APRIL 1
  Here are some notes from coach Bill Gallagher (Episcopal Academy) about the contributions of Pub/Cath/Int players to Team Stars & Stripes' recent 54-6 win over Catalunya Representative, 54-6, in Barcelona, Spain . . .
  Kevin Kovacs (Judge) -- MVP, Threw for TD, ran for TD and stripped ball from kickoff return man and scored TD
  James Biggs-Frazier (Penn Charter) -- 14 carries for 128 yds and TD. Had TD and two long runs called back.
  Hank Adens (Roxborough) -- returned opening KO for TD; called back for ???; Had another called back; 100 yds receiving and a TD
  Cody Russell (Episcopal) played great at LB and scored TD as FB
  Patrick Cawley (Gtn. Academy) started the game with two huge hits from LB
  Kevin Fabien (Roxborough) -- played great at NG and OT
  Connor Foley (Judge) -- kicked 5-6 extra points OUT OF THE STADIUM! OOHS and AAHS from crowd!!
  Riley Kordek (Gtn. Academy) -- received award as Best Traveler (got involved with everyone and speaks pretty good Spanish)
  Freddie Perri (Penn Charter) at WR, Matt Cunningham (Judge) at SS, Jon Rava (Malvern) at FS and RB, Nick Lucchetta (O'Hara) and Nick Helber (Haverford School) both at OL and DT ---- ALL started and made big contributions!!
  We practiced first thing in the morning then toured areas and visted museums. It was awesome.

DEC. 20
TEDBITS
  Two long streaks were terminated today. Maybe you're saying, "How's that? The season ended last Sunday." Well, the Daily News' all-star football teams -- as crafted for the first time, in fine fashion, by Aaron "Ace" Carter -- were released and no players from West Catholic/Washington earned first team honors. West had placed guys on the first team for 11 consecutive seasons (2002-12) while Washington had done so for nine (2004-12). The longest active streak now belongs to Wood with 11 (2003-13), and we can't see it ending any time soon. La Salle is next at six (2008-13) and Roman claims third at four (2010-13). 

DEC. 19
TEDBITS
  A statistical look at the state AAAA champs produced by archrival schools -- La Salle in 2009, SJ Prep in 2013 (yardage totals ch-chinged by Ed "Huck" Palmer) . . .

DEC. 18
  Look below for an updated list of the highest scoring teams in city history. West Catholic's Rob and Brandon Hollomon are brothers. SJ Prep's Pat Kaiser reached his outrageously lofty total (306, then a state record) thanks to 37 TDs, one two-pointer, 52 kicks and 10 field goals. All leading scorers were primarily rushers except for La Salle receiver Jimmy Herron and Imhotep receiver/kicker Denniston "DJ" Moore. Fifteen of the top 21 efforts have occurred from 2007 forward.

DEC. 17
  Final career totals for highly productive seniors . . .

DEC. 15
PIAA CLASS AAAA FINAL
SJ Prep 35, Pittsburgh Central Catholic 10
(At Hersheypark Stadium)
  As the final seconds ticked away, coach Gabe Infante took a quick walk along the Prep's sideline and yelled, "Who's the underdog!?!" He then added, "The schedule we play?" Yes, many people seemed to think the Hawks would emerge from this one as the loser, and the fact that PCC (15-0 going in) had allowed just an average of 110.6 yards per game in its previous five playoff outings (that tidbit was posted in the game program) was mighty impressive. The Hawks owned that many yards by early in the second quarter, however, along with a 7-7 tie. Though they later surrendered a field goal and headed for the locker room facing a 10-7 deficit . . . wow, how things changed over the final 24 minutes!! The Prep owned that span! It kicked serious heiny! It racked up four TDs and came within inches of a fifth. The best part about the dominance was that so many players contributed. This guy. That guy. This guy. That guy. It was a true TEAM effort. PCC began the second half with the ball and a 16-yard sack by jr. DL Jon Daniel Runyan, a star T who saw all kinds of productive time on defense tonight, helped to create a three-and-out. The Hawks took over on their 41 and sr. QB Chris Martin immediately hit jr. WR John Reid along the left sideline for what became a 59-yard TD. On the next series, sr. LB Ryan McNulty almost notched a third down interception and then came the all-timer. Jr. DB Dillon DeIuliis broked through to block the punt and the ball squirted sideways toward PCC's sideline. Sr. Jawan McAllister picked it up at roughly the 20 and scampered toward payturf. He was stopped at just about the goal line and -- oh, no! -- the ball popped free and bounced toward the back of the end zone, where PCC recovered for a touchback. Ed "Huck" Palmer was at home, watching the telecast and keeping defensive stats, and he said the replay strongly indicated McAllister's knee hit the ground an instant BEFORE the ball came loose. Rough. The rest of the quarter featured no scoring, but PCC did lose sr. QB Joseph Cosentino to an ankle injury; he was hurt on a decent keeper that wound up being a non-gain because of a holding call. Also, over the last seven plays of that session, the Hawks moved from their 20 to the Vikings' 14 and the last play was a 25-yard completion to jr. RB Olamide Zaccheaus. On that one, Martin appeared to check out 3-4 different guys before seeing that Z was by his lonesome in the middle. It was a fine example of maintaining focus and making the right decision. Then came a great call by Tim Roken, the offensive coordinator. Martin connected with Joe DuMond for a TD. Pretty sure DuMond wasn't touched until the last instant, when he made a leap into the end zone. Where had he been at the start of the play? My guess was fullback only because he'd been completely ignored by PCC's defenders. A quick check revealed that DuMond had lined up at TE on that play, and had neatly slipped a short distance to his left off the line of scrimmage. It was his third catch of the season, and first TD. Classic moment! An 18-yard gain off a fake punt helped PCC sustain a drive that eventually placed the ball at the Prep's 38, but on fourth down Reid registered a 5-yard sack. Fifty-seven yards to another score. Only four plays needed to get 'em. All runs by frosh D'Andre Swift -- 11, 9, 2 and 35 yards. Another quick TD? Sure, why not? On PCC's third play, Runyan bullied his way into the backfield and knocked the ball free from the hand of the backup QB, jr. Graham Adomitis. Jr. DL Jake Strain, who was terrific all night, made the recovery at the 19 and had strong thoughts of posting a scoop-and-score. Didn't quite work out, so the next line of scrimmage was the 16. Ch-ching. Sr. RB Vince Moffett immediately added six more points with a 16-yard journey to the left corner, and sr. K-P Pat Walsh nailed his fifth PAT. One more highlight? Definitely. Moffett stripped the ball from a receiver and sr. CB Rob DiSanto pulled off the pounce-on-it job. What a half of multipronged dominance. And to think it all began with Dan Koenig. Who? He's a senior at the Prep and was chosen to compete in an on-field, halftime contest against a student from PCC. Stand at the goal line. Punt the ball to one spot, then throw it from there to a target at midfield. The PCC kid's punt was ridiculously poor, so Koenig had no trouble winning. Take note: Wood was also trailing at halftime Friday night when basketball player Matt Funk won the exact same contest. Just sayin'. The Prep's student rooters, who showed up in large numbers and exhibited wonderful game-long energy despite the wicked cold/wind combo, owned the stretch. First they chanted, "This is OUR state!!!!! . . . This is OUR state!!!!!" Then they crooned the "We Are the Champions" song and altered the chorus to: "We are the champions . . . of the STATE." Ha, ha, ha. Good stuff, guys. There were many great visuals during the postgame moments. The best involved Infante. Pretty much the instant the game ended, he was grabbed by TV folks, and then others, for interviews. So he was not on hand when the Hawks mad-dashed from midfield toward the south end of the stadium so they could pose for team pics with the still-lit scoreboard in the background. Finally, Infante appeared at the edge of the scene and roared, "Aren't you forgetting somebody?!?!" He then ran the short distance toward the group and slid/flopped into a spot in the middle of the front guys. Legendary. Later, a handful of players ventured beyond the field at that same end to make a bunch of snow angels. One player, soph long-snapper John Coppinger, even ran over and made a full-out leap onto the snow-covered grass. Later, when he trotted back toward the field, he quipped, "Man, that really hurt." Later, a player was handing the trophy to a coach and noted, "Feel this. It's heavy as hell." Congrats to all Prep folks! It was a wonderful season and major effort was put forth by everyone.
  TITLE TIDBITS: By courtesy of Huck, McNulty numbered seven solos among 10 tackles while Moffett had five among nine . . . Jr. Tom Johnson made seven stops . . . Strain posted a two sacks, a TFL and the fumble recovery . . . Runyan's two sacks totaled 28 yards . . . Reid broke up three passes . . . Martin finished 13-for-21 for 195 yards and three TDs. In the final three playoff games, after returning from a knee injury, he passed 37-for-63 (58.7 percent) for 673 yards and seven TDs. For the season, despite missing two games, he went 152-for-240 (63.3 percent) for 2,208 yards and 27 TDs . . . The Prep's first TD went to Moffett on a 27-yard pass from Martin. Vince slipped out of the backfield down the middle and was wide open . . . The attendance was announced as 2,486 . . . The Hawks finished 12-3 . . . Ryan, coached by Frank McArdle, can now brag that it beat two state champs (Wood, Prep) in addition to the Pub's AAAA runnerup, Washington. State tidbits are not my strength, so I have no idea whether any other team beat two state champs in the same season. Does anyone? State titles only go back to '88 . . . This concludes my 43rd season of covering high school football. Great fun, as always. Thanks for paying attention. And big props for our website contributors/DN statkeepers.

