Trojans rule over TD Club: Dillow thankful for wealth of talent at running back in 2017
It was the year of the Trojan for the 2017 Herald-Standard Touchdown Club and the top dog was California junior running back Jelani Stafford, who literally ran away with the competition.
He was just one of a host of Trojans, mostly runners, who earned spots near the top of the TD Club final standings.
That makes California coach Darrin Dillow very thankful of the squad he had on this Thanksgiving Day.
“We were very blessed to have a lot of depth at running back,” said Dillow who guided the Trojans to a 12-1 record. “All year long I felt confident running six different guys, and that helped us because it kept kids fresh.”
Stafford was held scoreless in California’s final game of the season, a 30-24 loss in the WPIAL Class A semifinals to Imani Christian, but still finished first by 54 points with 28 touchdowns and one two-point run for 170 points. Elizabeth Forward senior wide receiver Gavin Martik was second with 126 points.
Stafford had plenty of teammates in the upper echelon. California players made up 33 percent of the top 12 with four players scoring over 90 points.
Senior kicker Dustin Mock and sophomore running back Cochise Ryan tied for ninth place along with Charleroi junior wide receiver Dakota Romantino with 94 points apiece.
Mock had the highest total ever in the TD Club for a player who was mainly a kicker with 76 extra points, two field goals and two touchdowns.
Ryan was a threat receiving and running in scoring 15 touchdowns and a pair of two-point conversions. His two late spectacular TD receptions against Imani Christian gave the Trojans a chance to pull out the victory, but a late onside kick was recovered by the Saints.
California senior quarterback Colin Phillips threw the two scoring tosses to Ryan and also ran for a touchdown and a two-point conversion to spark California’s comeback try. That gave Phillips 15 TDs on the season and the two-pointer for 92 points, good enough for 12th place.
Two more Trojans running backs cracked the top 30 with senior Jonathan Wood tallying 11 touchdowns for 66 points to tie for 20th place and senior Zion Aldrich rang up 10 TDs for 60 points to tie for 26th place.
California’s powerful offensive line opened holes for whoever was in the Trojans backfield. Stafford, a bruising runner, was the focal point of a prolific offense that averaged 50.5 points per game, tops in the entire WPIAL.
“Jelani gets probably 70 percent of our rushes when our first team is in just with the system that we run,” Dillow said. “But really a lot of the stuff we run offensively is triple option, so we have three guys that have a chance to carry the ball on most of our plays.”
Stafford and his starting unit’s effectiveness early in games propelled California to a slew of blowouts during the season and led to many opportunities for several other Trojans running backs.
“Our kids got their points early on in a lot of games and then we put our back-ups in,” Dillow said. “They were able to take advantage of amble playing time.”
Dillow hesitates to call any of his runners “back-ups.”
“A lot of my kids that played limited but rotated in would probably start on most teams,” Dillow said. “There was an abundance of talent there.”
The TD Club defending champion missed the final three games of the season, but Mapletown senior running back Dylan Rush still managed to finish third with 124 points.
Rush was followed in the standings by West Greene senior quarterback Zach Pettit (117), Charleroi junior running back Hunter Perry (108), Beth-Center junior running back Dominic Fundy (104), Yough junior running back Dustin Shoaf (98) and Beth-Center senior fullback Trevor Anderson (96).
California had three of the next four in the standings and that group was followed by West Greene sophomore running back Ben Jackson and West Greene junior quarterback Bailey Lincoski who tied for 13th place (88).
Carmichaels senior running back Nick Mundell (86) was 15th. Rounding out the top 20 were Bentworth senior wide receiver Ben Peternel (84), Laurel Highlands junior quarterback Conner Basinger (78), Mount Pleasant senior running back Michael Govern (72), Elizabeth Forward senior running back Brian Malloy and Wood and Mount Pleasant senior running back Cody Reese (66).
Charleroi put four players in the top 25. In addition to Perry and Romantino, junior quarterback Geno Pellegrini (64) was 22nd while junior wide receiver Travis Lytle (62) was tied for 23rd along with Frazier senior running back Mason Kelly and Carmichaels senior running back Jacob Lowry.
Aldrich was tied with Belle Vernon sophomore quarterback Jared Hartman for 26th place.
Four players wound up tied for 28th place with EF senior wide receiver Seth Andres, Jefferson-Morgan senior running back Colten Davidson, J-M senior quarterback-wide receiver D.L. Garrett and Carmichaels senior running back Brennen Pelzer each scoring 56 points.
Stafford was the leader in touchdowns with 28 and Mock was the far-away leader in extra-point kicks with 76. Mount Pleasant junior kicker Bradley Tait was the leader in field goals with four and the Pioneers’ Jackson was tops in two-point conversions with eight.
California even had one of the most unique scorers of the season with Nathan Zemany who wound up with six points in a very unusual way. The junior wide receiver hauled in a pair of two-point conversion passes during the regular season and recorded a safety with a sack of Imani Christian quarterback Tawan Wesley last week.
(The 2017 Herald-Standard Touchdown Club final standings can be found on B2.)