Still on top
Beth-Center\'s Whipkey remains atop TD Club standings
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Four was the magic number during Week Three of the high school football season, as in four different local players scored four touchdowns in leading their team to victories.
That foursome included Connellsville’s Linkon Keller in a 28-14 win at Laurel Highlands, Waynesburg Central’s Ky-mani Sumpter in a 35-0 win at Albert Gallatin, Beth-Center’s DeSean Whipkey in a 46-13 home victory over Leechburg, and Southmoreland’s Dawson Wolfe in a 42-21 win over Uniontown at Russ Grimm Field.
Whipkey’s outburst kept him atop the Herald-Standard Touchdown Club standings of the area’s leading scorers.
Whipkey raced for TD runs of 87 and 1 yard and pulled in scoring passes from Chase Bebout of 34 and 31 yards in a 24-point game.
Keller’s 24-point total pushed him into second place with 44 overall.
Keller scored in three different ways in accounting for each of the Falcons’ touchdowns. The versatile senior returned an interception 14 yards for a TD, scored on receptions of 86 and 5 yards on passes from Jeffrey Nicholson, and added a 1-yard touchdown plunge.
Keller sits two points in front of Whipkey’s teammate, Enzo Brown, who had touchdown runs of 69, 2 and 13 yards to move into sole possession of third place with 42.
The Red Raiders’ Marcus Evans tallied a trio of TD catches from Brayden Hinzy in the loss at Southmoreland to up his total to 36 and is alone in fourth place. Evans’ scores came on plays of 52, 20 and 43 yards.
Wolfe, the Scotties senior quarterback, helped his team notch its first win of the season with touchdown runs of 10, 9, 17 an 11 yards and also ran in a two-point conversion to lead area players with 26 points in Week Three. He soared into fifth place with 32 points overall.
Sumpter’s 24-point game propelled him into a sixth-place tie with California’s Brandon Meier at 26 points. Sumpter’s touchdowns came on runs of 9, 4, 1 and 15 yards in helping the Raiders improve to 3-0.
Waynesburg and Beth-Center, also 3-0, are the only two remaining unbeaten local teams.
Meier scored the Trojans’ only touchdown in a loss to Washington to up his total also to 26.
Right behind Sumpter in a three-way tie for seventh place at 24 points are two of his Waynesburg teammates, quarterback Teagan Crouse and wide receiver Jack Ricciuti, and Mount Pleasant’s Tristan Wtorkiewicz.
Neither Crouse nor Wtorkiewicz scored in Week Three but the former did toss a touchdown pass to Ricciuti.