DEC. 15
PIAA CLASS AA FINAL
South Fayette 41, Imhotep 0
(At Hersheypark Stadium)
  There are no words . . . There's no way this really happened, right? Imhotep, so strong and often dominant all season, actually got thrashed? Was it overconfidence? Can't be sure about that, but there's no doubt the Panthers were out of sync from the very beginning and caused many of their own problems with serious lapses in concentration. On the game's first series, SF drove 64 yards in 13 plays. Jr. QB Brett Brumbaugh threw short, pinpoint passes again and again, but the Lions also received major help from Imhotep's line-of-scrimmage lapses. How many? Four. That's right. Imhotep was called for encroachment four times and the last violation moved the ball from the 6 to 3. Two plays later, with the ball inches from the goal line, SF was called for procedure. A mere blip. Brumbaugh immediately hit sr. WR Justin Watson for an easy, fade-right touchdown. Imhotep followed with a three-and-out and SF did not -- excuse my French -- fart around. Brumbaugh  delivered a lengthy strike to a wide-open jr. TE Logan Sharp and the result was a 53-yard TD. If you think eyebrows were beginning to soar then . . . SF added three more TDs before halftime and since jr. Brian Coyne made all of the kicks, the mercy rule was in effect for the entire second half. Even worse, the final two prior-to-intermission scores occurred 28 seconds apart in the final 56 seconds -- a 4-yard run was followed by a 46-yard pick six. In that first half, 'Tep was guilty of nine official penalties and two more happened on conversions. All were 5-yarders (or less, due to half the distance). Once, while setting up to RECEIVE a kickoff, the Panthers were guilty of an infraction. So the ball was moved up to the 45 and the kickoff carried to the end zone. When the Lions came out for warmups, I immediately noticed something. Many of their players were not wearing sleeves, or even long socks, as if they thought the calendar read August or September. They were trying to send a message: We're here to play football, not worry about freezing our buns off. In that first half, Brumbaugh passed 16-for-23 for 270 yards and those are very uncommon numbers for 24 minutes even for great weather, let alone in frigid temps with lots of wind. Meanwhile, I'll take a strong guess and say the Lions tried to target the sides of the field in an attempt to keep star S Deandre Scott (Arizona commit) from being much of a factor. On one of the passes Brumbaugh did throw down the middle (or thereabouts), Scott posted an interception. Imhotep did almost nothing on offense. Some people like to kid around and call the school IHOP after the pancake restaurant. That's usually a good fit during football season because the linemen are known to post lots of pancake blocks. Not today. The Lions' D-linemen stood their ground and were quick to the ball. The ultimate downer occurred on the first series of the third quarter. Thanks to three big completions by jr. QB Andre Dreuit-Parks -- 46 yards to jr. WR Denniston "DJ" Moore, 16 to jr. RB Nasir Bonner, 20 to soph RB Tyliek Raynor -- the Panthers set themselves up for first and goal at the 2. Then got stuffed! Oh, my goodness. How does THAT happen? D-P gained 1 yard, then Bonner (he tried to get in with a leap), D-P again and sr. FB Craig "CJ" McCollum were stopped inches short in succession. There was one other highlight for the Panthers. Sr. DL Tyrone Barge, who left with an ankle injury late in the third quarter, returned midway through the fourth and powered through the line to block a PAT. Some of the Panthers were crying even before game's end and a few more let loose with the liquid once the clock hit 0:00. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, everything's right with that. It shows that you care, and that you understand the impact of true devastations. Coach Albie Crosby, all members of his staff and the players accepted the loss with class and even posed for team pics with the runnerup trophy. Undoubtedly, that was the LAST thing they wanted to do at that juncture. In consecutive years, the Panthers, who'd not been blanked since the 2010 Pub AA final (by Bok, also by 41-0), have fallen in a state semi and final. Many high-quality players will return. The march toward a breakthrough 2014 season will undoubtedly start immediately.

