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Strong Vincent Colonels
Coach (season, record): Scott White (2nd season, 4-6)
2010 overall record: 4-6
2010 region record (place): 3-3 (fourth)
2010 playoff results: Lost 35-7 to State College in a PIAA Class AAAA subregional.
Top players lost: Andre Evans, Aaron Bell, Tony Twillie, Raheem Smith, Kareem Smith, Josh Marques
Top returning players: Denzel Jones, Corey Henry, Kyle Bogel, Matt Rodgers, Blake Quirk, Tashan Mitchell, Chris Kirkland
Assistant coaches: Dan Olson, John Ferraro, Tracy Lindsey, Kevin Boxer, Joe Gabbard, Justin Griffith, Scott Bylerly, Andrew Parker, Jim Grygier, Jim Fuller, Alan Kavelish and Sean Carlson
Outlook: Strong Vincent coach Scott White is looking for a leader to step up this year. The Colonels lost their leadership halfway through last fall and Vincent exited the PIAA playoffs in a subregional. Denzel Jones could be that leader in his third year as the starting quarterback. Jones is a speedy dual-threat to throw and run with the ball and could emerge as one of the top quarterbacks in District 10 this season. In the backfield he will have Mike Neavins returning along with Chris Kirkland. Also back are Corey Henry, Kyle Bogel, Matt Rodgers, Blake Quirk and Tashan Mitchell. Quirk has size at 6 feet, 5 inches to anchor the line, while Bogel and Mitchell could be big contributors on the line as well. Vincent will need to develop a strong backfield and some positions on defense in order to advance further in the playoffs this fall. The Colonels ran into some turnover and discipline problems in the PIAA playoffs against State College. Vincent will have a nine-game schedule to prepare and improve this year, including games against powerhouse teams like General McLane, Cathedral Prep and North East.

Schedule
September
2 at General McLane 7
10 Fort LeBoeuf* 7
16 at Cathedral Prep* 7
23 Warren* 7
30 at East* 7
October
7 at Oil City 7
15 at Central Tech* 7
22 North East 7
28 Bradford* 7
November
4 Bye

Look for the Kickoff magazine at a Country Fair near you beginning Aug. 15. The 112-page magazine previews the upcoming District 10 football season, including top returning players, schedules, stats and more.

Friday: Titusville

– Tom Reisenweber

Perennial District 10 power Strong Vincent faces some new challenges this year. The Colonels, who had won four D-10 Class AAA titles in the past seven seasons, have moved up to Class AAAA. They also will play under a new coach after Tom Cacchione resigned in the offseason. New head coach Scott White talks about Vincent’s approach to the upcoming season:

The District 10 committee voted to allow the McDowell football team to leave the district to join District 7 on Wednesday. The decision ends a long struggle for the Trojans to officially join D-7 and compete in its playoffs.

Strong Vincent and DuBois are the only Class AAAA teams left in D-10 for the next cycle with every team having until Dec. 11 to decide if they want to play up.

For more on McDowell’s move to D-7, check Thursday’s edition of the Erie Times-News.

– Tom Reisenweber

After reviewing the statistics and overall performances, here are our nominees for the Breakout Player of the Week.  In an oddity, receivers dominate this weekend’s poll.

Vote in the poll at upper right. We’ve added one player from Friday and several players from Saturday.

The winner will be announced Tuesday on the Varsity blog and will be featured in Friday’s sports edition.

Josh Niswonger, General McLane: 4 receptions, 49 yards; TD catches of 10, 18 and 5 yards, including the game-winner in the closing seconds.

Courtney Harden-Pullium, Strong Vincent: 4 receptions, 170 yards, including a 64-yard TD catch

Josh Rzepecki, Harbor Creek: 9 receptions, 125 yards; TD catches of 3, 3, 13 and 7 yards.

Braidy Westfall, Corry: 3 receptions, 132 yards, including TD catches of 80 and 49 yards. Also caught a two-point conversion pass.

Justin Wiley, Cathedral Prep: 8 carries, 91 yards; TD runs of 6 and 49 yards, 12-yard TD receptions — all in the first half Saturday

Ryan Myers, Union City: 80-yard TD reception, 74-yard kickoff return for a TD, 8-for-12 passing for 106 yards, 2-point conversion pass

Dan Odem, Farrell: 20-yard interception return for TD, 5-of-8 passing for 85 yards and and four touchdowns, 11-yard TD run

Chris Kurzik, Mercyhurst Prep: 18 rushes for 122 yards and a TD.

Matt Stapleford, Warren: 16-of-24 passing for 227 yards and 2 TDs, two-point conversion pass, TD runs of 3 and 10 yards

Note: North East’s Jimmy Bailey and Mercyhurst Prep’s Aaron Horton were previous winners and were not eligible to win this week.

