Lancaster Catholic senior QB Kyle Smith now owns a pair of major Pennsylvania passing records.
He is the state’s all-time leader in career passing yards and career touchdown passes.
Smith snapped the TD mark earlier this season, and in the Crusaders’ 42-6 victory over Delone Catholic in the District 3 Double-A championship game last Friday night, he moved past Pat Devlin for career passing yards.
Smith was in a duel for a little while with Wilson Area senior QB Tyler Smith, but Wilson Area fell to Allentown Central Catholic in the District 11 playoffs.
I saw conflicting reports about Tyler Smith’s career yardage. One newspaper report had him for 277 passing yards against Allentown Central Catholic and 8,033 career yards, and according to the numbers I was keeping, I had Tyler Smith for 7,998 career yards.
Feels awkward getting nit-picky over game and career passing-yard totals for a high school quarterback. I can tell you from covering a gazillion games over the years that the numbers reporters come up with from the press box usually don’t jive with the coach’s numbers off the official game film, or from the team’s official stat guy wandering the sideline.
Can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve had a kid for 153 yards after a Friday night game, only to get the official stats on Monday morning telling me the kid had 167 yards. Nutty.
Anyhoo … according to Wilson Area’s final official stats at maxpreps.com, they have Tyler Smith passing for 279 yards in the Allentown Central Catholic game, giving him – ta-da – exactly 8,000 passing yards in his career.
Not sure where those extra 2 passing yards came from (newspaper report to official stat sheet; of course, that paper had him for 8,033 yards, not 7,998 yards, blah-blah-blah), but nonetheless, Tyler Smith, a University of Maryland recruit, is in the ultra rare 8,000-yard club.
So a major tip of the cap to him.
Kyle Smith’s numbers have been pretty easy to track the last three seasons because Lancaster Catholic’s crack stat guy, my boy Sam, never misses a game or a play, and he has his stats ready first-thing Saturday. Guy has seen (and noted) every pass Kyle Smith has ever thrown.
Kyle Smith is chasing a third record – most TD passes in a single season in PIAA history. He’s sitting on 46 this season.
Lancaster Catholic takes on District 4 champ Loyalsock in a PIAA Eastern semifinal game Saturday at 1 p.m. in Shamokin.
Here’s a look at the state’s milestone tote board …
CAREER PASSING YARDS
Kyle Smith, Lancaster Catholic – 8,174 yards.
Pat Devlin, Downingtown East – 8,162 yards.
Tyler Smith, Wilson Area – 8,000 yards.
D.J. Lenehan, Wilson Area – 7,762 yards.
Evan Kraky, Lakeland – 7,447 yards.
Ron Powlus, Berwick – 7,342 yards.
Pat Bostick, Manheim Township – 7,260 yards.
Chad Henne, Wilson – 7,071 yards.CAREER TOUCHDOWN PASSES
Kyle Smith, Lancaster Catholic – 114 TD.
Pat Bostick, Manheim Township – 94 TD.
Evan Kraky, Lakeland – 93 TD.
Dan Kendra, Bethlehem Catholic – 91 TD.MOST TD PASSES IN A SINGLE SEASON
Chad Kroell, Clearfield – 49 (1994).
Kyle Smith, Lancaster Catholic – 46 (2009).Kyle Smith needs … 4 TD passes to break Kroell’s record.