DEC. 13
PIAA CLASS AAA FINAL
Wood 22, Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt 10
(At Hersheypark Stadium)
  Here's guessing you never expected to see these two names -- Steve Devlin, Wilt Chamberlain -- in the same sentence. Footsteps beyond the scoreboard end of the football field is the arena where Wilt created a worldwide buzz in 1962 by dropping a 100-point bomb on the New York Knicks for the ol' Philadelphia Warriors. Well, folks, this was Devlin's 100th game as Wood's coach and he created a statewide buzz by claiming his second AAA crown in three years. As any hoops fan knows, Wilt, a wickedly bad foul-shooter over his career, somehow went 28-for-32 (87.5 percent) at the line en route to those 100 points. Steve is in that ballpark because he now owns an .840 winning percentage. Two years ago, also in the final, the Vikings sliced and diced this opponent by 52-0. This victory came in much more difficult fashion, witness that Wood went scoreless in the first half. Somehow, the almost always explosive Vikings gained at least 10 yards on just ONE play in those first 24 minutes and that didn't happen until the final 11 seconds as jr. RB Jarrett McClenton took a left-side sweep 18 yards to McDevitt's 38. At halftime, though of course the players didn't see it because they were in the locker room, sr. basketball player Matt Funk offered a good example of how to rally from a deficit. One rooter from each school was chosen for an on-the-field contest: Punt the ball from the end zone to wherever it lands, then throw it from there to a target at midfield. Closest throw wins. Matt punted second and his effort was shorter than the McDevitt kid's. But his throw came within a few yards of the target and the other kid's -- whoa -- sailed way past it. Vike wins! Vike wins! So, what happened when the real football guys returned to the field? You got it. The Vikings came out of their Funk (smile). They opened the second half with an 11-play, 72-yard drive that was capped by McClenton with a 4-yard run. Three times within the first six plays, all to the left side, McClenton reeled off biggies of 22, 10 and 12 yards. Most teams are righthanded, of course, but the Vikings often chose the left side and made no secret of what they were doing. Again and again, the top two grunts -- jr. G Ryan Bates and sr. T Deion Oliver -- were switched back and forth from right to left to right (and even between the G-T spots) and a few times McDevitt's defenders could be heard calling out their location shortly before snaps. Also, jr. TE Jake Cooper often lined up as a wingback -- sometimes going in motion -- to the side where the play would be headed, so he could take out guys on the edge. Hey, if you play with passion and skillfully carry out your assignment, it doesn't matter if the opponent knows what's coming. The best thing about Wood's second-half production was that the drives ate major clock. The first drive took 5 minutes, 11 seconds. After the Crusaders were limited to one first down, Wood took over again with 4:11 left in the quarter and maintained possession for more than a quarter! Twelve minutes and 6 seconds, to be exact. This drive started on the 3 and featured 21 plays. On the second play of the fourth quarter, McClenton raced 39 yards with a draw, placing the ball at McDevitt's 40. Thanks in part to a hold, Wood soon faced third and 13. To that point, soph QB Tom Garlick had thrown just one pass all night (incomplete). Would Devlin knock on the youngster's door? Indeed. And Garlick would respond. On a right-side out, he hit sr. WR Kendall Singleton for a 15-yard gain. Next, just before what would have been a fourth-and-2 play, a procedure penalty moved the ball back to the 25. Garlick then faked a handoff to McClenton and completed a short, left-side flip to sr. FB Josh Messina, who netted nine yards. Rejuiced, the Vikings continued on their merry way. With Cooper leading the way, McClenton zipped 12 yards to the 4. McClenton added two yards, Messina bagged 1 (officially), then Garlick surged ahead a half-yard for the score. The kick by jr. Dan McDonald made it 14-3 at 4:05 and Wood's rooters offered a trifecta -- the it's-all-over chant, the goodbye song, and the I-believe-that-we-will-win ditty. McDevitt's three-and-out included two incomplete passes, a 6-yard sack (for sr. DE Chris Gary) and another incompletion on fourth and 16 from the 24. McDevitt's own 24. It was desperation time, folks. McClenton carried four consecutive times and a 15-yarder got the ball into the end zone. Then came what some would call the play of the night -- a conversion pass by jr. Cody Fitzpatrick. Who? Fitzpatrick, a mad-bomber guard for the basketball team, is the the holder and if a story relayed to me earlier this season is correct, he came out for the team only to be the holder for his best buddy, McDonald. Well, on this occasion, the snap went a shade awry. Fitz controlled it, scrambled to his right and, under pressure, lofted a flip toward the back part of the end zone. The ball was a little short, but jr. TE Christian Lohin lunged turfward to make the catch. What a moment. It was Wood's first two-point conversion of the season. Owning a 19-point lead with only 1:35 remaining, the Vikes were in early-ecstasy mode and star jr. RB Andre Robinson -- strangely, he was given just eight carries after totaling 42 yards on his first six -- took advantage to return the kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown. Uh-oh time? Were the Vikings setting themselves up for the all-time Friday the 13th experience? Hardly. Cooper gathered in the bouncing onside kick and kneeldowns ran out the clock. As Devlin and the players/assistant coaches surged onto the field to celebrate, they all felt as tall as Wilt.
  TITLE TIDBITS: McClenton carried an outrageous 40 times for 238 yards (both numbers are records for AAA title games, according to numerous sources) and the two TDs. The yardage total is the best by a D-12 rusher in quarters/semis/final, topping 230 by Wood's Brandon Peoples in a 2010 quarterfinal . . . Wood's other grunts were jr. C Ryan Neher, jr. T Tom Cardozo and jr. rotating Gs Jack Kenney and Shawn Scroger . . . The Vikings caught an early break when Robinson's 12-yard TD run was nullified by a procedure penalty (only six men on the line of scrimmage). Singleton then broke up a pass, Lohin made a tackle that limited Robinson to a 1-yard gain, Gary broke up another pass, then McDevitt settled for a 33-yard field goal by sr. Bobby Zwigart . . . Late in the second quarter, Zwigart made a leaping, one-handed snag of a way-too-high snap, preventing sure disaster . . . Wood's students turned out in force with the help of 12 buses . . . Overall, Wood's crowd was not as big as McDevitt's, but that was entirely understandable. Harrisburg is Hershey's neighbor . . . Because of he way-too-early deadline, Ace Carter had to watch this one from the pressbox and craft parts of his story while the game was unfolding. He hustled downstairs to get some quotes at game's end, then bustled back upstairs to pump out the final version . . . Huck Palmer watched the game on TV and kept defensive stats . . . Gary had two sacks and four other stops. Sr. LB Tyrone Dean logged a sack among four tackles. Cooper (at LB, six tackles) and jr. DL Devon Cobb split a sack. Spahits (six) and Justin Rubin (five) combined for five stops . . . Wood ran 62 plays to McDevitt's 34 . . . McClenton carried 64 times in Wood's final two games. He needed the previous seven games to log that many totes. Six of the seven games, save a 22-7 loss to Ryan, were blowout wins . . . Sr. DE Mike Perloski, one of McDevitt's captains, is related to Tom Taylor, who has helped us (for decades) to keep track of city basketball scoring. Mike is headed to Princeton. He's the son of Tom's wife's cousin.

DEC. 12 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  Below are YPG averages for all top receivers for teams over the last six seasons that have reached the quarterfinal round in the AAAA/AAA/AA state playoffs. Due to injuries, not every guy played in every game. Included are league playoffs, City Titles, subregional semis and finals (only in AA), and a round of 16 game (also in AA). In 2008, incredibly, HALF of West Catholic's 16 games were playoffs. La Salle's Sean Coleman is listed three times. The Youngs, Eric and Eerin, are brothers. Wood's top receivers these past two years have been rushers, Josh Messina ('12) and Jarrett McClenton ('13).

DEC. 12
TEDBITS
  Below are YPG averages for all top rushers for teams over the last six seasons that have reached the quarterfinal round in the AAAA/AAA/AA state playoffs. Due to injuries, not every guy played in every game. Included are league playoffs, City Titles, subregional semis and finals (only in AA), and a round of 16 game (also in AA). In 2008, incredibly, HALF of West Catholic's 16 games were playoffs. One guy on the list, Wood's Jerry Rahill in '09, was a quarterback. David Williams, who transferred from West Catholic to Imhotep for his senior year, owns the second and third spots. WC's Brandon and Rob Hollomon are brothers. Wood's Desmon and Brandon Peoples are cousins. For the moment, all three 2013 guys are on the lower half of the list.

