Here are 10 dusty Berks football records that have been on the books a long time
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Records, as they say, are made to be broken. And they usually are . . . eventually. Some just take longer than others.
Granted, no one is ever going to challenge Cy Young’s Major League record of 511 pitching victories.
(Kansas City Chiefs photo)
It’s unlikely anyone will touch Cal Ripken’s Iron Man streak of 2,632 consecutive games.
Bob Beamon’s Olympic long-jump record has stood since 1968 – incredible in a sport that sees records broken on a weekly basis.
Then again, you probably never thought anyone would erase Wayne Gretsky’s goal-scoring record . . . and then along came Alex Ovechkin.
There aren’t very many moldy marks in the Berks football record book. Chad Henne erased just about all the passing standards during his four seasons at Wilson, from 1999-03. Many of those will be on the books for decades.
Nick Singleton took out most of the rushing and scoring records during his four-year blitz at Gov. Mifflin, from 2018-21. Some of those will get passed, some day. But it’ll take another phenom.
Here’s a look at 10 of the oldest marks in the Berks football record book:
Longest touchdown run (1892)
No one made a big deal of it when Reading High’s Sky Henry ran 99 yards for a touchdown against Palatinate College.
After all, it was 1892 and football was in its infancy, especially at the high school level. It was just the Red Knights’ second game (and second touchdown). No realized the significance of the feat at the time, that it was a record that would never be broken – only matched.
It has been equaled a few times since, but not many times. The last 99-yard scoring run in Berks came in 2010, by Schuylkill Valley’s Derek Gaul.
Palatinate College, by the way, was located in Myerstown. A few years later it was renamed Albright College Institute. In 1929 the college moved to its current location in Reading – just down the street from Reading High.
(In case you were wondering: In the early days of football large high schools such as Reading often played games against college teams, community organizations such as the YMCA, alumni groups – anyone they could get a game with. There just weren’t that many available opponents in that era, and there were no real rules regarding which games “counted” and which didn’t.)
Touchdowns in a game (1912)
Nick Singleton ran for seven touchdowns, six in the first half, in a 2021 District 3 playoff game against Warwick – and didn’t break the Berks record.
He merely tied it.
Sixty-seven years before that West Reading’s Dan Capozello scored seven TDs in game.
Forty-three years before that Reading High’s John Charlton scored seven times against Allentown. That was 1912.
Sure, someone, some day, might have a crazy night and score eight TDs, but it’s unlikely. We went nearly seven decades between seven-touchdown performances.
Plus, with the mercy rule now in effect, one-sided games are shortened, giving a standout player fewer chances to make it back to the end zone.
Most receptions in a game (1975)
High school football in the 1970’s can best be described as “3 yards and a cloud of dust.” Teams rarely threw the football. Games often ended up 14-7 or 7-0.
That’s what makes Mike McHugh’s record of 17 receptions in a 1975 game so incredible. He did it for Boyertown in a 34-8 loss to Coatesville. (Good bet that whoever was covering that game missed deadline.)
McHugh’s quarterback, Pete Madeja, completed 23-of-44 passes for 230 yards; McHugh accounted for 159 of those yards.
Only a couple of Berks guys have come close to McHugh’s mark. Fleetwood’s Mason Musitano pulled in 15 passes in a wild Eastern Conference playoff win over Shamokin in 2023. Twenty-three years before that Schuylkill Valley’s Nate Ottaviani had the same number of catches.
McHugh, by the way, went on to win an NAIA national championship with Findlay (Ohio) University. He was the team’s leading receiver two seasons later.
McHugh has made football his career, as a college coach and director of football openers; he was the Detroit Lions’ quality control coach in 2001-02 and is currently the Director of Football operations at Oregon State.
Rushing attempts in a season (1976)
High school offenses have opened up exponentially in recent decades with some teams throwing nearly as often as they pass.
That’s a far cry from the conservative, run-between-the-tackles era of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Quarterbacks rarely threw more than 10 times in a game.
That’s why Brian Roth’s record of 375 carries over 12 games in 1976 figures to continue to stand for many years. A season later Boyertown’s lead back carried it 372 times, also in 12 games.
No one has come close to that total in the last half century. In fact, in this millennium only one Berks player has had as many as 300 carries in a season – even with expanded playoffs that give top teams an opportunity to play 14, 15, or 16 times in a season.
Over the last decade no Berks player has had more than 254 carries in a season.
Roth’s career record of 843 carries figures to stand, as well. No one’s come within 100 of that number.
Rushing yards in a season (1983)
It’s surprising that David Gilmore’s record of 2,403 rushing yards in a season remains at the top of the Berks list.
That’s a great season, no doubt, but it’s far from astronomical, or unreachable. It’s roughly half the Pennsylvania record of 4,704 yards, set by South Williamsport’s Dominick Bragalone in 2014. Schuylkill Haven’s Zach Barket became the first to top 4,000 yards, finishing with 4,187 in 2008.
Gilmore’s total wouldn’t rank among the top 35 in PA history.
No one has really challenged it, either. Four players have topped 2,000 yards in a season since. The closest came last season, when Exeter’s Jayden Zandier ran for 2,093.
The most Nick Singleton could muster is 2,059, in 2021. He could’ve had a lot more but two games – against Reading High and Daniel Boone – were canceled that season due to COVID-related issues. The Mustangs had just eight regular season games; that potentially cost Singleton 300 to 400 yards.