Here are some nominees for the Breakout Player of the Week. Remember, the winner will be honored in Friday’s edition of the Times-News. Vote for your favorite in the poll at the upper right.

Let us know if we missed a worthy candidate. We’re limiting nominees to one per school, and no winner can be nominated again.

Gary Brown, East: 11-of-21 passing 174 yards; 17 rushes, 127 yards, TD

Jared Burger, Union City: 24 rushes, 176 yards; TD runs of 4, 10 and 54 yards

Corey Dunton, Cambridge Springs: 65 yards rushing, 2 TDs, including game-winner in third overtime; 3 receptions for 33 yards; 77-yard kickoff return for a TD

Kevin Green, Strong Vincent: 9 rushes, 156 yards; TD runs of 80 and 30 yards

Richie Kolesar, Fort LeBoeuf: 13 rushes, 92 yards; TD runs of 1 and 34 yards

Jared Lane, Fairview: 17 rushes, 114 yards, TD in return from hamstring injury

Cory Lee, General McLane: 27 rushes, 180 yards

Justin Wiley, Cathedral Prep: 15 rushes, 108 yards; TD runs of 1, 3, 3, 5 and 27 yards

Fairview’s Peter Jackson ran for 249 yards — his third consecutive game with at least 227 yards rushing — to lead District 10 rushers. Strong Vincent’s Brandon Akins-Jones scored four touchdowns in a win over East. Those were among the highlighted top performances Friday.

We’ve added two players from Saturday’s games — Iroquois’ Jake Szoszorek and General McLane’s Nick Lombardo.

Vote in the poll at upper right through Monday night. The winner will be featured in Friday’s sports section. Here at the Week 8 nominees.

Peter Jackson, Fairview: 33 rushes, 249 yards, 77-yard TD run; now has 714 yards in his past three games and 1,129 yards on the season.

Brandon Akins-Jones, Strong Vincent: 15 rushes, 186 yards, TD runs of 66, 1 and 44 yards; eturned a fumble 92 yards for a TD.

Scottie Frisina, Corry: 7-of-17 passing, 135 yards, 2 TDs; 16 rushes, 152 yards, 2 TDs

Greg Garmon, McDowell: 8 rushes, 160 yards, TD runs of 64 and 3 yards; returned a kickoff 95 yards for a TD

Aaron Horton, Mercyhurst Prep: 16 rushes, 140 yards, TD runs of 59 and 5 yards; now has 1,117 yards on the season

Jared Burger, Union City: 25 rushes, 117 yards, TD runs of 11, 10 and 10 yards; now has District 10-leading 1,218 yards

Justin Wiley, Cathedral Prep: 8 rushes, 92 yards, TD runs of 1 and 51 yards; 2 receptions, 70 yards; returned punt 59 yards for a TD

Jake Szoszorek, Iroquois: Rushed 23 times for 226 yards and hade TD runs of 5, 6, and 9 yards; also became the Braves’ all-time leading tackler.

Nick Lombardo, General McLane: Rushed 10 times for 75 yards and 2 TDs; completed both of his pass attempts for 30 yards; returned an interception 43 yards for a TD.

Photo galleries from Week 6 of the high school football season are now available on GoErie.com.

View or purchase photos from Friday’s North East-Fairview and Mercyhurst Prep-Iroquois games and Thursday’s Corry-Strong Vincent game.

Also, look for a photo gallery after tonight’s Bradford-East game.

There were some amazing performances in District 10 Friday, including two in one game — the North East-Fairview showdown.

Remember, the winner of the poll in the upper right will be featured Friday on the new “spadea wrap” on the front of the sports section.

Here are some nominees. As always, let us know if we forgot someone, and we’ll add them to the poll. Players from Saturday’s games also are eligible.

Peter Jackson, Fairview: 36 rushes, 238 yards, TD runs of 60, 18 and 2 yards

Jimmy Bailey, North East: 22 rushes 115 yards, 3 TDs, including game-winner in overtime. Also had 68-yard punt return for TD.

Aaron Horton, Mercyhurst Prep: 17 rushes 241 yards, TD runs of 16, 56, 84 and 9 yards

Zach Greenawalt, McDowell: 4 rushes 89 yards, including 83-yard TD run; also went 2-for-2 passing for 54 yards, including 39-yard TD pass

Cory Lee, General McLane: 15 rushes, 125 yards, TD runs of 14 and 19 yards

Trevor Litwiler, Linesville: 12 rushes, 128 yards; 7-of-8 passing, 111 yards, TD

Jared Burger, Union City: 36 rushes, 182 yards, 2 TDs

Dallas Williams, Oil City: Game-winning 94-yard fumble return for TD on final play; also had 6 receptions for 75 yards, including a touchdown

From Thursday:

Kevin Green, Strong Vincent: 9 rushes, 100 yards, TD; also had 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown

Readers can vote for their top performers in the new poll at upper right, or they can vote for one of the following by posting a comment at the bottom of this blog post. We put our finalists in the poll, but they are not the only nominees.