DEC. 11 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  Below are YPG passing averages for all quarterbacks over the last six seasons that have led their teams to at least the quarterfinal round in the AAAA/AAA/AA state playoffs. Due to injuries, not every guy played in every game. Included are league playoffs, City Titles, subregional semis and finals (only in AA), and a round of 16 game (also in AA). In 2008, incredibly, HALF of West Catholic's 16 games were playoffs. As you'll see, SJ Prep's Chris Martin is the leader at 199.3 A knee injury caused him to miss two games. His yardage total has gone up (147, 172, career highs of 235 and then 243) in all four games. West Catholic's Curtis Drake did likewise (90, 98, 121, 169). He threw for 98 in game No. 5.

DEC. 11
TEDBITS
  Last week the D-12 squads soared above .500 in semifinals (to 10-7) with victories in AAAA, AAA and AA. This will be Our Guys' first experience with three appearances in championship games and thus far in those the record is 3-4. Thanks largely to blowout wins by West Catholic in '10 and Wood in '11, the scoring advantage is 181-135.

DEC. 10 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  The mystery deepens. When was the last time, if ever, a Catholic League player scored twice on kickoff returns in the same game? I have stats-or-just-scoring sheets for all city teams going back to 1976 and I can find NO EVIDENCE that another CL player has pulled a Luke Spahits (see today's earlier Tedbit) since '79 (I'm still looking for the '76, '77 and '78 folders). Beyond that, it appears that no CL players have scored thrice via kickoff returns in the same season, so if Spahits returns another kickoff to da house Friday night in the Class AAA final vs. Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt, he'll also stand alone in that category over the last 35 seasons. Amazing to the Nth power, right? Again, if you can help with this search, email me at tedtee307@yahoo.com. Thanks.

DEC. 10
TEDBITS
  The research took a while, as it involved plowing through every TEAM PAGE going back to 2000, but it turned out to be worth it. Check this out: Wood senior Luke Spahits is the ONLY Catholic League player in 14 seasons to score twice on kickoff returns in the same game. Luke pulled off that feat last Saturday in a Class AAA semifinal vs. Berwick and, amazingly, each time he covered 75 yards. It's possible (maybe even likely?) that Spahits is the only player in Cath/Pub postseason history to score twice on KO returns in the same game. I can't find evidence that anyone else has accomplished this feat. If you know of anyone else, please let me know at tedtee307@yahoo.com. Here are the CL guys who've posted two kickoff-return TDs in the same season since 2000. No one has had three. Maurice Stovall advanced to the NFL. This might be true for some of the other guys, but we definitely know that the returns by La Salle's Dan Waters occurred in consecutive games. Seventy-two yards, then 95. Waters was quite the baseball player. In '03, he whiffed 10 in a semifinal no-hitter vs. Carroll and faced just 22 batters.

DEC. 9
TEDBITS
  Here's an updated list of District 12's top 15 rushing/passing/receiving performances in state quarterfinals/semifinals/finals. The players from SJ Prep, Wood and Imhotep will have one more chance to make a '13 appearance; all will play in finals this weekend.

DEC. 8
TEDBITS
  This is year No. 26 for PIAA state football playoffs and District 12, a member since the 2004 season, has qualified three teams for championship games for the first time. This is the 14th time that a district is sending teams to all three title games in the AAAA/AAA/AA classifications and Our Guys will be trying to become just the third group to pull off a hat trick. As highlighted in light blue below, District 7 (Pittsburgh area) accomplished the feat in '07 and '05. In '05, all three losers were also from the same district (11).

DEC. 7 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  In this afternoon's Class AAAA state semifinal, Shawn Harris scored for St. Joseph's Prep on a 95-yard fumble return. He stripped the ball loose, then made the scoop and dashed along the visiting sideline at Northeast High . . . Now we take you back to 2006. The guy on the right below is Greg Frantz, of La Salle. That pic was snapped shortly after he victimized the Prep for a 96-yard, fumble-return TD in the Catholic Red championship game. It was also played at Northeast and Frantz likewise did his scampering along the visiting sideline. The original stop on that play was made by Jack Forster, who began to tackle the ballcarrier and tried to dislodge the ball in all-in-one-motion fashion. Pow! Rob Saraceni added a wicked hit and there the football went, flying. Frantz picked it up on the 4 and ran into immortality. La Salle, a big underdog and doubled up in scrimmage yardage, wound up winning, 14-7 . . . Moral: the looooong-fumble-return-TD gods can taketh away, then seven years later they can giveth

Prep's Shawn Harris (L) and La Salle's Greg Frantz

DEC. 7
PIAA CLASS AAAA SEMIFINAL
SJ Prep 37, Neshaminy 21
(At Northeast)
  All praise to website legend Ed "Huck" Palmer. He called it! OK, not exactly, but close enough. Early in the third quarter, with Prep in the lead at 19-14, Neshaminy was powering the ball downfield little by little and I happened to mention to Huck that this scenario was stirring memories of a game back on Nov. 2, when Roman's O-line pushed around Prep's D-line in the second half and helped the Cahillites very much get back into a Catholic League AAAA semifinal (though the Hawks did regain control while winning, 45-24). Huck agreed that things were looking shaky for the Prep and then added something along the lines of, "This would be a great time for a fumble return TD. Maybe they can get one." I responded, "I'm smelling a stolen-ball TD by (jr. CB) John Reid." A few seconds later, the ball was at the Prep's 4 and sr. Denny Lord tried a left-side sweep out of a wildcat formation. And then . . . and then . . . and THEN!! . . . The ball was on the turf!! . . . And 95 yards later, thanks to soph OLB Shawn Harris, it was entering the OTHER end zone!! From Huck's mouth to Harris' ears. The fumble return was a perfect example of strip and scoop. This happened on the visiting (Neshaminy) sideline, with Harris running away from the scoreboard, and he hugged the line the whole way up, always motoring quickly enough to avoid getting pushed out of bounds. It was a classic play at the perfect moment and Harris, undoubtedly, will remember every last bit of it forever. At 25-14, the Hawks were not completely home free and, thankfully for them, my projected hero stepped forward with two big plays. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Lord broke free once, then twice at roughly the line of scrimmage on a fourth-and-two rush that turned into a 44-yard TD. Not sure why, but the Redskins opted to kick, thus assuring they would NOT advance within a field goal of tying the game, and the score was 25-21. Soon, on first down at the Prep's 45, sr. QB Chris Martin was targeting Reid on a right-side fly pattern. The perfectly thrown ball netted a 48-yard gain, then Martin ad-libbed his way into the end zone on a 7-yard keeper. He made a nifty cut, fittingly, off his left leg, the one that features the knee he recently injured. OK, so there remains a hint of a limp, but Martin looked darn mobile on that play, which lifted the lead to 31-21. Three plays later, Reid again stepped into the hero spotlight. Soared into it, actually. Neshaminy tried a left-side fade and Reid made a leaping interception with 7:47 remaining. One more contribution from JR? Of course. This one wasn't tangible, statswise, but the Hawks gratefully accepted it. After runs by jr. RB Olamide Zaccheaus and sr. RB Vince Moffett advanced the ball to the Redskins' 29, "Z" was dropped for a 4-yard loss. Martin lofted a right-side fly to Reid and an obvious interference call placed the ball at the 18. The next play yielded the game's final TD, a left-corner fade to jr. WR Justin Montague with 4:32 left. The Hawks could have added a seventh score after a 9-yard burst by frosh handyman D'Andre Swift placed the ball at the 7. Instead, Martin was under orders to do the kneeldown thing the rest of the way. A short time later, the Hawks lined up along the east goal line and coach Gabe Infante, right before tossing the game ball toward the back of the pack, asked loudly to wild cheers, "Anybody want any chocolate!?" Later, team moms were handing out Hershey Bars. The Prep's opponent, next Saturday at 6 p.m. at HersheyPark Stadium, will be Pittsburgh Central Catholic, which crushed Lower Dauphin, 45-0, in the other semifinal . . . Harris' 95-yarder wasn't the Hawks' only long TD. On the game's very first play, sr. WR Jawan McAllister reeled in a short, right-side toss from Martin and, wow, took it 67 yards to the hizzz-ouse. Moffett did a great job providing blocks, Huck noted. Neshaminy responded with 3:17 left in the quarter on a 16-yard run by the franchise rusher, jr. D'Andre Pollard, but the Hawks responded on their subsequent possession with an eight-play, 75-yard drive. The capper was Zaccheaus' 32-yard score on a play that featured nifty footwork while going left to right. The second quarter offered one TD for each team. The Prep went first and Martin passed 3-for-3 for 67 yards. The last goodie, a 37-yarder to Zaccheaus, zipped the ball to the 2 and Moffett burst across from there. Neshaminy covered 73 yards in 11 plays, with lots of production off wildcat rushes, and Lord scored from the 9 . . . Remember how Martin last week passed for a career high of 235 yards in the state quarterfinal vs. Parkland? Well, that total now ranks No. 2 on his list. In this one he went 12-for-20 for 243 yards and the TDs to McAllister and Montague. Oh, and he now boasts more than 2,000 yards for the season (2,013, along with 24 TDs). Geez, imagine if he hadn't missed two games with the knee miseries. McAllister (2-78), Reid (2-65) and Zaccheaus (2-53) were the most productive targets. Zaccheaus carried 12 times for 75 yards. The grunts were soph C Ed Mooney, jr. G Mark Ehrlich, jr. G Shane Davis, sr. T Steve Robinson and jr. T Jon Daniel Runyan. The defensive leaders, as provided by Huck, sr. OLB Thomas Johnson and sr. ILB Ryan McNulty halved 18 tackles. Johnson led in solos, 7-5, and two of the former's went for losses. Moffett (at safety) added eight stops while jr. DE Jake Strain, Reid (five solos) and jr. S Dillon DeIuliis thirded 18. Aside from posting his pick, Reid notched two breakups. Harris managed five tackles and one gigantic strip-scoop fumble sequence.

