Best quarterback in the state stands between Wilson and district championship game
He may not be faster than a speeding bullet or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound but Central York quarterback Beau Pribula is super on a football field.
His coach, Gerry Yonchiuk, compares him favorably to Chad Henne at this level and Wilson coach Doug Dahms doesn’t disagree.
“He’s fast, he’s not afraid to hit, he sees the field and he’s got a cannon for an arm,” said Dahms. “What else do you want?”
That was enough for Penn State coach James Franklin, who offered the 6-2, 210-pound quarterback as a junior. That was months before Pribula led Central to the PIAA Class 6A championship game and was named Pennsylvania’s Class 6A Player of the Year.
“He’s the real deal,” said Dahms, whose fifth-seeded Wilson team is tasked with playing the top-seeded Panthers (11-0) in York Friday at 7 in a District 3 Class 6A semifinal.
The winner advances to face either second-seeded Harrisburg (10-1) or sixth-seeded Hempfield (7-4) in the District 3 championship game Nov. 19 at the site of the highest seeded team.
The Bulldogs (8-3) have faced a string of top quarterbacks this season — Max Mosey of Central Dauphin, Colin Payne of Exeter, Judd Novak of Manheim Central, Hayden Johnson of Manheim Township and Cameron Harbaugh of Hempfield — but no one quite like Pribula.
He’s a freak athlete with 4.5 speed who can throw down dunks and kick 40-yard field goals. Yonchiuk sent him out once for a kickoff and saw him boot the ball out the back of the end zone.
“He could be Penn State’s punter,” Yonchiuk said this week on the Mike Drago Sports Podcast. “He’s an extremely gifted athlete with an unbelievable competitive fire.”
Harbaugh is the only passer who has significantly pierced Wilson’s defense this season. He completed 15 passes for 280 yards in Wilson’s 28-21 win. No others have thrown for 200 yards.
Pribula averages over 225 yards per game and completes 73 percent of his passes. He’s thrown 32 TDs and run for eight scores, which shares the team lead.
“He is truly special,” said Yonchiuk, who admits one of the big reasons he left Lebanon High to take the Central job prior to the 2020 season was because of Pribula. “I doubt there’s a player in the country who can check all the boxes and has the complete package (that he does). I know there’s guys with stronger arms, guys that are faster, taller, etc., but what he brings in terms of all those intangibles (is unmatched).”
He’s poised, too. When Franklin stopped by to check him out earlier this season Pribula completed 11-of-11 passes with five TDs against Dover.
“I’ve been coaching quarterbacks for 38 years,” Yonchiuk said. “I really believe he’s a special player. I can see him playing beyond college. He has the makeup factor that you would want for a quarterback at the highest level.”
The best way to stop him might be to keep the ball out of his hands, and Wilson has the ability to do that. With tailback Jadyn Jones and quarterback Brad Hoffman taking turns pounding the ball the Bulldogs have been able to run over their opponents — six straight since a midseason turnaround.
Jones has rushed for 1,103 yards in nine games. Hoffman has run for more yards (871) than he’s passed for, most of it coming in the last month. He injured his knee in Week 2 against Gov. Mifflin and missed the next week’s game, a loss to Exeter. It took him until past midseason to get fully healthy. He’s recorded four straight 100-yard games, with a team-leading 178 yards and three TDs in last week’s 50-32 win over York High.
“That’s a younger version of (Tim) Tebow,” gushed Yonchiuk. “Holy cow! He just keeps pounding the rock. It’s like a right-hand, left-hand coming at you between the back and quarterback. They’ve stumbled across something good, and it’s really, really successful for them.”
Yonchiuk fully admits that this year’s Central York team is not as talented as the one that won its first 10 games a season ago and became the first York-Adams team to win a big-school district title. The Panthers graduated seven Division 1 players.
Only a handful of starters returned from the team that lost to St. Joseph’s Prep 62-13 in the PIAA championship game. One of them, Carter Glassmyer, their top linebacker and a potential Division 1 recruit, was lost for the season with a broken leg last month.
Yonchiuk says this year’s team is hungrier.
“We had a taste of this (last year) and don’t want that taste to go away,” he said. “To be 11-0, I’m just very proud of our players to be able to do that.”
