Lancaster Catholic senior quarterback Kyle Smith tied one of football-rich Pennsylvania’s all-time passing records Friday night and has a shot at another one before his high school career is finished. 
Kyle Smith, Lancaster Catholic
File photo by Richard Rector
The 6-foot-4, 215-pounder completed seven-of-11 passes for 148 yards and five touchdowns (to five different receivers) during a 48-0 shutout of Columbia. The homecoming game was played in a driving rainstorm.
That gave him 94 career touchdown passes to match the state record, which was held by Pat Bostick of Mannheim Township.
"He’s very efficient," coach Bruce Harbach pointed out. "He reads defenses and coverages really well. He’s really smart (a 4.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale) and is No. 5 in his class.
"He’s got great speed (runs 40 yards in 4.59 seconds). People don’t expect a player that big to have that kind of speed. He just ran for a 64-yard touchdown last night on a read — untouched. He just ran away from everyone."
Smith injured his ankle in the third week of the season, missed one full game (the Crusaders’ only loss) and played at about 80 percent in the following two outings. Now, however, he is back at 100 percent.
Playing little more than one half of each game this fall, Smith has completed 64-of-105 passes (61 percent) for 1,125 yards and 21 touchdowns. As a junior, he completed 65 percent of his passes for 3,192 yards and 43 touchdowns while throwing only five interceptions.
He should break the tie by firing his record 95th career scoring pass this Friday at Annville-Cleona. In addition, according to how deep the Crusaders go in the playoffs, he also has a reasonable shot at the state career yardage record (8,162) held by Pat Devlin of Downingtown East.
Many major colleges are recruiting Smith, but Harbach says, "He’s really keeping it up in the air. He kind of likes the Ivy League because of his grades."
