D1 District 8 (8 Man) Top Player Performances of the Week
Congratulations to this week's top players! We're covering the best performances from Thursday's football action (using all statistics entered as of the time of writing). Enjoy!
Brian Goforth Has Career-Day on Thursday
Starting off the list is Sandhills Valley's Brian Goforth, who we judged to be the best player in the league this week. On Thursday Goforth rushed for 147 yards and five touchdowns, and also picked up 30 receiving yards, good enough to set a new career-high in rushing yards in the process. Sandhills Valley is 3-1 when Goforth posts two or more rushing touchdowns, but 1-4 otherwise.
This season, Goforth has averaged 39.1 receiving yards per game. He is looking even better than he did last year: after eight games last season, he was only averaging 0.25 receiving yards per game.
Gamescore: 67.07
Big Game from Lindner As Pleasanton Fell 42-20
While Pleasanton might've come up empty on Thursday, Brennan Lindner wasn't going down without a fight. Lindner turned in nothing short of a gem, rushing for 88 yards and two touchdowns on only nine carries, while also throwing for 71 yards and a touchdown. He didn't just play on offense: he also made eight total tackles and defended a pass.
Sandhills Valley had to have seen this coming; the last time they saw Lindner it was a similar story. When Lindner last faced the Mavericks last Thursday, he rushed for 106 yards and three touchdowns on only 13 carries, and also threw for 120 yards and two touchdowns while completing 75% of his passes.
Gamescore: 46.68
South Loup Wins Third-Straight Thanks to Conner Paulsen
Conner Paulsen was instrumental in extending South Loup's winning streak to three on Thursday. Paulsen was unstoppable, rushing for 101 yards and two touchdowns. He is on a roll when it comes to rushing touchdowns, as he's now punched in two or more in the last three games he's played.
This season, Paulsen has run in 18 touchdowns while averaging 93.9 rushing yards per game. He is looking even better than he did last year: after nine games last season, he had eight rushing touchdowns.
Gamescore: 33.25
Luke Pawloski Turns in Another Game with at Least Five Total Tackles
Luke Pawloski continued his hot streak on Thursday by dropping his 11th-straight game (dating back to last season) with at least five total tackles. He picked up two sacks and made 13 total tackles.
For the year, Pawloski has averaged 8.2 total tackles per game and for the season has 10.5 sacks. He's made a big improvement compared to last season: at this point last year, he was only averaging 4.63 total tackles per game.
Gamescore: 27.00
Leyton Connell's Rushing Yards a New Career-High
Leyton Connell posted a new career-high in rushing yards on Thursday. He rushed for 77 yards, and also threw for 121 yards and a touchdown while completing 78.6% of his passes. He also deserves a shoutout for his performance on D, making seven total tackles and defending two passes.
This year, Connell has thrown 16 touchdowns while averaging 139.7 passing yards per game. That doesn't tell the whole story though: at this point last year, he was only averaging 2.75 rushing yards per game. This year he is averaging 50.11 rushing yards.
Gamescore: 25.92
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