DEC. 5 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  Figured it would be good to tie the previous three postings together. So, here are District 12's top 15 rushing/passing/receiving performances in state quarterfinals/semifinals/finals. I'm guessing some guys will earn their way onto the various lists this weekend.

DEC. 5
TEDBITS
  Below are top performances in Class AA state playoffs for rushing/passing/receiving. The letters next to the year indicate quarterfinals/semifinals/finals. As in AAA, we didn't include subregional semis/finals. District 12 did not participate in AA until the Catholic League came aboard in '08. David Williams transferred from West Catholic to Imhotep for the '12 season. The Youngs, Eric and Eerin, are brothers. Jaelen Strong-Rankin is starring at Arizona State, though he has dropped the hyphen and Rankin.

DEC. 4 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  Below are top performances in Class AAA state playoffs for rushing/passing/receiving. The letters next to the year indicate quarterfinals/semifinals/finals. As you'll no doubt notice, all 30 efforts belong to Wood guys from 2008 through last week's quarterfinal. No other teams have advanced as far as the last three rounds. Bok was involved in District 1-12 subregionals from '04 through '06. In '07, Bok decided to compete for the Pub's last overall championship and Franklin took its place in the subregionals. In that appearance, Anthony Stones passed for 117 yards and Jamel "Redz" Haggins, who wound up starting at TE for Lehigh (great young man!), made five catches for 107. The Peopleses, Desmon and Brandon, are cousins. The Rahills, Jerry and Chris, are brothers. Sam McCain is Matt Ryan's cousin.

DEC. 4
TEDBITS
  This is year No. 10 for District 12's participation in state football playoffs and below are the top performances in Class AAAA games for rushing/passing/receiving. The letters next to the year indicate quarterfinals/semifinals/finals.
  The teams have been: Washington ('04, '07-'08); Frankford ('05-'06), La Salle ('09-'12), SJ Prep ('13). The Catholic League did not begin competing in the PIAA until '08. Washington defeated La Salle for the City Title that year, but the CL has since executed a five-year sweep. 
  Meanwhile, there's something that should JUMP out at all veteran followers when they check out the rushing/receiving categories. I'll mention it below the lists. No peeking!! Ha, ha.

  Here we go . . . The top rusher, Sam Feleccia, was a receiver (he did so out of a wildcat formation) and the top receiver, Tim Wade, was a running back. Pretty neat, right?

DEC. 3 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  If you're a fan of stability, the Pub has kept your mind spinning over the last five seasons. Eight schools have had at least three coaches and two -- Edison and Olney -- have had five. Seven of the schools combined to go 26-53 this season. Meanwhile, under Frank "Roscoe" Natale, Southern went 9-3, won a playoff game for the first time since 1965 and beat Neumann-Goretti for only the second time since 1989 (also 2004). Of course, the fact that Natale brought with him many guys from now-closed Bok helped greatly.

DEC. 3
TEDBITS
  Look below for a list of the highest scoring teams in city history. Two teams in the Top 8 are still alive, and could play two more games this season, so hold on to your scoreboard. West Catholic's Rob and Brandon Hollomon are brothers. SJ Prep's Pat Kaiser reached his outrageously lofty total (306, then a state record) thanks to 37 TDs, one two-pointer, 52 kicks and 10 field goals. All leading scorers were primarily rushers except for La Salle receiver Jimmy Herron. He did, however, flesh out his total with seven ground TDs thanks mostly to wildcat heroics. Fourteen of the top 20 efforts have occurred from 2007 forward.

DEC. 2
TEDBITS
  If you ever needed concrete evidence to show how important passing has become in Pub football, check out the chart below. This year, five guys have thrown for more TDs than any ONE guy did in 2003, 1993 and 1983 (figured it would make sense to go back 10 years at a time). The YPG thing shows how many yards per game were required to make the final list of leading passers.

DEC. 1 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  Earlier today, with the football season down to its last two weeks, and with only three teams still active, I updated a lot of the historical files on this website. One of the files lists all coaches who've attained 100 career wins, along with some other details. As you can see below, Frankford's Tom Mullineaux enjoyed the quickest journey to 100 (just 125 games). When I saw that, the mind began to spin. Do La Salle's Drew Gordon and Wood's Steve Devlin have a chance to break that record? Gordon currently owns 83 wins and 23 losses and that pace would get him to 100 in game No. 128. Devlin, meanwhile, is 82-16 and . . . whoa, if he maintains that pace, his 100th will come in game No. 122!! We'll see what happens. The pacesetter among Catholic League coaches is St. Joseph's Prep's Gil Brooks while the Inter-Ac's top gun is Bill Gallagher (Penn Charter/Malvern). He needed 146 games. Gamp Pellegrini, who'd coached beforehand at long-gone St. Thomas More (his alma mater) and SJ Prep, needed 149 games to reach 100 (100-42-7) in the Malvern portion of his career, which started in 1978. Meanwhile, it's pretty amazing that three coaches needed 141 games and three more needed 149. The complete list of Century Guys is here.

