn of Liberty and Josh Louk of Jim Thorpe both joined the “100 catch” club in week 2. Both players have 100 career receptions. Puksyzn has 1,303 yards receiving and 13 td receptions and Louk has 1,287 career yards and 14 td catches. Brady Behr of Pocono Mountain West broke the school record for career receiving yards. Behr has 1,242 yards, breaking the old record of 1,166 yards that Chris Monaco set from 2014-16. Behr already holds the career reception record with his 95 catches. Ty Nansteel of Lehighton caught 3 td passes in their win over Bangor. The school record is 4 in a game and it’s been done twice. Chris Green had 4 vs Central Catholic in 1991 and Anthony Farole had 4 vs PMW in 2010. Landen Smith of North Schuylkill joins the chart with his 587 career receiving yards. Smith caught 4 passes for 130 yards and 2 td’s in week 2 vs Tamaqua. Paiten Lapoint of Minersville scored 4 td’s in their win over Shenandoah Valley. Lapoint had 2 td catches, 1 punt return td and 1 kick-off return td.

TIDBITS:

I was able to bring together all my records of the 300 yard rushers in District 11 over the years and I found that it’s been done 115 times. Here’s some info on them with more to come as time permits.

1st recorded 300 yard rushers (1st 6):

Gil Strunk of Pen Argyl vs Bangor in 1934 (302 yards on 53 carries and 5 td’s scored) won 33-13

Maurice Schleicher of Slatington (NL) vs Lehighton in 1954 (300 yards on only 9 carries and 5 td’s scored) won 56-13

John Rosella of North Schuylkill vs Bloomsburg in 1968 (306 yards on 23 carries and 4 td’s scored) won 38-12

Tim Posivak of Liberty vs Allen in 1976 (309 yards on 32 carries and 4 td’s scored) won 41-14

Bob Agosti of Marian Catholic vs Pottsville in 1986 (306 yards on 27 carries and 2 td’s scored) won 37-14

Jim Hope of Tamaqua vs Shenandoah Valley in 1989 (331 yards on 30 carries and 3 td’s scored) won 28-21

There were no 300 yard rushers in 1990. So, that means (109 of the 115) 300 yard rushers have been since the 1991 season.

TOP 6 HIGHEST RUSHING YARDS IN A GAME (all over 400 yards)

1. 469 yards – Nysir Minney-Gratz of Easton vs Nazareth in 2015 (scored 6 td’s) won 56-41
2. 429 yards – Nick Kurtz of Whitehall vs Freedom in 1999 (scored 4 td’s) won 41-14
3. 422 yards – Colin McDermott of Central Catholic vs BECA in 2012 (scored 5 td’s) won 42-7
4. 413 yards – Zack Barket of Schuylkill Haven vs North Schuylkill in 2008 (scored 7 td’s) won 54-19
5. 405 yards – Trey Robinson of Wilson vs Notre Dame in 2011 (scored 5 td’s) won 47-17
6. 402 yards – Austin Scott of Parkland vs Freedom in 2002 (scored 6 td’s) won 49-13

2025 single-game highs: ( ) is the week the player accomplished the stat

Single Game Touchdowns (4)

5 (1) Rory Dixon (Marian Catholic)  *Ties School Record*

4 (1) Sean Steckert (Southern Lehigh)

4 (1) Luke Miller (North Schuylkill)

4 (2) Paiten Lapoint (Minersville)

4 (2) Cayden Vassa (Bethlehem Catholic)

Single Game Rushing Yardage (200)

260 (2) Cayden Vassa (Bethlehem Catholic)

237 (1) Luke Miller (North Schuylkill)

226 (1) Rory Dixon (Marian Catholic)

209 (2) Keyen Johnson (Stroudsburg)

205 (1) Colton Reber (Schuylkill Haven)

203 (1) Sean Steckert (Southern Lehigh)

Single Game Passing Yardage (200)

302 (2) Peyton Falzone (Nazareth)

286 (2), 285 (1) Ceejay Serfass (Pocono Mountain East)

277 (1) Colton Sams (Southern Lehigh)

257 (1) Peyton Falzone (Nazareth)

251 (1) Antonio Fontanez (Liberty)

247 (1) Matt Bodnar (Notre Dame)

231 (1) Cole Lazorick (Jim Thorpe)

Single Game TD Passes (4)

5 (2) Matt Bodnar (Notre Dame)

4 (1) Ceejay Serfass (Pocono Mountain East)

Single Game Receptions (10)

10 (1) Carter Vassa (Bethlehem Catholic)

Single Game Reception Yardage (140)

224 (2) Justin Williams (Pocono Mountain East)  *School Record*

166 (1) Zyaire Davis (Liberty)

Single Game Reception TD’s (3)

3 (2) Ty Nansteel (Lehighton)

Field Goals (40 yards)

none reported