Grove City scores 91 in win over Franklin

The Grove City (Pa.) High School basketball team is going to be hard-pressed to do what its football team did Friday night: score 91 points.

Yes, you read that right, 91 points.

The Eagles offense rolled up 446 yards of offense and scored 12 touchdowns and a field goal, and the Grove City defense added a long interception return for a touchdown in a 91-12 win over Franklin.

“I knew we were prepared and ready for this game,” Grove City head coach Jeff Bell told the Oil City Derrick. “We had a great week of practice, and I had a pretty good idea we were going to play well. But, I never envisioned this. I feel bad, because I’ve been on the other side of these types of games. But I know Dave (Franklin head coach Dave Smith) and his staff are heading in the right direction and they’ll get back on track. It was just one of those nights.”

Grove City led 24-6 at the end of the first quarter and 71-6 at halftime after scoring 47 second-quarter points that culminated in an 89-yard interception return for a score by Kyle Trinch as the half expired.

Nine different Grove City players found the end zone led fittingly enough by a player named Record.

Eric Record had three rushing touchdowns, the shortest of the three being from 38 yards, and his teammate Foster Reznor added three scoring runs of his own. Both backs broke the 100-yard mark with Record gaining 167 on just five carries and Reznor 119 on just five carries. The two combined to average 28.6 yards per carry.

2. Buganza sets, ties District 9 marks: Brockway quarterback Derek Buganza continues to rewrite the District 9 passing record book while setting his sights on the Pennsylvania record book.

The senior quarterback threw for 401 yards and a District 9-record eight touchdowns in a 56-36 win over visiting Smethport Friday. The eight passing tosses give Buganza 79 for his career tying Clearfield graduate Chad Kroell’s District 9 career record. Kroell, who went to Penn State, had held the previous game TD passing mark with seven against Philipsburg-Osceola in 1994.

Buganza now has 7,705 career passing yards moving him into fifth all-time in Pennsylvania history just 60 yards behind Wilson Area’s D.J. Lenehan for fourth place and only 295 yards shy of becoming the fourth player in state history to throw for 8,000 career yards. Lancaster Catholic (Lancaster) standout Kyle Smith set the state record with 8,545 yards in a career that ended last season.

3. Shell closing in on 5,000 career rushing yards: Hopewell (Aliquippa) junior running back Rushel Shell is within crawling distance of becoming the 52nd player in Pennsylvania history to reach 5,000 career rushing yards. Shell unofficially had 267 yards rushing in a 30-23 loss to Moon Friday night giving him 4,998 career yards. He unofficially has 743 yards this season after gaining 2,465 as a sophomore and 1,790 as a freshman. Shell is on pace to rush for 2,477 yards in 2010 – more if the Vikings can rally from a 1-2 start and make the WPIAL playoffs – which would put him within 300 yards of 7,000 career yards, something only nine runners in state history have achieved. The state record is 9,027 by Steelton-Highspire’s Jeremiah Young.

Hopewell is the alma mater of NFL Hall of Famer and former Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett.

4. Capers done for the season: For the second straight season, Chartiers Valley (Bridgeville) quarterback Wayne Capers is out for the season. The son of former NFL wide receiver Wayne Capers, sustained a torn ACL according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Last season, Capers, who has scholarship offers from Penn State, Pitt and Maryland, played in five games last season before breaking a foot. The injury will also cost the junior the basketball season, which will be a major loss to a Colts team that won the WPIAL title and finished second in the state in Class AAA last season but already has to replace star guard T.J. McConnell, who is at Duquesne.

5. Top ranked teams fare well: Nine teams from Western Pennsylvania were ranked in the state's MaxPreps Top 25 coming into the week, and eight were victorious, seven by lopsided margins. 

No. 25 Bethel Park sustained the only defeat falling 22-21 to Shaler Area (Pittsburgh) when J.P. Holtz scored on a 2-yard run with 6:06 left in the game and Ryan Mincher hit Troy Sciullo with the game-winning 2-point conversion.

The only other tight game involving ranked teams came when No. 17 North Hills (Pittsburgh) toppled winless Pine-Richland 21-14 behind three touchdown runs by quarterback Taylor Schmidt.

As far as the rest of the ranked squads:

* Damion Jones-Moore rushed for 124 yards and Perry Hills passes for 197 to help top-ranked Central Catholic (Pittsburgh) roll past Kiski Area 48-14.

* No. 12 McDowell (Erie) topped Seneca Valley by the same 48-14 score thanks to 183 yards rushing by Greg Garmon.

* No. 5 Clairton had an easy 60-6 victory over Carlynton with Desmion Green throwing for 219 yards on 8 of 12 passing.

* No. 14 Greensburg Central Catholic (Greensburg) beat Charleroi 49-10 thanks to 196 yards rushing by Andy Biros.

* Alex Papson rushed for 223 yards No. 22 North Allegheny (Wexford) was impressive in a 27-0 win over Upper St. Clair.

* No. 24 Farrell rolled past Mercer 35-0 and No. 18 Aliquippa beat Riverside 34-6 behind Darius Walker, who rushed for 104 yards and two touchdowns and caught a TD pass.

6. Big game James: Burrell (Lower Burrell) quarterback James Liput had a monster game in a 48-7 win over West Shamokin throwing for 319 yards and three touchdowns while completing 14 of 16 passes.

7. Pearsall to the rescue: Ricky Pearsall scored three touchdowns in the final 8:51 to help Elk County Catholic (St. Marys) stun Coudersport 26-21. ECC trailed 21-7 going to the fourth quarter before Pearsall took over scoring on runs of 1, 1 and 8 yards with the final 8-yard run coming with 1:22 left to play. He finished the game with 168 yards rushing and four touchdowns to help the Crusaders improve to 3-0.

Chris Rossetti covers Western Pennsylvania for MaxPreps.com.