The 2002 scholastic football season is now just beyond its midpoint and several Big 8 Conference teams are in a position to make a run at the post-season.
\n Huntingdon and Indian Valley, like last season, are the cream of the Class AAA ranks. Both teams are unbeaten at 4-0 (the \u2018Cats are 3-0 in the league while the Warriors are 1-0) and they\u2019re tied for the top spot in the District standings with 420 points. Bellefonte holds the third spot at 2-2 with 200 points and with games remaining against Lewistown and Bald Eagle Area could easily slide into a playoff berth with a 5-4 season.
\n In Class AA, Tyrone currently holds the fifth spot with 270 points behind Forest Hills, Bishop McCort, Penns Valley and Bedford. Tyrone\u2019s remaining schedule includes one Class AAA opponent in Indian Valley and one Class AAAA opponent in Punxsutawney, as well as Class A power Pius X. Tyrone could earn valuable power points with wins over Indian Valley and Punxsy that could catapult them as high as third when the final playoff pairings are announced.
\nMVP Season
\nEvery coach in the Big 8 has a player he\u2019d choose to have the ball in his hands when the game is on the line. At Tyrone, it\u2019s senior quarterback Tyler Mertiff. At Bellefonte, it\u2019s running back Corey Mislinski.
\nBut it\u2019s hard to imagine any of the conference\u2019s money players who are more valuable to their team that Huntingdon\u2019s Jon Riley. The 5-6, 160-pound senior is currently averaging 6.7 yards per carry with eight rushing touchdowns on a team with more talented skill players than any other in the Big 8.
\nIn last week\u2019s mauling of Philipsburg-Osceola, Riley ran for 147 yards and four touchdowns to lead a 41-0 rout. The week before, in a 21-14 win over Bellefonte, he scored what would become the game-winning score on a 35-yard pass from Geoff Kozak. In Week 2, it was Riley\u2019s 51-yard sprint on fourth-and-1 that sealed Huntingdon\u2019s 29-20 win over Tyrone.
\nWhat\u2019s most impressive about Riley\u2019s numbers is that he\u2019s posting them while splitting time with junior Jerrod Smith, a strategy devised by coach Jim Zauzig in the pre-season to keep each rusher constantly looking over his shoulder at his competition in practice.
\nThe strategy has worked to a T through four weeks. The \u2018Cats are leading the Big 8 at 3-0 and are currently averaging 31.5 points per game.
\nHard To Stop
\nIndian Valley’s offense is having a nice season, to say the least, averaging 39 points and over 400 yards of offense per game.
\nIn fact, the Warriors have barely been pushed, with their closest game coming in Week 1 in a 22-14 win over West Perry. Since then, no team has been able to hold Valley under 40 points, with their season-high coming in a 47-0 win over North Pocono in Week 2.
\n Valley has had three different rushers gain over 100 yards at least once, and last week watched quarterback Jeff Hayes pass for 182 yards against Bald Eagle Area.
\nWhat that means for scholastic football fans is that a showdown is brewing in the Big 8 Conference. With wins tonight, both the Warriors and Huntingdon would enter their Week 6 battle at War Vets Field unbeaten and possessing the two most potent offenses in the league.
\nTop Performers
\nBald Eagle Area\u2019s Dave Morgan was the top rusher in the Big 8 last week with his 15-carry, 172-yard performance against Valley in a 45-30 loss. Riley\u2019s 147 put him second, and Bellefonte\u2019s Corey Mislinski was third with a gritty 27-carry, 127-yard effort against Tyrone.
\nHayes led Big 8 passers with his 8-11, 182-yard night against BEA. Tyrone\u2019s Mertiff, who threw for 149 yards on 11-of-16, is yet to lead the conference in a single week in passing, but continues to lead the Big 8’s season totals.
\nTyrone\u2019s Aaron Jeffries led the Big 8 in receiving, grabbing six passes for 87 yards against the Raiders while scoring one touchdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 2002 scholastic football season is now just beyond its midpoint and several Big 8 Conference teams are in a position to make a run at the post-season. Huntingdon and Indian Valley, like last season, are the cream of the Class AAA ranks. Both teams are unbeaten at 4-0 (the \u2018Cats are 3-0 in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}