BV’s Petrosky surges into second place in TD Club
Chace Petrosky keeps ringing up the points and rising up the Herald-Standard Touchdown Club standings.
The Belle Vernon running back ran for six touchdowns in the Leopards’ key 55-39 Class 3A Interstate Conference victory at Waynesburg Central on Friday night to propel his team into a showdown for first place at Elizabeth Forward in the regular-season finale.
Petrosky, who rushed for 259 yards, had touchdown runs of 14, 31, 71, 27 and 65. His 30-point game puts him at 108 on the season and moved him from fifth into second place in the area scoring race. Petrosky has jumped up 10 spots in the last two weeks.
Beth-Center’s Enzo Brown still sits in first place with 132 points after scoring two touchdowns and a two-point conversion in the undefeated Bulldogs’ 49-0 win at Mapletown. Like Belle Vernon, Beth-Center also had an upcoming clash to decide first place in the Class A Tri-County South Conference as they host California in Week 10.
Third and fourth place belong to Waynesburg’s Ky-mani Sumpter (100 points) and Teagan Crouse (90), who both had strong games in the losing effort against the Leopards.
Sumpter had touchdowns on a 33-yard pass from Crouse and on a 77-yard run. Crouse added a 64-yard TD rush and also threw a trio of scoring passes with the one to Sumpter as well as completions of 49 and 3 yards to Jack Ricciuti, who moved into 14th place with 60 points.
Connellsville’s Linkon Keller scored one touchdown on a 5-yard run while playing an important role in helping the Falcons earn their first Class 5A Big East Conference win of the season, 24-21 over Franklin Regional. Keller, who ran for 305 yards in a loss to Latrobe in Week Eight, had 172 rushing yards in the victory over the Panthers. He moved up one spot to five in the standings with 80 points.
Uniontown’s Marcus Evan pulled in a 56-yard touchdown pass from Brayden Hinzy in the Red Raiders loss at first-place South Fayette to move up one spot into a sixth-place tie with the Trojans’ Alan Dennis for sixth place with 78 points.
The Bulldogs’ Hunter Bobbs climbed one spot into eighth place with an 11-point game against the Maples. Bobbs returned an interception 31 yards for a touchdown – his area-leading third and his team’s area-leading sixth pick-six of the year – and also knocked through five extra-point kicks to up his total to 76.
California’s Brandon Meier had touchdown runs of 42 and 4 yards in the Trojans’ hard-fought 24-18 win at Avella to increase his scoring total to 70 points, moving him up one spot into ninth place ahead of Beth-Center’s DeSean Whipkey who is 10th at 68 points.
The second-leading scorer for the week behind Petrosky was Frazier’s Brandon Gardner who reeled in touchdown receptions of 18, 59 and 2 yards from Brady Secrest while also catching a two-point conversion and running for another in a 22-point effort that helped the Commodores earn an important 28-22 win at West Greene.
Secrest threw four TDs passes, including a game-winning 75-yard to Kevin Etling late in the fourth quarter, to give him an area-leading 20 on the season, three more than Crouse who has 17.
Frazier will host Avella in Week 10 with the winner clinching a WPIAL playoff spot.
Carmichaels’ K.C. Shook helped the Mikes roll to a 33-0 win at Jefferson-Morgan with a 337-yard rushing outing that included touchdown runs of 6, 28 and 54 yards. Shook climbed into a three-way tie for 14th place with Ricciuti and California’s Chase Shemansky, who scored the go-ahead TD against Avella with 1:30 left in the game.
Sitting right outside the top 10 in a three-way tie for 11th place with 64 points are Belle Vernon’s Jace Gedekoh, who had two rushing TDs and a passing TD vs. Waynesburg, West Greene’s Joel Rizor, who had two TD runs, a two-point run and a touchdown pass in the loss to Frazier, and Southmoreland’s Dawson Wolfe who had a touchdown run, TD pass and a two-point run in the Scotties’ loss at Derry.