DEC. 1
TEDBITS
  Still having nice thoughts about your wonderful Thanksgiving dinner? Hopefully, the person who prepared your meal did as great a job as these guys. Below are the Great Eight performances for rushing/passing/receiving in holiday clashes. (We included the Malvern-SJ Prep game, even though it was moved up by a week because of the Hawks' involvement in the state playoffs.) Take note: Malvern's Troy Gallen (rushing/receiving) and King's Joseph Walker (rushing/passing) appear in two categories.

NOV. 30
TEDBITS
  This is year No. 6 for the Catholic League's involvement in PIAA football and nary a quarterfinal loss has been suffered. In fact, D-12 teams are 17-1 in the three largest classifications and the one loser, Washington, is a Pub member. All 18 opponents have been "regular" public schools. All 17 of D-12's winners have been CL schools (15-0) or a charter school (Imhotep, 2-0). Our Guys own a 606-248 scoring advantage. Rather amazing.

NOV. 30
PIAA CLASS AAAA STATE QUARTERFINAL
SJ Prep 21, Parkland 10
(At Bethlehem Liberty)
  How cool was that?! Just three weeks after suffering what everyone feared would be a season-ending knee injury, sr. QB Chris Martin, a k a The Definition of Grit, returned to action today and, voila, achieved a career high in passing yardage. To refresh your memory, Martin super-dinged his left knee late in the Catholic AAAA championship while lead blocking for jr. RB Olamide Zaccheaus on a wildcat carry that wound up producing a touchdown. Among the early rumors: The damage was so severe, he might be unavailable even for baseball. So much for that one. There was talk all this week that Martin would give it a go. Indeed, his knee was heavily wrapped/braced and he did maneuver with the slightest hint of a limp, and he was not asked to carry the ball at all. (His only carry, for minus-9 yards, resulted from an intentional-grounding call.) But, in time, he made some great throws and overall went 12-for-22 for 235 yards and two TDs. Martin's first pass, downfield to sr. WR Jawan McAllister, was a little high, and McAllister could not quite make the snag. No. 2 was a shortie and was tipped. On the very next play, a middle screen was called and "Z" had little trouble racing downfield to post a 48-yard TD. That occurred with 8:18 left in the first quarter and another score was posted almost exactly six minutes later. This one was a gem. From Parkland's 29, Martin launched a left-corner fade to jr. WR Justin Montague. The location -- back shoulder -- was perfect and Montague did a nice job contorting his body to make sure the play would be successful. The Prep's third TD, a draw for six yards by frosh D'Andre Swift, came 3:49 before halftime and capped a five-play, 59-yard drive. On that one, Martin hit jr. WR John Reid for 21 yards and "Z" for 28. Reid (4-86) and Zaccheaus (2-76) wound up being the top snaggers, and the passing success was needed because the running game contributed just 53 yards on 25 carries. The defense pretty much enjoyed game-long positive vibrations. Parkland lost yardage on TWELVE plays, and the damage was 44 yards. Breakdown: 16 on seven rushes and 28 on five sacks. Jr. DL Jake Strain, who also recovered a fumble (forced by jr. DL Erich Hartman), bullied his way to three TFLs while jr. S Dillon DeIuliis had two. Soph DL Joe DuMond registered one apiece of TFLs/sacks, as did king-of-gusto LB Ryan McNulty. The best drop-'em-way-back show was put on by Reid, a CB. The QB backtracked and spun, backtracked and spun, and Reid finally tossed him turfward for a 19-yard loss. In a serious scrum, soph Zachary Goss recovered an onsides kick after Parkland moved within 21-10 with 7:34 left. Sr. S Vincent/Vince/Vinny "Take Your Pick" Moffett had two big moments on defense. Late in the first half, his tackle prevented what could have been a 41-yard TD run and Parkland had to settle for a 31-yard field goal. Then, down the stretch, with a win still not completely a given, P-land faced fourth-and-four from the Prep's 43. Moffett sat back and made an interception at the 28. Think about it. He did. After making the pick, Vince was kinda upset with himself for not merely knocking down the ball. Hey, you do that and your name doesn't hit the interceptions portion of the TEAM PAGE! (smile) Moffett also helped the overall cause by thrice making fair catches of with-the-wind punts. He dropped a fourth, but pulled off an immediate pounce to prevent a turnover. There was a nice postgame moment, and it was passed along to Aaron "Ace" Carter for possible use in Monday's Daily News. If it doesn't prove to be a good fit, I can add it here later. One of the Hawks' assistants had a good line while the defense was on the field. As a Parkland kid tried to fight off tacklers across the way, the coach gushed to no one in particular, "Where you goin'? . . . Where you goin'? . . . " And then, as the kid disappeared under a swarm, "That's what I thought. Nowhere!" After practicing yesterday, the Hawks trekked to Bethlehem and stayed overnight. Pretty cool. Meanwhile, where were the students? Not too many made the trip. Here's hoping they come out in force for the semifinal vs. Neshaminy.  UPDATE: I've been told that the Prep's 80th annual Homecoming event was held tonight at the school, starting at 7. Made things dicey for students who'd been hoping to attend the game.

