District 11 Top Returning Players WEEK 1 2020

Written by: EasternPAFootball.com Staff on Friday, September 18th, 2020. Follow EasternPAFootball.com Staff on Twitter.

by Duke Helm

DISTRICT 11 NOTES (week 1):

RUNNINGBACKS:

Matt Frauen of Notre Dame rushed for 166 yards and scored 4 td’s in their win over Pine Grove. Nick Henry rushed for 119 yards and scored 2 td’s in their win over Palisades. Henry is nearing 40 career td’s and currently has 37 for his career. In the same game, Mason Smeland of Palisades rushed for 158 yards and scored 2 td’s. Smeland now has 21 career td’s. Jacob Hoffman of Nativity rushed for 100 yards in their win over Pottsville and in the process went over 1,000 yards for his career. Hoffman now has 1,047 yards. In the same game Pottsville’s Booby Walchak rushed for 136 yards and scored 3 td’s. Walchak needs 53 yards rushing to go over 1,000 yards in his career.

QUARTERBACKS:

Rich Fronheiser of Lehighton threw for 296 yards and 5 td’s in their win over Panther Valley. Lehighton’s passing stats were corrected, and the 296 yards is official. Chris Whiteman holds the school record when he threw 380 yards in a 35-34 loss to Schuylkill Haven in 2018. Fronheiser’s 5 td passes ties the school record that Brandon Williams established back in 2007 vs Marian ironically also the first game of the season. Junior, Cody Miller of Nativity threw for 162 yards and 4 td’s vs Pottsville. Dante McCoy and Brian Mellon share the td pass school record with 5 td passes each in a game. McCoy threw 5 against Cardinal Brennan in 2005 and Mellon threw 5 td’s vs Kutztown in 2011. Junior, Collin Quintano of Notre Dame threw for 208 yards and 2 td’s in their win over Pine Grove. Quintano went over 1,000 yards for his career and now has 1,185 yards. Davier Calcano of Jim Thorpe also went over 1,000 yards passing in his career with his 79 yards in their win over Marian. Calcano now has 1,054 yards. Josh Leininger of Pine Grove threw for 66 yards vs Palisades and his updated stats now have him with 1,155 career yards and is also on the chart.

RECEIVERS:

Keegan Brennan of Nativity caught 4 passes for 143 yards with all 4 going for td’s vs Pottsville. There are several former Green Wave receivers that caught 3 td’s in a game. As of right now reviewing some of files quickly, I have Jim Toomey being the first to have 3 in a game back in 1969 vs Lebanon Catholic. Tom Ferhat caught 3 vs CMVT in 2005 and Jeff Yordy caught 3 td’s in a game 4 times in 2014. Yordy holds Nativity’s single season and career records with his 17 td catches in 2014. Yordy was one of the 1-year wonder receivers as he caught 51 passes for a school record 1,045 yards and his 17 td grabs in his only year playing varsity football. One out every 3 passes Yordy caught went for a td. Paul Bandholz was the only other Green Wave receiver to go over 1,000 yards in a season when he caught 54 passes for 1,004 yards and 5 td’s in his junior year (1987). Bandholz went on to have a successful college career at ESU. Zack Hunsicker of Lehighton caught 8 passes for 94 yards and a td to go 1,000 yards for his career. Hunsicker has caught 73 passes for 1,061 yards and 8 td’s so far in his career. Teammate, junior Hunter Crum caught 7 passes for 91 yards and 2 td’s. Blue Mountain’s Gavin Bartholomew caught 3 passes for 110 yards and 2 td’s in their win over Schuylkill Haven.

History:

Bethlehem Catholic started football in 1926 and played football for only 5 years. Thirty-five years later in 1965 they started a program back up with former Lafayette head coach Jim McConloque as their head coach. McConloque would coach BECA for 2 seasons and move on to be an assistant at Lafayette in 1967. Unfortunately, McConloque would suffer a heart attack while coaching against Furman and die at the age of 53 years old.

Let’s head back to the 70’s and see if you can guess who the top 13 teams with the best winning percentage from 1970 thru 1979 in the vast Morning Call area. Answers will be here next week.