Tracking the area’s high school football stat leaders after 3 weeks

We have quite a bit of movement on the leaderboards after an up-and-down Week 3 of the high school football season.

New leaders appear in both passing and receiving this week, while the area’s top running back remains the same for the third straight time. And, despite playing in one fewer game than the rest of the area teams, one State College individual finally burst onto the scene in the top 5.

Take a look:

Passing

Bald Eagle Area’s Jaden Jones put on clinics the last two weeks, so it’s no surprise to see him as the area’s new No. 1 with 372 yards.

Against Penns Valley on Friday, he completed 10-of-14 passes for 161 yards and three TDs. The week prior, he was a perfect 7 of 7 for 79 yards. All told, the sophomore is completing 70 percent of his passes on the season.

Interestingly enough, his brother Jordan (179 yards) — who also shares time under center — is on the list at No. 5. But State College’s Tommy Friberg (145 yards) and Penns Valley’s Aaron Tobias (176 yards) are right behind him at Nos. 6 and 7.

The race right now seems to be between Jaden Jones and Philipsburg-Osceola’s Daniel Slogosky, who’s in second with 351 yards. Slogosky has turned the ball over a few times, but the Mounties have put a lot of pressure on him on offense — and he’s certainly racked up the yards.

In the last two games, P-O has rushed 46 times for 76 yards. So it’s really been Slogosky or bust.

Rushing

Another big rushing performance, another week with BEA’s Gage McClenahan on top.

The sophomore sensation is averaging nearly 10 yards a carry — 36 rushing attempts, 355 yards — and he also leads the area with six total rushing/receiving touchdowns. He’s been impossible to stop so far.

Bellefonte’s Dylan Deitrich (303 yards) isn’t far behind, however, and he has the potential to post up even bigger numbers — especially considering he was playing receiver in Week 1. He’s actually averaging more yards per carry (12.1) than McClenahan.

Those two are more than 80 yards ahead of the No. 3, Bellefonte’s Dexter Gallishaw, but there is an important addition this week. State College’s Isaiah Edwards — who’s played in only two games — is now No. 4 with 197 yards.

Edwards carried the ball just eight times Saturday but wound up with 169 yards and three TDs. Odds are, we’ll see him move up the list as the season progresses.

Receiving

After huge back-to-back games, Bellefonte’s Cade Fortney has moved up to No. 1.

The 5-foot-10 senior has 14 catches for 228 yards — 63 yards ahead of the current runner-up, Bald Eagle Area’s Matthew Reese (165 yards). Fortney had 102 receiving yards on Friday and, the week before, had 121.

Nos. 2-4 are all closely packed together, as 11 yards separate the three. Reese, P-O’s T.J. Thompson (158 yards) and Penns Valley’s Cole Breon (154 yards) could be completely flipped by next week.

Out of the three categories we’re tracking, this one’s definitely the most wide open.

This story was originally published September 10, 2017 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Tracking the area’s high school football stat leaders after 3 weeks."