LANSDALE — Jamin Ilgenfritz served as the welcoming party when Demarcus Murray came to Central York as a sophomore last season, helping familiarize him with the Panthers program.
Now Murray is returning the favor as Ilgenfritz, a sophomore quarterback, enters the varsity stage.
In his second varsity start Friday against reigning District 1 champion North Penn, Ilgenfritz completed 16-of-21 passes for 231 yards and six touchdowns in a 42-33 victory. Five of those touchdown tosses went to Murray, who has emerged as his top target early in the season. Murray finished with seven catches, 113 yards and five touchdowns on the night.
“We have an amazing connection,” Murray told EasternPaFootball. “When I came here, he was the one who really helped me get into the school because last year was my first year. I’ve had a good connection with him since last year when we were both younger and he really helped me get into the program.”
Ilgenfritz, who already holds Power 5 offers from Maryland, Virginia Tech, Rutgers and Syracuse, had a rough start to his first game as QB1 last week against State College, opening with a three-and-out and an interception on the team’s first two drives.
He rallied to finish 18-of-29 for 228 yards and three total touchdowns, including two touchdown tosses to Murray, in a 35-28 season opening loss. The strong finish continued into Friday’s game against North Penn (1-1).
Central York (1-1) jumped on North Penn early, taking a 14-0 lead by the 7:24 mark of the first quarter. Ilgenfritz tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass to junior Deuce Johnson Jr. on the Panthers’ first drive. After a Hunter Fogle interception gave Central York good field position, Ilgenfritz tossed a 37-yard TD strike to Murray.
“(The interception against State College) kind of calmed me down a little bit,” Ilgenfritz said. “During the second half against State College, I started tearing it up a little bit. … Week 2 I just came out firing. Two passing touchdowns in a row, and it just went on from there.”
It wasn’t just the Central York passing game moving the ball up and down the field. The Panthers combined for 431 yards offense, also rushing for 200 yards.
Senior running back Legend Johnson, coming off a junior campaign with 1,300 yards and 22 touchdowns, carried the ball 27 times for 182 yards behind senior Hayden “Tank” Quinn and juniors Kadin Noor, AJ Baker, Amarion Mitchell and Demetri Shelley up front. Noor is the only returning starter on the line from last season’s 11-2 District 3 runner-up squad.
“What Legend does is amazing,” Murray said. “He’s a hard runner. He forces teams to put people in the box and open up the passing game for us. Teams have to go man-to-man because they have to put people in the box. They have to go one high because they have to put people in the box.”
“Our o-line stepped up tonight really well,” Central York coach Gerry Yonchiuk said.
North Penn senior Rylei Gray ran 18 times for 100 yards and a touchdown and added two receiving scores. Knights’ junior Ziyon Smith hauled in three catches for 106 yards and two total touchdowns. They helped North Penn even the score after it looked like an early Central York rout.
Gray caught a four-yard touchdown pass from senior London Evans on 4th-and-goal to cap a 13-play, 65-yard scoring drive with 51 seconds left in the first. After the Knights’ defense forced a three-and-out, Smith took a punt return 61 yards to even the score 14-14 on the final play of the first quarter. Murray and Igenfritz connected on a four-yard touchdown toss and Gray ran in a 15-yard score early in the second quarter to send the teams into half tied 21-21.
The night started to look like a truly special one for Igenfritz and Murray on Central York’s first second-half possession. Their third touchdown connection — a 40-yard bomb after Murray beat his defender with a double move — gave the Panthers a 28-21 lead with 7:35 left in the third, and they never gave it up again, scoring on their first three second half possessions.
Murray went up and hauled in a 20-yard touchdown toss from Ilgenfritz with 2:53 left in the third, then caught a 13-yard touchdown pass at the 9:40 mark in the fourth to make it 21 unanswered points for Central York and give the Panthers a 42-21 lead.
“It started in the summer, when I saw it every day at the field,” Ilgenfritz said of his connection with Murray. “Just working on his routes, working on my placement of the ball and timing, and we just connected from there.”
Quarterback Brooklyn Nace (2,793 yards, 36 TDs, 2 INT), now at Old Dominion, and wide receiver Brendyn Smith (1,202 yards, 22 TDs), now at Kent State, left some big shoes to fill in the Panthers’ passing game.
After catching 43 passes for 721 yards and seven touchdowns last season, Murray is up to 13 catches, 239 yards and seven touchdowns through two weeks of his junior campaign. Ilgenfritz, who came into the season with 21 career varsity passing attempts, has completed 67 percent of his passes (34-of-51) for 459 yards and eight touchdowns with just one interception.
“It’s very impressive,” Murray said of Ilgenfritz. “I know how good of a QB he is, how good of a player he is, and I know he can do that every week if he really wants to.”
Central York gave up 184 yards of offense in the first half, including 101 yards rushing. The Panthers’ defense found itself at the start of the second half, holding the Knights to just 17 yards on their first three second-half possessions.
Smith saved what looked to be another three-and-out when he took a swing pass on fourth-down 75 yards to the house with 7:05 left in the game. The Knights got the ball back down 15 with 2:23 to play. They went 76 yards in four plays, getting into the end zone on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Evans to Gray, but a failed two-point conversion kept it a two-possession game with 1:10 to go.
Evans completed 11-of-19 passes for 217 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Senior William Rittenhouse caught four passes for 86 yards.
“We have some young guys, so there were some big pass plays, but if we’re evenly matched up in the interior parts then I really like what (defensive coordinator Mike Cessarano) does and how we shut down the run,” Yonchiuk said. “If he doesn’t make those stops, I don’t know if we win.”
Central York 14 7 14 7-42
North Penn 14 7 0 12-33
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
CY: Deuce Johnson 24 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 9:54
CY: Demarcus Murray 37 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 7:24
NP: Rylei Gray 4 pass from London Evans (kick), 0:51
NP: Ziyon Smith 61 punt return (kick), 0:00
Second Quarter
CY: Demarcus Murray 3 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 8:40
NP: Rylei Gray 15 run (kick), 3:51
Third Quarter
CY: Demarcus Murray 40 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 7:35
CY: Demarcus Murray 20 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick), 2:35
Fourth Quarter
CY: Demarcus Murray 13 pass from Jamin Ilgenfritz (Brady Burt kick),9:40
NP: Ziyon Smith 75 pass from London Evans (kick miss), 7:05
NP: Rylei Gray 15 pass from London Evans (pass fail), 1:10
Team Statistics
……………… …CY………………..NP
1st downs………..21…………………16
rush-yds……….32-200……………31-143
comp-att-int….16-21-0…………..11-20-2
pass yds……….231………………217
total yds…………431……………….360
fumb-lost……..0-0………………3-0
pen-yds…………7-77…………..3-20
Individual Statistics
Rushing:
Central York: Legend Johnson 27-182; Jamin Ilgenfritz 5-18.
North Penn: Rylei Gray 18-100, TD; Ziyon Smith 6-19; London Evans 4-18; Jake Weidenmiller 3-6.
Passing:
Central York: Jamin Ilgenfritz 16-21, 231 yards, 6 TDs.
North Penn: London Evans 11-19, 217 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs.
Receiving:
Central York: Demarcus Murray 7-113, 5 TDs; Deuce Johnson Jr. 6-64, TD; Savien Venable 1-36; Ben Zeigler 2-18.
North Penn: Ziyon Smith 3-106, TD; William Rittenhouse 4-86; Rylei Gray 3-19, 2 TDs; Duke Horgan 1-6.