Tracking the area’s high school football stat leaders after Week 1

A memorable Week 1 is in the books, so we decided to turn our eyes to the area stat leaders.

Every week, we plan to provide an update on the area’s top passers, rushers and receivers — likely in Monday’s edition moving forward — so expect this to become a weekly staple. For now, our local leaders are pretty straightforward. But it’s important to note that State College hasn’t yet played, and bye weeks are sure to play a role in the week-to-week.

Let’s break down the categories:

Passing

Philipsburg-Osceola’s Daniel “Bubba” Slogosky was the area’s biggest threat through the air in his team’s first season-opening win since 2011. His completion rate wasn’t perfect — 45 percent (10 of 22) — but he wasn’t afraid to put it in his playmakers’ hands.

He finished with an area-best 199 passing yards, beating out the next-best quarterback (Bald Eagle Area’s Jaden Jones) by 67 yards.

The Mounties’ prolific offense made sure that four different players would crack the top 5 of our stat categories.

Rushing

For Bald Eagle Area, it was all about quality over quantity.

Sophomore sensation Gage McClenahan had just eight carries Friday — eight other local runnings back had more touches — but he made the most of them with an area-high 161 rushing yards, which means he averaged a little more than 20 yards a carry. He had three touchdowns runs Friday of 3, 35 and 64 yards.

Philipsburg-Osceola’s Matt Johnson (150 yards) was the only other area back to surpass 100 yards, although Penns Valley’s Ryan Ripka (97 yards) came very close.

Receiving

Mounties junior TJ Thompson was the lone local player to break the 100-yard mark, as he wound up with five catches for 112 yards. He was joined in the top 5 by teammate Brandon Anderson, who stands in third with 48 yards.

Rams junior Cole Breon paced the area with a week-high eight catches — putting him No. 2 overall with 92 yards — while BEA’s McClenahan finished fourth with 44 yards, making him and Penns Valley’s Justin Sands the only athletes to appear in multiple categories. (Sands: No. 4 passing, No. 5 rushing; McClenahan: No. 1 rushing, No. 4 receiving.)

This story was originally published August 26, 2017 at 11:56 PM with the headline "Tracking the area’s high school football stat leaders after Week 1."