NOV. 29
PIAA CLASS AAA STATE QUARTERFINAL
Wood 42, Academy Park 6
(At Northeast)
  You know how Wood always wins the AAA Catholic and City championships? Well, if you've been paying at least semi-close attention over the last six seasons, you also know the Vikings always triumph in state quarterfinals. To boot, they usually coast and, in roundabout fashion, that wound up being the case tonight in ch-ch-chilly (though not outrageously brutal) temperatures at Northeast. Early, it appeared Wood DID have its collective heart set on making sure the entire second half would be played with the mercy rule in effect. But a quick-and-easy start was followed by bouts with failure and the score did not reach 35-0 until 8.8 seconds remained in the third quarter, not the second. Oh, well. Romps must be earned in largely pristine fashion and, don't forget, there ARE respectable opponents out there, seeing as how we're down to the best teams in the state. Once again, the DN's Aaron "Ace" Carter, due to the ridiculously early Friday night deadline, was forced to write his story from home and his interview subject, via my cell phone, was sr. FB Luke Spahits, a transfer from Hatboro-Horsham. Luke copy-catted his brother, Mike, who also transferred into Wood for his senior year in 2009-10. Mike's sport was baseball and he wound up earning first team All-Catholic honors as an outfielder. Tonight, Luke carried seven times for 43 yards and three TDs. He motored eight and 13 yards for the game's first two scores, then zipped 1 yard to payturf 4:43 into the third quarter. That last TD was something of a gimme because jr. TB Jarrett McClenton had just zoomed many, many, many yards -- 74, to be exact -- before getting dragged down from behind at the 1. Thanks to sr. Joe Dutkiewicz, who returned the kickoff 45 yards to AP's 41, Wood opened the game with a strong statement. Spahits' 8-yard TD came on play No. 4. Following a three-and-out (sr. LB Josh Messina made a TFL for a 3-yard loss on third down), soph QB Tom Garlick immediately hit sr. WR Kendall Singleton for a 39-yard gain to the Knights' 26. Runs of one yard by McClenton, 12 yards by Garlick and 13 by Spahits sent Wood's lead to 14-0. AP took a gamble on the first play of the second quarter, as it tried to convert a fourth-and-two play at midfield. Jr. LB Jake Cooper registered a TFNG (tackle for no gain -- smile) and the Vikings embarked on another scoring drive. McClenton capped this one from the 5. Otherwise in the first half, Garlick had some problems with underthrows and was picked off three times. The final one, in the very last moments of the half, was erased by a 15-yard penalty and jr. K Dan McDonald set up for a 36-yard field goal. Ugh. A procedure penalty was detected, causing the distance to change to 41 yards. Mickey D's attempt was well struck, but fell a wee bit short. In the second half, having (assumedly) been reamed out at halftime, the Vikings were largely their usual selves. Spahits' third score was followed by TD runs of 4 and 6 yards for Dutkiewicz. That last one came off a one-play "drive" made possible by sr. DE Chris Gary. Sr. Eric Doe was back to punt when the snap allllllmost sailed over his head. Once he used an impressive leap to prevent a true disaster, Doe decided to run to his right. Brassy, but unwise. Gary registered an 18-yard TFL. The Knights, out of Delaware County, were able to feel warm and fuzzy down the stretch as their last two possessions, sandwiching the recovery of an onsides kick, produced TDs of 2 and 35 yards for star rusher Jerry Lanier. Lanier needed 102 yards to become Delco's all-time leader for season yardage, according to the good folks at the Delco Times. I had him for 86 on 23 carries, with 60 on those last two series. The Knights were missing their highly versatile QB, Brian Ingram, due to a broken collarbone suffered last week in a playoff win over Glen Mills. Frog Carfagno was in the house and broke down the defensive stats for Wood. Cooper led the way with nine tackles, and Messina added six. A pair of junior linemen, Devon Cobb and Nafeez Brown-Carter, notched five stops apiece and four of Cobbs' were made behind the line. Thomas "Hockey Puck" McKenna was also in attendance. Well, until halftime. At that juncture he came down to the field and babbled, "I goin' home. Dis game ovah." The man knows his stuff (ha ha).

NOV. 29
TEDBITS
  When school resumes at Archbishop Ryan on Monday, maybe star rusher Samir Bullock will add the nickname "Two Grand." You can imagine why that might happen, right? Yup. In the Raiders' Thanksgiving shutout of Washington, Bullock reached the 2,000-yard plateau. As tabulated by the DN's Aaron "Ace" Carter, Bullock scorched the Eagles for 280 yards (and three TDs on 31 carries) and that yeoman effort finalized his 2013 number at 2,055 (with 21 TDs on 261 carries for a 7.9 YPC average). The 2,000-yard Club now includes 11 members and the 5-7, 165-yard junior is the fifth underclassman to barge through the doors. West Catholic's Curtis "Boonah" Brinkley was the only guy to repeat the feat. Samir's grunts -- C Andrew Vorocsak, Gs Nick Werez and Tom Haughey, Ts Joe Hansbury and Nick Ostaszewski -- are seniors, so here's hoping the young guys start hitting the weights immediately.

NOV. 28 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  Talk about amazing!! Prior to 2013, no Public League receiver had ever posted even 900 yards in a season. Now, lookie here, THREE guys are in the 1,000 Club! King's Delane Hart was already in the club before today, when he notched three catches for 106 yards and two TDs in a 32-30 win over Imhotep. Fels' Jylil Reeder crashed the barrier today, however, and Prep Charter's Curan Simmons did so last night. Reeder had six snags for 101 yards and one score in the Panthers' 53-18 loss to Frankford, raising his season yardage total to 1,076. Simmons' numbers were 14-168 in the Huskies' 48-0 demolition of Furness; he finished with 1,012. Prior to yesterday, the Pub mark for TD catches in a season belonged to Germantown's Akil Stokes, who rang up 14 in 2002. Wellllllll, Hart lifted King to victory by bagging a 28-yard TD catch on the game's final play and that gave him 15! Reeder, meanwhile, matched Stokes' 14-TD-catches feat. But that wasn't all. Reeder also ran for a score and passed for another, so he became one of the few guys in city history to achieve the run/catch/pass trifecta in the same game. Reeder had an incredible season. He ran for 556 yards and 10 TDs, passed for 98 and two -- update completed -- and caught for 1,076 and 14. That's 1,730 yards and 26 TDs. He also scored twice with kickoffs and once with an interception, so the 27 TDs he scored (not counting the two via the air) represented 64 percent of the Panthers' 42. Here's the updated list for the Pub's 700 Club for receiving. Yes, Delane Hart checks in at No. 6, as well. He played last year for Germantown (and in 2011 for Dobbins). Final career numbers: 93 catches, 2,038 yards (far and away the Pub's best total) and 24 TDs. Meanwhile, Imhotep could play three more games, so Denniston "DJ" Moore could very well slide past five guys to claim spot No. 4. And he could tie or break Hart's TD mark as early as Saturday because he already owns 13. We'll keep you posted. (In case you're curious, Stokes garnered his 14 TDs in '02 on just 21 catches. He amassed 614 yards (29.2 average!).