We had many strong performances Friday, including a career milestone and a superb defensive game. Here are some top choices:

Scottie Frisina, QB, Corry: 8-of-19 passing, 217 yards, 4 TDs. He also topped the 4,000-yard passing mark for his career.

Josh Rzepecki, TE, Harbor Creek: 6 receptions, 168 yards, TD catches of 9, 26, 27 and 70 yards.

Josh Giannamore, QB, Harbor Creek: 12-of-20 passing, 235 yards, 4 TDs

Mike Bizzarro, WR, McDowell: 2 receptions, 80 yards, TD catches of 17 and 63 yards

Scott Harris, RB, McDowell: 8 rushes, 113 yards, 2 TDs

Noah Ackerman, PK, Cathedral Prep: Three extra-point kicks and field goals of 35 and 43 yards. The 43-yarder tied him for the third-longest in Prep history.

Jordan Kerner, LB, Fairview: 12 tackles and 2 sacks, including key sack on Fort LeBoeuf’s final drive

Jared Lane, RB, Fairview: 15 rushes, 138 yards, 61-yard TD run, despite playing with injured hamstring

Corey McWilliams, WR, Fort LeBoeuf: 10 receptions, 168 yards

B.J. Arrowsmith, QB, Fort LeBoeuf: 13-of-22 passing, 220 yards

Casey Pace, RB, Fort LeBoeuf: 32 rushes, 147 yards, TD

Courtney Harden-Pullium, WR, Strong Vincent: 3 receptions, 95 yards, 2 TDs

Cory Lee, RB, General McLane: 15 rushes, 155 yards, TD

Casey Baker, QB, Conneaut Valley: 6-of-12 passing, 193 yards, 2 TDs

Nick Copeland, RB, Northwestern: 3 rushes, 102 yards, 2 TDs

Jared Burger, RB, Union City: 33 rushes, 169 yards, TD

Cody Johnson, RB, Oil City: 16 rushes, 200 yards; TD runs of 37 and 68 yards

Here are some candidates for the top honors this weekend:

Brandon Akins-Jones, Strong Vincent: 7 rushes, 129 yards, TD runs of 1, 61, 9 and 38 yards.

Gary Brown, East: 7-of-10 passing, 107 yards, 2 TDs; 6 rushes, 61 yards, TD

Jordan Elchynski, North East: 22 carries, 131 yards, 2 TDs

Zach Greenawalt, McDowell: 11 rushes, 178 yards, 2TDs; 57-yard TD pass

Aaron Horton, Mercyhurst Prep: 12 rushes, 165 yards; TD runs of 12, 35 and 60 yards

Dakota Schultz, Saegertown: 9 rushes, 102 yards, 3 TDs

Corey McWilliams, Fort LeBoeuf: 5 catches, 109 yards, 2 TDs (now has six TD receptions in three games)

Trevor Litwiler, Linesville: 21 rushes, 174 yards, 3 TD; 5-of-9 passing, 106 yards, TD

Jordan Kerner, Fairview: 7 rushes, 100 yards; TD runs of 11 and 63 yards

Jared Burger, Union City: 23 rushes, 164 yards, 2 TDs

Shyquawn Pullium, Cathedral Prep, 7 rushes, 225 yards, TD runs of 54, 69 and 72 yards, 4-of-8 passing, 73 yards, 2 TDs

There were many other worthy performances this weekend — more than we can list here. Who would you vote for? Who did we miss? Let us know.

Farrell and Wilmington remain atop the polls in their respective classes of this week’s Pennsylvania Football News rankings.

The Steelers are first in Class A and the Greyhounds, PIAA champions in 2008, in Class AA. They are the only District 10 schools ranked in PFN’s four polls.

District schools which received honorable mentions were McDowell in Class AAAA, Bradford, Cathedral Prep and Strong Vincent in Class AAA, General McLane in AA, and Linesville and Mercyhurst Prep in A.

– Mike Copper

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Cathedral Prep remained fourth in Class AAA and General McLane stayed at No. 10 in Class AA in this week’s Harrisburg Patriot-News poll.

Two other District 10 teams are ranked No. 2 statewide. Wilmington, the defending Class AA champion, moved up one spot to No. 2 in AA. Farrell remained at No. 2 in Class A.

For complete rankings, click below:

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