Pequea Valley’s Sean Persch breaks L-L League mark for career receiving yards; Dan Wertz becomes Manheim Township’s all-time leading rusher

A tip of the cap to Pequea Valley senior wideout Sean Persch, who became the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s all-time receiving yards leader Friday night.

Persch passed former Conestoga Valley standout Ty Bynum on the all-time list when he snared a 53-yard touchdown catch in the closing minutes of the Braves’ 52-20 L-L League Section 3 loss at Columbia.

Persch finished the game with 213 receiving yards, giving him 2,383 career yards.

Bynum finished his career at CV with 2,327 yards.

Persch, who missed two games earlier this season after surgery to repair torn ligaments in his right hand, now sits alone atop the career receiving yardage list in L-L League history.

Other notes …

* What a huge game by Lebanon senior wideout Jordan Clentimack, who went bananas in the Cedars’ gut-wrenching 33-28 loss to Manheim Central. Clentimack, an All-State pick last year, had nine catches for 195 yards and corralled three touchdowns catches from James Capello, who went 25-of-39 for 297 yards and four TDs. Capello is up to 2,297 passing yards and 25 TD passes this season – both single-season school records. Clentimack is up to 67 catches for 1,120 yards and 14 TD catches this season.

* Wilson was the first team to clinch an outright section title this season, and the Bulldogs got some help to do it. Wilson walloped Penn Manor 42-0, and when Hempfield blitzkrieged Warwick 35-7, it gave Wilson the outright crown. Warwick and Penn Manor now each have two losses in section play, so nobody can catch the Bulldogs.

* Tip of the cap to Manheim Township’s Dan Wertz, who piled up (unofficially) 260 rushing yards in the Blue Streaks’ wild 44-21 win over McCaskey. Wertz became Township’s all-time career rushing leader with that effort — just a week after playing sparingly because of a shoulder injury. Shoulder must not have been bothering him much against McCaskey, when he ran wild — all the way to the top of Township’s rushing charts. Congrats to Mr. Wertz.

* Break up Elco. The Raiders continued to roll, beating up on Donegal 44-9 behind QB Arron Achey, who stayed red hot. Achey went 11-for-16 for 149 yards and three TD tosses, and he also rushed for 97 yards and a score for Elco, which will host Lancaster Catholic in Week 10, needing a win to force a tie for the section championship. You gotta love Section 3.

* Ridiculous game for Lancaster Catholic’s Kyle Smith, who went 10-for-14 for 194 yards and six (count ‘em) six touchdown passes – four in the second half alone – in the Crusaders’ 55-13 laugher over Annville-Cleona. Four of his TD tosses went to Freddie Jankowski. He also hit Steve Remley and Tyler Purvis for scores. If Catholic can cut down on the flags (11 for 76 yards on Friday), the Crusaders could be mighty scary in the coming weeks. By the way, the six TD passes for Smith against Annville-Cleona set a Lancaster Catholic program single-game record. Smith is up to 25 TD passes against just three picks this season. He isn’t the top-ranked passer in the league for nothing, folks. He hasn’t been picked since Week 4. Here’s a stat for you: Since Week 4, Smith has thrown 16 TD passes and no picks. Yowzer.

* Kyle Fisher found another way to score in Cocalico’s 54-35 score-fest win over Conestoga Valley. The Eagles’ speedster returned an interception 33 yards for a TD as Cocalico withstood CV. Through nine weeks, Fisher has: rushed for a touchdown, caught a pass for a touchdown, thrown a touchdown pass, returned a kick for a touchdown, and now returned a pick for a touchdown. Running out of words for this kid …

* Big night for Reading’s Fruquan Gaston, who ripped off touchdown runs of 80, 17 and 78 yards, respectively, in the Red Knights’ (much-needed) 41-14 win over Cedar Crest. Gaston rushed for 246 yards for Reading.

* The Garden Spot duo of QB Weston Martin and WR Tyler Eby had a productive night in the Spartans’ 41-14 win over Solanco. Martin hit Eby four times for 154 yards – three of the catches went for touchdowns, from 53, 37 and 57 yards out, respectively. Eby also picked off a pass and recovered a fumble for Garden Spot, which picked up its sixth win, which should be enough to make Districts.

* I didn’t make too much of a big deal about this during the week, but Conestoga Valley coach Gerad Novak missed Friday’s game against Cocalico while sitting out a one-game suspension. He received a pair of unsportsmanlike fouls last week against Lebanon, and PIAA rules state that if you get ejected from a game, you must miss the next game. So Novak was not on the sidelines against Cocalico, but … he was able to participate in the halftime ceremonies, when he and Cocalico coach Dave Gingrich made a contribution to the American Cancer Society. CV and Cocalico coaches sold pink t-shirts and accepted donations for breast cancer research, and both staffs wore pink shirts Friday night in Witmer. Novak will be back on the sidelines in Week 10, when CV (0-6, 0-9) travels to Ephrata (0-6, 0-9) in a battle of the section’s only winless teams (McCaskey and Pequea Valley are also 0-9; slip of the finger on an earlier version of this post. All apologies).

Much, much more to come …