Also, the Mustangs’ season ended much sooner than most thought it would, in the District 3 Class 5A championship game. Mifflin was unbeaten and ranked No. 1 in the state but saw its season end with a 31-28 loss to league rival Exeter, a team it had blasted just a few weeks earlier.
Singleton played just 11 games as a senior; with a 14- or 15-game season he likely would’ve broken the record.
Not that Gilmore padded his stats with a lengthy playoff run. Central Catholic played 13 games, the last a 22-21 win over Littlestown in the District 3 Class A championship games. The start of the PIAA Tournament was still five years away.
Receiving yards in a game (1984)
In the final game of a winless season, and with several Berks records at hand, Schuylkill Valley and wide receiver Dave Golden went for it.
Golden made the 1984 Frost Bowl a historic one, pulling in 11 passes for Berks-record 271 yards – a huge receiving number at any level. Remarkably he had only a pair of TDs catch in the 41-12 loss, a 25-yarder in the first quarter and a 95-yard bomb in the fourth.
Golden also set the Berks records for catches in a season (64) and became just the second receiver in Berks to top 1,000 yards in a season.
His single-game record has stood for 40 years, and through an era when the passing game has become prominent.
Touchdown passes in a game (1989)
Matt Miller of Dubois is credited with the state record after throwing 10 touchdowns in a 2015 game against Meadville. So it’s certainly conceivable that someone will break the Berks record, which is six.
Still . . . that record has stood for 35 years, since Reading High’s Todd Landis, working the “Air Jet” passing scheme to perfection, threw for half-a-dozen scores in a 1989 game against Gov. Mifflin.
A bunch of guys have thrown five TDs in a game; it happened three times last season, by Exeter’s Riley Martinez, Schuylkill Valley’s Logan Nawrocki, and Wilson’s Madyx Gruber.
Maybe if they knew they were so close to a record someone would’ve gone for it, but they didn’t.
Again the game-shortening mercy rule works against seeing this record topped. You’ve gotta figure if your QB throws five or six scoring passes you’ll be far enough ahead that another score won’t be necessary.
Most kicking points (1993)
Kicking skills have never been better at the high school level than they are today. Kickers regularly convert 40-yard field goals and blast kickoffs into the end zone.
And yet the Berks records for PATs and kicker points have gone unchallenged for more than three decades.
Scott Weiss became Wyomissing’s full-time kicker as a freshman in 1990 and put up historic numbers over his four-season stint. He converted 192 PATs and finished with 243 kicker points.
No one’s come close in the decades since. Conrad Weiser’s Matt Noll is No. 2 in kicker points, with 208; Wyomissing’s Conner Mendel is No. 2 in career PATs, with 166.
Weiss set the program record with six field goals as a freshman and maintains the program career record with 17. He was the first Wyomissing player to convert a 40-yard field goal, as a sophomore. He made 180-of-184 PATs, including 55-of-55 as a senior.
Weiss wasn’t just a kicker: He was an all-around athlete who also played split end and defensive back and helped the Spartans compile a 42-6-1 record and win three district championships. He was named second-team All-State in 1993 and to the Reading Eagle’s All-Century team in 1999.
He went on to graduate from the United State Military Academy, where he played football and baseball. A left-handed pitcher, he excelled on the mound for the Cadets, earning all-Patriot League honors as a senior in 1997 and leading his team to the NCAA regionals.
Weiss was an All-Berks pick each of his four seasons – a record that will never be broken.
Longest punt return (1996)
No one should think of Luke Stopper as old (except for maybe his kids).
Still, his Berks-record punt return has been around for almost 30 years now, which means its more than just a little grey around the temples.
Stopper did a lot of great things for Conrad Weiser, especially in 1996 when he led the team to a perfect regular season. His 98-yard punt return, though, probably should’ve never happened.
On punts that can reach the end zone special teams coaches tell their return guys to set up at the 10 and let anything over their head go. It’s too risky to try to return a punt that deep in your territory, so it’s better to take your chances and let it bounce — hopefully into the end zone.
That’s what makes Stopper’s return stand out – and why it’s been on the books for nearly three decades.
A gust of wind blew the ball over Stopper’s head and he retreated to field it at the 2, rather than let Kutztown down the ball there. Sound strategy, but not the way his coaches drew it up.
Since balls kicked into the end zone at the high school level can’t be returned, it’s unlikely this record will ever be topped. If you’re a special teams coach, you sure don’t want to see one of your guys try it.
Longest field goal (1998)
Schuylkill Valley’s Darin Tranquillo dropped jaws in 1998 when he nailed a 57-yard field goal at the end of the first half against Daniel Boone.
That historic kick sailed past the Berks record by a whopping 10 yards.
It took five more years before another Berks kicker, Ben Dato of Wyomissing, cleared 50 yards, hitting from 53 against Littlestown.
In the 20 years since only three other Berks kickers – Kutztown’s Max Randolph, Wyomissing’s Jonah Bowman, and Gov. Mifflin’s Jackson Schools – have topped 50. Bowman’s was the most notable; his 52-yarder against Aliquippa set the record for a PIAA championship game and lifted the Spartans to a state title.
The fact that Tranquillo’s record has stood for 26 seasons, that no one’s come all that close since, and that most coaches are reluctant to even try from such a distance, tells you this record could stay on the books a while longer.