District 11 Top Returning Players 2016 Week 1

Written by: David Mika on Thursday, September 1st, 2016. Follow David Mika on Twitter.

DISTRICT NOTES: by Duke Helm

RUNNINGBACKS: Thomas Melchiorre of ESN rushed for 169 yards and scored 4 td’s in their win over Northampton. Melchiorre also threw for 158 and 2 td’s including a 71 yard game winner to Nevin Day with 1:22 left in the game to break a 42-42 tie. Melchiorre added to his school records as he only needed 2 carries to surpass Chris Lynch for career rushing attempts. Lynch had 356 carries from 2001-03. Randy Terry III of Bethlehem Catholic rushed for 216 yards and a td in their win over PMW. Sophomore Lubens Myers of Emmaus rushed for 132 yards and 2 td’s and returned a kick-off 75 yards for another score in his first varsity start. Nate Kehs and Zach Petiet of Saucon Valley each rushed for 3 td’s in their win over Bangor. Major Jordan of North Schuylkill now has 25 career td’s. Junior, Job Goodman of Wilson went over 1,000 yards for his career and now has 1,003 yards.

QUARTERBACKS:

Several quarterbacks starting in their first varsity game had big nights in week 1. Cody Scherer of Lehighton threw for a school record 315 yards and 3 td’s in a 34-30 win over Fleetwood. Kyle Hunter held the old record set in 2009 when he threw for 296 yards in a win over Marian Catholic. In his first start, Southern Lehigh sophomore Logan Edmond threw for 224 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Northern Lehigh. Zach Gilbert of Whitehall threw for 218 yards and 2 td’s in their win over PME. Jake Wolfgang of Williams Valley moved from receiver to qb this year and threw for 110 yards and 2 td’s in their win over Upper Dauphin. Sophomore, Cole DeFranco of Notre Dame hit on 21 of his 24 passes for 305 yards and 2 td’s in his first career start. Seven different players caught the 21 passes from DeFranco (all seniors). DeFranco also ran for 72 yards and a td in their win over Palisades. Freshman Drew Bollinger of Northwestern threw for 241 yards and a td in their win over Palmerton. Bollinger now has the second highest passing yardage total in school history behind only Mike Heintzelman. In 1975, Heintzelman threw for 264 yards in a 20-18 loss to Jim Thorpe. Matt Lewandowski of Mahanoy Area threw 2 td passes in his first varsity start (a 31-14 win over Towanda). Joe Young of Freedom threw for 210 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Central Catholic. Andrew Brett of Catasauqua completed 25 passes for 297 yards in their loss to Salisbury. Brandon Keyes of Pleasant Valley threw for 229 yards and 3 td’s in their win over Nazareth. Travis Stefanik of Nazareth threw for 210 yards and a td in a loss to Pleasant Valley. He now joins the “40 td” club. Stefanik also rushed for 96 yards and 2 td’s. Ethan Kuczynski of Marian Catholic now has 35 career td passes. Ethan Persa of Central Catholic went over 2,000 yards passing for his career and now has 2,055 yards. Junior Hunter Kennedy of Panther Valley threw for 201yards and 3 td’s in their win over CMVT.

RECEIVERS:

Trevor Cunningham of Northwestern caught 7 passes for a school record 184 yards and a td vs Palmerton. Payton Bachman and Cam Richardson held the old record of 135 yards. Timmy Walter of Southern Lehigh started the season off with a good night. Walter caught 5 passes for 122 yards and a td as he is slowley moving up the Colonial league career chart. Ryan Green of Catasauqua caught 9 passes for 136 yards vs Salisbury. Logan Sterner of Pen Argyl caught 3 passes for 98 yards and 2 td’s while rushing for 41 yards and a td. Justin Richardson of Pleasant Valley caught 6 passes for 187 yards and 3 td’s. Lehighton had 2 receivers catch passes for 103 yards each in week 1. Greg Zehner caught 5 for 103 yards and Mike Mayernik caught 3 for 103 yards. Thomas Murphy is tops in the EPC North with his 7 catches against Freedom.

Week 1 Trivia: Mitch Daniel of Notre Dame rushed for over 1,000 yards (1,096) and caught passes for over 500 yards (525) in 2015. Who is the only other player in District 11 to accomplish this? Hint: He played D1, but didn’t play offense.

2016 single game highs: ( ) is the week the player accomplished the stat

Single Game Touchdowns (4)

4 (1) Thomas Melchiorre (ES North)

Single Game Rushing Yardage (200)

216 (1) Randy Terry III (Bethlehem Catholic)

Single Game Passing Yardage (200)

315 (1) Cody Scherer (Lehighton) *School Record*

305 (1) Cole DeFranco (Notre Dame)

297 (1) Andrew Brett (Catasaqua)

241 (1) Drew Bollinger (Northwestern)

224 (1) Logan Edmond (Southern Lehigh)

218 (1) Zach Gilbert (Whitehall)