NOV. 28
THANKSGIVING RIVALRY
PUBLIC-CATHOLIC
Southern 33, Neumann-Goretti 6
  There are important wins, and then there are gigantic-piece-of-history wins and this one was definitely the latter for the Southern Rams. Southern has now won just eight times in this series since 1950 and its 27-point victory margin is its largest since 1946!! The score that year was 39-0 and the Rams could have captured this tilt by at least 33 points if not for a nice gesture by Rams coach Frank "Roscoe" Natale over the final 66 seconds. (More on that later.) In its previous seven series wins since 1950, only once had Southern triumphed by more than eight points (a 20-pointer, 26-6, in 1989). So, now that these current Rams know the magnitude of today's accomplishment, maybe they'll celebrate even more (smile). Oh, and guys, make sure to hold principal Otis Hackney to his promise to provide you with a meal. Aaron "Ace" Carter's Daily News ink will go to sr. QB-DB-long snapper Michael Riley, one of the squad's many Bok imports and regarded as a terrific kid with a bright future; he could wind up at Ursinus. Two of Riley's big moments came on the game's second series, when he orchestrated an 82-yard, 14-play drive that he capped from the 1 with a sneak. The big play, on third-and-10, was Riley's 32-yard hookup with sr. WR Rasul Jackson, which moved the ball to N-G's 26. Of course, having slapped together a nice season, the Rams were hoping for a breakthrough performance today. They could not be sure, however, and that play really helped them to bring the juice. Beforehand, so had a 11-yard, fourth-down TFL by Jones, an OLB, on a reverse play that began at Southern's 7. If the Saints score right away on that first drive, who knows what happens? The only score of the second quarter was Jones' 14-yard run with 4:41 left. Four of the drive's nine plays produced gains of 13 or more yards, and three guys combined for the fun. Sr. FB Terrell Miles had a 14-yarder and soph RB Casey Williams (I like his potential!) had a 13-yarder, in addition to pickups of 18 and 14 for Jones. The good vibrations continued into the third quarter as Riley posted a score on a 27-yard interception return. Right before the play began, standing nearby, former Bok coach Tom DeFelice (his son, Chris, is a Southern assistant; Tom was succeeded at Bok by Natale), yelled out at Riley, "Watch out for the slant, Mike!" Indeed, Tommy D had the play pegged. Star sr. WR Jamal Custis, maneuvering left to middle, was the target. Jackson got his mitts on the ball and it popped up slightly into the air. Riley gathered it in and ran straight down the middle to payturf. N-G's next series also became a disaster. Three plays netted minus-12 yards (TFL combo for sr. OLB Matthew Solomon and sr. DT Mark "Spider" Webb; sack for Webb, stop for no gain by sr. LB Dimonte Powell), then sr. Khalil Lewis stormed through to block the punt. Sr. Kasill Huggins recovered on the 1 and Jones immediately scored. A 30-yard burst by jr. RB Rodney Kay again put Southern on the doorstep shortly into the fourth quarter. Jr. FB Justin Bell than frolicked for the final 18 yards. N-G avoided a shutout with 6:10 left on a 14-yard run by sr. RB Sihmare Morgan. The play that set it up was N-G's best of the day, a 50-yard connection between the backup QB, soph Corbin Williams, and Custis. Custis made the catch along the right sideline, trucked a defender or two, then fancy-footed his way all the way over to the left sideline. OK, now let's get back to the nice gesture. At 1:16, Jones was tackled at the 1 after an impressive 54-yard burst. Just a couple plays earlier, there'd been some extra chirping by a Saint (the coaches did remove him) and the Southern coaches were not too happy. They chose not to rub it in, however, and the game ended with a pair of kneeldowns by Riley. "That's not us," they said several times, as jacked-up Ram spectators urged them to add one last score. Amazingly, Southern lost yardage just ONCE all game, and the damage was only 1 yard. The grunts: jr. C Rashaun Carter, Powell and Webb at the Gs, soph Wayne Christian and sr. Nafis Davis at the Ts. The defense included: Miles and Williams at the Es, Webb and Bell (and sr. Demetrius White) at the Ts, Solomon and Jones at OLB, Powell and sr. Naim Dykes at ILB, Riley and jr. Nicholas Coffie at CB, and Jackson at S. The weather was VERY cold and the winds were often strong, and not too many of N-G's fans were still around by the end. Many departed during the third quarter, honestly. Southern assistant Thomas Terry was double-doused by the content of jugs after the game. Defensive stats, courtesy of the nation's newest Anthem-singing sensation, Mark "Frog" Carfagno (smile): Dykes and Solomon led Southern with nine apiece. Webb managed six while Riley, Jones, Powell and Carter posted five apiece. Riley broke up three passes in addition to his pick. Jr. Jack Taylor paced N-G with 10 (six solos) and jr. LB Mike DiFrancesco had six. Honoring its past, N-G wore orange uniforms with black and white trim. Everybody's "last name" was Pirates.

NOV. 27 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  Here are winning percentages and records for all teams still playing Thanksgiving games, as well as a list of how many consecutive Thanksgiving games each has played. Results from 2013 are NOT included. Note: The Central-Northeast Thanksgiving game was often played on the Saturday before Thanksgiving into the late 1930s, so I'm not positive on that series. However, there was definitely no game in 1918 because Northeast did not field a team. In '57, when Northeast was moving from 8th and Lehigh to its current location, the Vikings did not compete in the Public League. A patchwork squad was slapped together and it played just four games. One of them was against Central, however, so the series was continued. (Central won, 20-13). The other opponents that season were Pa. School for the Deaf, George School and Academy of the New Church. In 1939, Central played Northeast the Saturday before Thanksgiving and then lost to Germantown on Thanksgiving. The complete records for Thanksgiving games can be found here.

NOV. 27
TEDBITS
  If you like football games with lots of points, Roman-Roxborough is your cup of turkey tea. Over the last 20 years, 826 points have been fired onto the scoreboard. One big problem: Roman has scored 735 of 'em. While winning ALL 20 games. Ouch and ouch some more. Thi$ $erie$, which $tarted in 1972, $till exi$t$ for one $ole rea$on. What has happened is sad because Roman's overall lead is 30-9-2, which means the first 21 meetings produced only a 10-9-2 advantage for the Cahillites. Even those days showed stretches of dominance, however, as Roman went 9-2 from '72 through '82 and Roxborough went 7-1-1 from '83 through '91. Below are the top performances in rushing/passing/receiving from '82 through '12. Joe McCourt is Roman's current coach. Future NFLer Curtis Brinkley was a soph at Roxborough in 2000, then transferred to West Catholic and received permission to play an extra season there, enabling him to corral the city's career rushing record. Marcus Kelly is the brother of Roman's current top rusher, Dimetri. The No. 1 passer and receiver, Kevin and Dennis Regan, are brothers. One NFL all-timer not on the list is Roman's Marvin Harrison. He was a multi-purpose guy in high school and his best rushing effort vs. Roxborough was 151 in '90, so he missed by three yards.

NOV. 26 (Evening)
TEDBITS
  Anyone have 19 points stashed away somewhere? Judge would LOVE to receive them, then take a journey in the Way-Back Machine. With just 19 more points, the Crusaders' record against Lincoln, their down-Rowland-Avenue Thanksgiving rival, would be a perfect
38-0. As things stand, the 'Saders are 34-3-1 with losses in '89 (12-7), '83 (20-17) and '77 (12-7) and a tie in '80 (21-21). Since losing by just one point, 19-18, in '04, the Railsplitters have been outscored, 289-25. Ouch. Lincoln's current coach, Ed McGettigan, is a Judge grad. Wonder what he thought of Lincoln during his playing days? smile . . . Below are the top rushing/passing/receiving performances from '82 through '12. Judge receiver Tom Garlick, who advanced to the NFL, is the uncle of Wood QB Tom Garlick. Another Judge guy on the receivers list, Justin O'Brien, holds this off-the-wall (but very impressive) city record: Most consecutive points scored, when available: 74. In '01, he scored the 74 points before and after missing two games with a broken wrist. Samir Bullock tops the rushing list at 170. He now plays for Ryan. If he attains that exact same number vs. Washington, he'll claim the top spot on that list. Pretty freaky, right?    

NOV. 26
TEDBITS
  Like some other Catholic-Public Thanksgiving rivalries, Neumann/N-G vs. Southern has been one-sided for a very long time and the dominance has often reached epic proportions. Southern captured the 1989 meeting, 26-6, thanks to QB Joe Bartholetti and WR Demetrius Hayes, but has one just victory since then. That win occurred in 2004, by 30-26, thanks to the rushing of Lamone Fox, passing of Jalil Harris and catching of Michael McClain. The really ugly games took place in 2005 (53-8), 2002 (68-0), 2000 (61-6) and 1993 (69-12). Thanks to its Bok imports, Southern is enjoying a nice season and there's hope that this game will be a nail-biter. N-G and its numerous forerunners lead the series, 55-19-3. There were no games in '01 (Southern shut down its season early due to low numbers) and '07 (with the South Philly Super Site still being worked on, the teams couldn't agree on an alternate site). Here are the top rushing/passing/receiving performances from 1982 through 2012. The Nelsons, Len and Daryl (D was just hired as Boys' Latin's track coach), are brothers, as are the McPhersons, Mark and Chad. Hiram Bowman's 77 yards in '04 came on one catch.